Andrew Breitbart, whose “Big Government” website was the platform for James O’Keefe’s ACORN pimp sting video last year, released a seemingly categorical statement yesterday saying he didn’t have anything to do with O’Keefe’s alleged tampering with Sen. Mary Landrieu’s office phones.

But things got a lot fuzzier in a radio interview Breitbart did with a sympathetic Hugh Hewitt late yesterday.

Breitbart conceded that he does pay O’Keefe a “fair salary” and also mentioned that he pays O’Keefe for “life rights” and can accept or decline to use what O’Keefe produces. It’s not clear, but it sounds like Breitbart has a right of first refusal on whatever O’Keefe’s produces and in return O’Keefe receives compensation in some form, perhaps on a monthly basis akin to a salary.

In the interview, Breitbart stopped short of calling O’Keefe an employee, while also agreeing with Hewitt — perhaps incongruously — that whatever O’Keefe was doing in New Orleans was “not within the scope of his employment.”

David Kurtz

David Kurtz is Managing Editor and Washington Bureau Chief of Talking Points Memo where he oversees the news operations of TPM and its sister sites.