Joe Basel, James O'Keefe, 2 others plead guilty to reduced teabugger charges

Read The Rise and Fall of Joe Basel

James O'Keefe, Joe Basel and two other conservative street theater activists arrested in January at Sen. Mary Landrieu's New Orleans offices will be charged with misdemeanors rather than felonies, The Associated Press is reporting.

It sounds like the four men agreed to plead guilty in return for the reduced charges, according to MSNBC. The misdemeanor carries the maximum sentence is six months in prison and a $5,000 fine.

We've been following Basel's antics ever since the Landrieu incident. Check out our cover profile of him here.

Basel, 24, James O'Keefe, 25, Stan Dai, 24 and Robert Flanagan, 24 were all busted by the FBI and charged in January with entering federal property under false pretenses for the purpose of committing a felony. The original charges carry a penalty of up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Basel, a University of Minnesota-Morris alumni, played the role of a fake telephone repairmen involved in the stunt and quickly copped to being a phony as soon as the authorities put the heat on him.

O'Keefe made headlines last year when he posed as a pimp, and accomplice Hannah Giles posed as a prostitute, and made a secret videotape of themselves getting advice from a Philadelphia ACORN office.