human traffic BS

BTB white women kidnap? duct tape?

vs legit cats sex traffic prost and underage girls sex

MERRI OK

see gangs narcos = RACISM?

drifting to kids groomer?

SEE EPSTEIN BACKLASH

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AHA NOT ME YT A BK ON MISO ALT RT 7 25 // PINK PILL, MAN AS KID PROTECTOR neo nazi sell drugs// traffic women

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not bs

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rww 9 26

David Gilmour @ Mediaite: Andrew Tate Indicted on Trafficking Charges in Romania – as He Fights UK Extradition From Miami Jail

Andrew Tate was formally indicted in Romania on charges including trafficking minors and money laundering on Friday, as he remains behind bars in Miami, Florida, fighting extradition to the U.K. over separate rape allegations.

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AN 7 25

passionate supporter of President Donald Trump, who is married to a prominent Republican operative in Wisconsin and publicly stated in 2024 that he was casting his vote to combat child trafficking, is now facing ten counts of possessing images of exploited children.

Scott Soucek, from Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, was arrested last week, according to a report by *The Daily Beast*. He is accused of downloading hundreds of illicit images via a file‑sharing network.

Back in October, Scott posted on Facebook a list of roughly two dozen reasons why he intended to vote for Trump.

“I’m voting to fight against human/child trafficking,” he wrote, adding that he was voting “for my children and my grandchildren.”

IFrame Content

More than fifteen years prior to that post, in 2009, Door County investigators examined his laptop after he admitted to downloading illegal images involving children, but for reasons that remain unexplained, the case was never sent to the district attorney’s office.

According to the report, the newly filed 12‑page criminal complaint describes graphic content that was allegedly downloaded in March of this year. It linked to an IP address believed to be associated with Soucek.

Soucek's wife, Stephanie Soucek, serves as chair of the Door County Republican Party and was a delegate at the 2024 Republican National Convention, per the report.

Throughout the 2024 campaign, both he and his wife were vocal MAGA supporters. In October 2024, Stephanie appeared on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast and spoke with future FBI director Kash Patel about her voter mobilization efforts in Wisconsin.

Following his arrest, Soucek was released on a $10,000 cash bond, posted by Stephanie, and his next court appearance was scheduled for August 29, 2025, according to the report.

FACES 25 YRS

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AN 7 25

Revealed: Trump admin pulls back on work combating human trafficking amid Epstein scandal

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AN 7 25

The Trump Justice Department recently threw its weight behind Washington’s Catholic bishops, filing a legal motion to invalidate SB 5375, siding with clergy arguing the law unconstitutionally targets religious practice.

U.S. District Chief Judge David G. Estudillo issued a preliminary injunction Friday, preventing Washington state from enforcing SB 5375’s mandatory reporting rule “as to the Sacrament of Confession” in the dioceses of Seattle, Yakima, and Spokane — just days before the law’s July 27 effective date.

Last month, the Department of Justice (DOJ), led by Attorney General Pam Bondi, officially intervened in the lawsuit Etienne v. Ferguson, backing the Archdiocese of Seattle, Yakima, and Spokane. In its filing, the DOJ labeled Washington’s new child-abuse reporting statute — Senate Bill 5375, which requires clergy to report all suspected child abuse, even if disclosed during confession — as “anti‑Catholic” and likely in violation of First Amendment protections.

Estudillo emphasized that the law, unlike similar statutes in around 25 other states, included no exceptions for confession, and held that the plaintiffs had demonstrated a strong likelihood of success on First Amendment grounds.

IFrame Content

The judge's ruling comes amid the controversy related to convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and allegations of a coverup.

A Rolling Stone article by journalist Alex Ashley published Sunday highlighted the administration's efforts to defend organized religion.

Under the new state law — SB 5375—all clergy, regardless of faith, are required to report suspected child abuse to authorities within 48 hours, even if the information is obtained during confession. They are not required to testify in court, hand over notes, or breach attorney‑client privilege. The obligation is narrow but significant, the author noted.

The article noted that that lone obligation effectively closes a confessional loophole that remains open in most states. While all 50 states (and D.C., Guam) list clergy as mandatory reporters, 33 states exempt what’s disclosed in confession, making SB 5375 a bold exception.

The law places Washington in the minority — alongside only six other states (New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Texas, West Virginia) — that have eliminated confessional exemptions entirely. Yet enforcement remains problematic: 36 states have religious‑freedom protections (RFRAs or constitutional), making prosecution for confession‑based reporting virtually impossible. Washington has no state RFRA but does apply strict scrutiny to religious‑freedom cases.

The Catholic Church argues the confessional seal isn’t just private counseling — it’s a sacrament essential to faith.

Ashley argued that this marks one of the most forceful federal efforts to defend organized religion against a state law in recent memory — DOJ isn’t asking for a narrow carve‑out, but pushing to overturn the law entirely and remind courts of the centrality of religious liberty.

According to the author, the "Trump-era DOJ and the Catholic Church have found common cause in attacking Washington state, even if they don’t agree on where the line should be drawn, forming a rare alliance against one of the first laws in decades to strip away clergy’s confessional shield in child abuse cases."

He added: "It has turned into a national flashpoint, a constitutional test case watched across the country, poised to redefine the boundary between church and state."

"Together, the two lawsuits, along with the DOJ’s involvement, have made Washington’s law a high-stakes legal test. Whether its promise of ending clergy secrecy in abuse reporting holds, or collapses under constitutional challenge, now rests with the courts," the piece said.

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3 25 intercept

Trump Helps Alleged Sex Trafficker Andrew Tate Back Into U.S.

the Republican Party is obsessed with sex trafficking, grooming, and pedophilia.

For years, the GOP has built its brand on a bizarre, often conspiratorial fixation with sex trafficking, invoking this trafficking panic to justify border militarization and its assault on LGBTQ+ adults and children.

And yet, when an actual accused rapist and alleged human trafficker comes along, Republicans rush to his defense — and lobby to bring him back to the United States.

When an actual accused rapist and alleged human trafficker comes along, Republicans rush to his defense.

President Donald Trump’s administration has successfully lobbied to bring Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan back to the U.S. from Romania, where Tate faces charges of human trafficking, sexual misconduct, and money laundering.

American officials first brought up Tate’s case in a call with the Romanian government last week. At an international conference, Trump’s special envoy Richard Grenell pressed Romanian authorities to lift travel restrictions on the self-described misogynist influencer, the Financial Times reported.

Tate, a former professional kickboxer and avid Trump supporter, has used his massive social media following to spread his reactionary politics and violent hatred of women, influencing a generation of boys and young men by preying on their insecurities and promising quick riches through affiliate marketing schemes.

Prosecutors in Romania allege that Tate and his brother set up a criminal enterprise and used it to sexually exploit multiple people.

Despite these serious allegations, Republican figures and influencers have repeatedly defended Tate.

Former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who has been investigated for sex trafficking himself, previously offered support to Tate, saying that the charges always seemed “suspect.” Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson traveled to Romania for a softball interview with Tate, allowing the influencer to portray himself as a family man who is merely a victim of “the matrix” and the mainstream media.

Allegations of sexual harassment and assault are no longer a line that can’t be crossed in conservative politics. Trump himself has been repeatedly accused of sexual assault and harassment, found liable by a jury of sexual abuse, and notoriously had a close friendship with the serial sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

Despite a sex trafficking probe that closed without charges, Gaetz took the stage for a speech at the Republican National Convention.

And when former Republican Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert pleaded guilty to trying to pay off men he had sexually abused as a high school wrestling coach, prominent Republicans, including three former congressmen, supported him enough to write letters in defense of his character to a federal judge. (To be clear, the Democratic Party is also guilty of downplaying or defending abusers within its own ranks; this is not a partisan problem.)

But the GOP’s embrace of Tate, and other sex criminals on the right, reveals the hollowness of the Republican Party’s anti-trafficking campaign. Trafficking is not a real issue for Republican lawmakers — it’s a rhetorical weapon used to advance draconian crackdowns, delegitimize political opponents, and launch broader attacks on progressive and feminist movements.

If they were serious about fighting trafficking, then they would focus instead on labor protections and expanding social safety net services for the most vulnerable populations.

They will lobby for Andrew Tate before they ever lift a finger for an actual victim.

Even Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis sought to distance himself from the Tate brothers, saying that Florida is not a place where they’re welcome.

“I don’t know how it came to this,” DeSantis said. “We were not involved, we were not notified. I found out through the media.”

As Republican politicians continue their fixation on the supposed trafficking epidemic, demanding border crackdowns and pretending to be champions for exploited children, remember where their loyalties lie. They will lobby for Andrew Tate before they ever lift a finger for an actual victim.

For the Trump administration, trafficking is not a crisis to solve. It’s a crisis to exploit.

---

child sex trafficking // qanon, gives cover from baby jail?

vigilante militia?

mma

January 14, 2025, edition of Rose Unplugged, streamed on Rumble

TOM HOMAN (INCOMING TRUMP “BORDER CZAR”): So, look, we got a lot of people to find, and we got to find them. And we're going to do it. And — but I'm telling you right now, it's going to be hard. So that's why we're — especially with children, we're going to bring in some private sector organizations that work trafficking on their own.

We're also going to count on the American people. We have to deputize every American citizen, especially parents, right? Parents have an innate ability to recognize when something's not right with a child. So we want people who look and pay attention. If you see something, say something, and make a phone call from a provided 1-800 number. And, look, if even if one out of every hundred phone calls turn up that a child is being abused, that's one child we can save. So we're going to count on the American people to step up for this thing too. So that's something — you know, bring in the private sector is going to be great because I think every American citizen is sick over this issue. I think they're all going to volunteer to step in and do what they can do to help us.

===

TDB REF

A cavalcade of supporting characters in the MAGA universe, and President-elect Donald Trump, showed up at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday to attend a soirée for the conspiratorial, QAnon-adjacent conservative nonprofit America’s Future.

Mel Gibson, the traditionalist Catholic actor and director, told the crowd, “I got nine kids. If one of them got stolen or trafficked, I’d have to kill someone.”

IFrame Content

That chimes with the kind of themes promoted by the group’s chairman, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who has remade America’s Future in his own image. Since his appointment in 2021, the formerly meat-and-potatoes conservative group has shifted to promoting QAnon-adjacent conspiracy theories about a clandestine cabal of pedophiles controlling media and government.

Last year, Gibson executive produced Sound of Freedom, a Christian thriller starring QAnon conspiracist Jim Caviezel that stoked QAnon paranoia. He praised Flynn for exposing “wolves in sheep’s clothing that prey upon our young” during Tuesday night’s speech at Trump’s club.

IFrame Content

In addition to Gibson—who arrived in a polo shirt, shorts, and Crocs before changing into a more appropriate suit and tie—other attendees included British comedian turned conspiracy theorist Russell Brand, car dealership fortune heir turned working-class poseur Kid Rock, Fox News outcast Tucker Carlson, and former Trump adviser Roger Stone.

Trump was listed as an “invited honored guest” and was seen alongside Flynn before he briefly addressed attendees outside, accompanied by Flynn, Carlson, and Kid Rock, who he called “great people.”

IFrame Content

Carlson and Kid Rock, née Robert Ritchie, were given “Champion for Freedom” awards by Flynn.

Carlson once called QAnon supporters—who believe a cabal of clandestine, Satanic child molesters are working against Trump—“gentle people waving American flags.” America’s Future, under the professed mandate of combatting human trafficking, has promoted similar conspiracies.

“They have organ harvesting,” says Flynn’s sister, Mary O’Neill, who was appointed executive director after he became chairman, in a video on their site. “They have also found a way to take the blood, and use the blood, to make themselves youthful.”

One attendee, who posed with Stone, commented on Instagram that they saw one-time television actor turned COVID and election denier Kevin Sorbo, who has been known to frequent Mar-a-Lago.

But the biggest name on hand, after Trump, was the pope-denying Gibson.

He called the Biden administration “four years of thinly veiled Marxism” and the incoming Trump administration as “a four year grace period,” adding “we’ll see how much this administration can claw back from the Philistines.”

===

MMA

Fox News interviews fringe conspiracy theorist Dom Lucre, calling him a “journalist”

Weeks ago, Lucre baselessly accused an assistant FBI director of being complicit in a Trump assassination attempt. Fox News is now hosting him as a “journalist.”

Written by Courtney Hagle

Research contributions from Alex Kaplan

Published 11/12/24

On November 8, a Fox News “straight news” program interviewed content creator Dom Lucre, referring to him as a “journalist.” Lucre has a history of pushing QAnon-related conspiracy theories, spreading outlandish claims about high-level Democrats, and pushing 2020 election denial.

Dominick McGee, known online as Dom Lucre, has a history of pushing baseless conspiracy theories as a right-wing internet personality. Lucre capitalized on 2020 election denial conspiracy theories to build a platform geared toward the right, and he went to Washington, D.C. to protest the 2020 election results on January 6, 2021. Since then, he has used his platform to push a slew of conspiracy theories, occasionally putting real people in the crosshairs of his claims.

Following President-elect Donald Trump’s attempted assassination this past July, Lucre claimed that a prophet predicted the assassination attempt 3 months in advance, and said that “this has been biblical since day one.”

* Lucre also accused assistant FBI director Janeen Diguiseppi of “giving the shooter instructions” based on his analysis of a video from the shooting, where he claimed a woman sitting behind Trump was Diguiseppi. This was debunked by the FBI.

Lucre also consistently pushes QAnon-related conspiracy theories, spreading outlandish claims about high-profile Democrats committing sex crimes and online e-commerce website Wayfair being used to traffick children.

In 2023, he tweeted, “Adrenochrome is real and I can prove it,” referencing a conspiracy theory that Forbes said has been “embraced by QAnon.” The adrenochrome conspiracy theory “promotes the idea that wealthy people, Hollywood elites, and Democrats consume a chemical called adrenochrome, which is supposedly harvested from the blood of young children.”

Lucre also claimed that former President Barack Obama was responsible for the drowning death of his personal chef.

Last Friday, anchor Trace Gallagher hosted Lucre on Fox News @ Night, introducing and labeling him simply as a “journalist.” Lucre claimed that Democrats ran a campaign that was “false” and “complete propaganda from day one.” Lucre also highlighted Gen Z and the “rise of streamers” made a difference in Trump’s campaign, arguing that Vice President Kamala Harris is the “past, she does not have the future, which we are pushing forward. Trump was the way forward.” Lucre concluded that this space is “controlling the culture, and I believe it is shifting towards conservatism.” Gallagher thanked Lucre for the “great information.”

===

// hurric BS?

alternet-

Extremists posing as aid workers urge NC locals to tear down cell towers and hit military

Michael Lewis Arthur Meyer booking photo from 2018

Michael Lewis Arthur Meyer booking photo from 2018 (Courtesy Tucson Police Department)

Jordan Green November 02, 2024

A group of anti-government extremists who showed up in western North Carolina promising to provide disaster relief after Hurricane Helene is now threatening to destroy cell-phone towers and sabotage military vehicles.

The group, Veterans on Patrol, attracted attention by setting up a disaster relief staging area in the parking lot of the Ingles grocery store in Lake Lure, about 50 miles from Asheville.

But locals, including some who initially cooperated with the group, began to complain about threats and harassment.

Over the past three weeks, members of the group, which falsely claims that Helene was caused by a “weather weapon,” have been making conspiracy-driven claims that the U.S. military is attempting to kill U.S. citizens with “directed energy weapons.”

ALSO READ: Inside the grift that could cost Donald Trump the election

Veterans on Patrol’s channel on the encrypted social-media platform Telegram posted a message on Thursday displaying photos of what appears to be a cell tower on a mountaintop. The message asserted that locals “are in Live Exercises where the United States Military is permitted to destroy your homes, bodies and minds,” while suggesting that equipment on the tower “is solely for providing the U.S. military the means to murder Americans.”

“Focus on tearing down their weapons,” the message reads. It continues, “All it takes is one weapon tower being toppled with the stated reason spoken boldly.”

Another message posted in the group’s Telegram channel appears to advocate for sabotaging military vehicles and assets.

“Simple acts of pouring sugar into fuel tanks of military equipment, backup power systems, and personal vehicles of military personnel can wreak havoc on those who murdered all these people out here,” reads the message, which was posted on Wednesday.

Soldiers from Fort Liberty and Fort Campbell have deployed to western North Carolina to assist in the disaster response, along with National Guard members from nine states.

Veterans on Patrol is led by Michael Lewis Arthur Meyer, who has a long history of anti-government extremism, dating back at least 10 years. Meyer, according to the extremism watchdog group Southern Poverty Law Center, is not a veteran.

Reached by phone on Friday, Meyer doubled down on the threats.

“Jesus used bullwhips and flipped tables,” he told Raw Story. “We’re going to use our bullwhips and topple towers.”

At first during the interview, Meyer argued that the Telegram messages weren’t advocating for targeting cell towers, saying instead that the group would “surgically” remove the supposed “directed energy weapons." He went on to say that they would provide Appalachian residents with generators and Starlink boxes so they could maintain power and communication links.

Asked about the message referencing “pouring sugar into fuel tanks,” Meyer told Raw Story: “We’re going to destroy your tanks…. You want to get dirty? That’s what we should be doing.”

Veterans on Patrol has promoted multiple conspiracy theories based on false claims since arriving in western North Carolina.

One message posted on Telegram on Oct. 22 claimed that “Helene was a Weather Weapon steered to destroy the area, while also claiming that the investment fund BlackRock is attempting a “land grab” and describing the storm and its aftermath as “an act of war perpetrated against the People.”

As the final day of voting in the presidential election approaches, posts on the group’s Telegram channel have taken on an increasingly urgent tone.

The Oct. 22 post claimed that “stolen elections” are a real phenomenon, along with “weather weapons,” “Satanic pedophiles” and “adrenochrome," which refers to a QAnon conspiracy theory that a cabal of elites tortures children to extract a chemical from their bodies which is then used as a recreational drug.

In another post last week, a Veterans on Patrol member nicknamed “Shepherd” claimed that the U.S. Air Force command is instructing pilots “to deploy additional weather weapons.” The post goes on to say, “These people don’t have 2 weeks to wait for vote and 3 months to hopefully wait for a Regime change.”

Another message on the group channel that was published on Wednesday suggests without basis that Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff is the beneficiary of BlackRock’s supposed landgrab.

Speaking to Raw Story, Meyer seemed to all but dare law enforcement to intervene.

“For people to go and do something to prevent weapons from being deployed — that’s not a crime,” he said. “If they want to bring this to court and charge us with conspiracy, then let’s go.”

The FBI did not respond to an inquiry about Veterans on Patrol's activities, but Meyer told Raw Story in an email that he "would imagine the FBI knows full well what we are attempting through Operation Leaning Tower."

Meyer told Raw Story that he notified the office of Gov. Roy Cooper about his "operation." Cooper's office did not immediately respond to a voicemail message from Raw Story.

Phone calls from Raw Story for this story to officials in Lake Lure and Rutherford County, which surrounds the town, went unreturned.

Meyer’s history of extremism dates back to the Bundy Ranch standoff, when armed militants faced down the FBI and other federal agencies in 2014 during a dispute over rancher Cliven Bundy’s refusal to pay grazing fees. Meyer’s involvement in the Bundy Ranch standoff came to light later, when the Oregonian reported that he and a group of friends got into a brawl with other anti-government extremists during the standoff at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, which Bundy and a group of armed supporters had occupied.

Meyer founded Veterans on Patrol in Arizona in 2015, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. Prior to presenting itself as a disaster response group in the aftermath of Helene, Veterans on Patrol has claimed its efforts were directed towards rescuing children from sex trafficking, addressing veteran suicide and dubious claims that the military is maliciously harming civilians. Meyer’s activities have frequently landed him in trouble with law enforcement.

Meyer was arrested twice in 2015 after emergency responders talked him down from a light pole in Surprise, Ariz. in 2015.

In 2018, was arrested by the police in Tucson, Ariz. for trespassing and an outstanding warrant for an assault charge, after occupying a tower on an industrial property. A press release from the Tucson Police Department claimed that Meyer “found an abandoned homeless encampment” on the property, “and fictitiously declared, without evidence or corroboration, that the area was the site of a sex-trafficking ring.”

The Tucson police said they received complaints from Tucson residents that Meyer and his followers had threatened and intimidated them, and Meyer made “multiple threatening and hostile remarks directed towards various elected and appointed officials” through social media.

In the summer of 2024, before Hurricane Helene, Veterans on Patrol was active in Spokane, Wash. In Telegram message from July 2, 2024, Veterans on Patrol announced to the police that it “would no longer be safe” for one of its officers “to work his beat.” The channel also posted the home addresses of city council members.

NOW READ: Fox News is the reason the race is close

===

mma

QAnon influencer with ties to Michael Flynn says conspiracy theorists will become part of government under Trump

Ben Moore of Flynn's America's Future organization claimed that “Trump is going to make [Flynn] a special adviser, and then Flynn’s going to have his team,” which will bring “child traffickers to justice” with “nooses”

Written by Kayla Gogarty & Alex Kaplan

Published 10/18/24

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has suggested that his former national security adviser Michael Flynn, whom he pardoned at the end of his first term, will be involved in his potential second administration, telling Flynn at a May 2023 event: “We’re going to bring you back.”

During an October 14 social media discussion that included QAnon figures, Ben Moore — a QAnon influencer known online as “Sun Tzu” — predicted that Flynn would be appointed as a “special adviser” to Trump during a potential second Trump administration, and Flynn would lead a “special advisory board” that “brings child traffickers to justice.”

Flynn and his group, America’s Future, have been increasingly tied to the QAnon conspiracy theory. Several QAnon figures and conspiracy theorists have served as advisory board members for the group, including Moore.

Longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon has also floated the idea of Flynn in a second Trump administration.

During the October 14 discussion, held on X (formerly Twitter), Moore specifically floated himself and other America’s Future members for Trump's “special advisory board” — including QAnon-affiliated figures Brian Gamble and Liz Crokin, conspiracy theorist Lara Logan, and election denier Ivan Raiklin.

Later in the discussion, Moore even suggested using “nooses” against people who “try to take over our republic.”

QAnon influencer with ties to Michael Flynn says conspiracy theorists will become part of government under Trump

October 14, 2024

Audio file

Audio

CitationFrom an October 14, 2024, X Space

BEN MOORE (QANON INFLUENCER AND AMERICA’S FUTURE ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER): I'm going to think big. I'm going to think proactively in this situation. Trump is going to get reelected one way or the other. OK? The people that have been on the forefront of this fight, exposing child trafficking, are going to be the forefront of the justice arm, the arm of justice. That's going to be people like Liz Crokin, Mike Smith, Brian Gamble. All right? Don't think for a moment that Gen. Flynn's not going to get appointed to a position to expose and to execute justice on these people. OK?

I know Ivan Raiklin. I love Ivan. Love Ivan. Had so many talks with him. And I know Liz has too, like, [UNINTELLIGIBLE] or someone — I literally talked to Ivan for four to five hours straight. Dude is one of the most brilliant guys I know. He's a green beret, and he's a lawyer. He's dangerous, he's deadly, he's effective. OK? But what I'm going to tell you guys is that people like Ivan Raiklin, Liz Crokin, Mike Smith, Brian Gamble, will be on the board of justice that brings child traffickers to justice. And Gen. Flynn will be leading the way. He'll be appoint to a position that does not need to be approved by Congress. Because if it's a position like national security director that needs to be approved by Congress, they're going to try to jam it up.

Trump is going to make him a special adviser, and then Flynn's going to have his team. And I'm going to tell you who's on his team. Everyone that's on the board of advisers for America's Future Project to Defend and Protect Children is going to be on Flynn's team. And they are the people that are awake, that know what the fuck's going on. Sorry for my language.

And there's — you guys have no clue. And I am being braggadocious right now. OK? I am predicting some things that are going to happen before it happens because I am confident. I know that God ultimately wins, and God is going to expose these people and people that have been laughed at, that have been just, you know, mocked, like Liz Crokin, Lara Logan, Mike Smith, they're going to be on this team that's going to be on this special advisory board that Trump has that's going to bring to justice these child traffickers.

And it's not going to be low-level child traffickers. It's going to be high-level. It's going to be the people that are in politics. It's going to be presidents of countries. It's going to be people that are in executive positions of countries around the world that are child traffickers. And people like Liz and Mike, who we can trust, because they've given it all, they've sacrificed everything for these children and for the republic, they're going to bring it to light. That's what's going to happen.

And so anyone that's listening, anyone with Media Matters, anyone with, you know, all these screwballs that are losers that are listening, that's going to happen. And there's nothing that can stop what is coming. So that's all I want to say. I know what's going to happen. I have it all mapped out, and I'll probably be on that team as well. So — and if I'm on the team, I'm doing it for free. I don't want to take any money from it. I just want to see justice. I want to see the children vindicated for fucking once, for fucking once. All these children that have been trafficked, I want to see them vindicated. I'm going to do it for free. If I get offered money, I'm going to decline any kind of payment. I just — I'm going to work for free. I'm going to work for free. So there it is.

X SPACE PARTICIPANT: I want to donate the ropes and the bullets. I'll donate the ropes and the bullets.

MOORE: No. Not the bullets, the nooses.

...

MOORE: The ropes and the nooses.

...

MOORE: I know what you're talking about, Stella, but it's the nooses. We're going old school on this. I am an advocate for everything that Ivan Raiklin says on this. And so just trust me. If you harm children and you try to take over our republic, there's going to be hell to pay.

Board members of Michael Flynn’s organization are allegedly sending “leads” from QAnon conspiracy theorists to law enforcement

04/24/24

### Leaked footage shows Michael Flynn on Zoom call telling QAnon influencers: “I love you guys”

01/12/24

### Trump appeared at a Mar-a-Lago event hosted for QAnon and Pizzagate supporter Mike Smith and his conspiracy theory film

03/29/24

===:

mma 7 24

During the June 27 CNN presidential election debate between former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden, Trump made false and misleading claims about immigration and migrants seemingly drawn straight from the right-wing media echo chambers.

Trump falsely claimed that Biden “wants open borders” and “wants our country to … be destroyed,” as migrants are supposedly violent criminals stealing American jobs. He also pushed the “great replacement” theory, saying Biden wants to import migrants to vote Democratic.

Below are some of Trump’s debate claims and recent instances of right-wing media making the same points.

## Claim: Biden has opened up the border

- During the debate, Trump claimed that Biden “decided to open up our border, open up our country” and said he wants “open borders.” CNN [6/27/24]

- Numerous debunks have explained that the U.S. border is not open.NPR, [6/28/24; The Nation, 11/22/23; Axios, 10/17/23; Newsweek, 1/24/22]

- Fox News host Sean Hannity claimed that “there are terror cells here because of [Biden’s] wide-open borders — 11 million unvetted people from countries with terrorist ties and our top geopolitical foes.” Hannity also said Biden has “blood on his hands.” Fox News, *Hannity*, [6/24/24]

- After the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore collapsed, Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo suggested it could be due to a “wide-open border.” Although she acknowledged that the White House issued a statement “saying that there is no indication of a nefarious intent,” she went on to discuss “the potential for wrongdoing or potential for foul play given the wide-open border.” Fox Business, *Mornings with Maria*, [3/26/24]

- Fox guest T.W. Shannon said that Biden’s “open border” is “poisoning the bloodline in this country because we’re allowing illegals to vote.” Fox News, *The Faulkner Focus*, [4/10/24]

- Fox guest Sheriff Mark Dannels said that we’ve had “three and a half years of leaving the border open.”He continued, “People come into the country that don't respect our cultures, our rule of law, and the people within.” Fox News, *Your World with Neil Cavuto*, [6/21/24]

- The Real America’s Voice X account posted, “Joe Biden and his administration, along with Obama, are using the open border as a tool to allow millions of immigrants and God only knows how many terrorists in to the country.” Twitter/X, [6/19/24]

- Fox News contributor Larry Kudlow penned a Fox News online op-ed titled “Biden's open border is killing innocent Americans.” Kudlow claimed, “Brutal gang warfare has come across the southern border into our sanctuary cities where blue state mayors and governors will not, in most cases, cooperate with border authorities to deport them.” Fox News, [6/18/24]

## Claim: Biden wants to import migrants as voters

- At the debate, Trump claimed Biden “wants open borders. He wants our country to either be destroyed or he wants to pick up those people as voters."CBS News, [6/28/24]

- In recent years, right-wing media have been pushing the xenophobic “great replacement” conspiracy theory, which alleges that “elites” encourage illegal immigration to bring nonwhite people into the country to “replace” white voters. This false narrative has led to real-world violence, including mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Buffalo, New York. Media Matters, [5/15/23, 1/12/24; Southern Poverty Law Center, 5/12/23]

- Fox News contributor Paul Mauro asked, “Does it not seem like we’ve hit a point where somebody in Washington has made a decision that there is an acceptable level of collateral damage in order to get a permanent Democratic voting bloc into this country?”The discussion was around the killing of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray that led to the arrest of two recent Venezuelan migrants. Mauro also suggested that if migrants “were calculated to vote Republican, the [border] wall would be 60 feet high.” Fox News, *Outnumbered*, [6/21/24; The New York Times, 6/25/24]

- Turning Post USA’s Charlie Kirk claimed that “the left” “won't stop until you and your children and your children's children are eliminated.”Kirk also said, “They hate those of you that own land and have guns and believe in a better country, and they have a plan to try and get rid of you.” Real America’s Voice, *The Charlie Kirk Show*, [3/1/24]

- Fox host Jesse Watters alleged that the “far left” wants an “illegal alien nation where they can blow up the welfare state and just increase their political power. Same with the corporate class.” Fox News, *The Five*, [6/12/24]

- Pro-Trump troll Laura Loomer claimed that “to the radical left, the replacement of the American core is essential to their ideology and their communist takeover of America.” She went on to say that Biden and the radical left view “traditional America” as something to be “destroyed and relegated to the dustbin of history.” Rumble, *Loomer Unleashed*, [6/6/24]

## Claim: Migrants are violent criminals, and millions are coming from jails and mental institutions in South America

- Trump said at the debate, “Because of his [Biden’s] ridiculous, insane and very stupid policies, people are coming in and killing our citizens at a level we’ve never — we call it migrant crime. I’d call it Biden-migrant crime.” The New York Times, [6/27/24]

- Trump also said that Biden “allowed millions of people to come in here from prisons, jails, and mental institutions — to come into our country and destroy our country.” Trump made similar claims on at least three occasions in 2023, according to CNN, which reported that he “claimed the leaders of unnamed South American countries are deliberately emptying their ‘insane asylums’ and ‘mental institutions’ to send the patients to the United States as migrants.” His campaign was unsuccessful in finding evidence for the claim. Trump made a similar claim in February, saying that “jails … throughout the world” are “emptying out” because countries are “dumping” migrants here and that others are coming from “mental institutions and … insane asylums.” The New York Times, [6/27/24; CNN, 4/29/23, 2/29/24]

- Studies show no link between immigration and high levels of crime, and evidence shows immigrants are less likely to commit crime than U.S.-born citizens. According to the Brennan Center, “Numerous studies show that immigration is not linked to higher levels of crime, but rather the opposite. Studies [also show] … immigration is associated with lower crime rates and an increase in structural factors — such as social connection and economic opportunity — that are linked to neighborhood safety.” NPR, [3/8/24; Brennan Center for Justice, 5/29/24]

- Border security expert Adam Isacson told PolitiFact that “‘millions’ would mean one in eight was someone released from a jail or a mental institution, a claim too ridiculous to dignify.”He also said that it “‘strains belief’ … that someone with serious mental illness could navigate the route to the U.S. after release from an institution.” Politifact, [6/6/24]

- Former Trump adviser Stephen Miller claimed on Fox that migrants are “above the law” and “being dumped into this country by the millions as they rape and pillage and murder.”Miller continued, “Joe Biden’s flying them in day after day, busing them in, escorting them in to rape and pillage and murder more Americans.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [6/21/24]

- Loomer said the migrant “invaders” “just disappear … only to be seen again when their faces are plastered on the news after they commit heinous crimes like murder, rape, human trafficking, assault, and drug dealing.” Loomer also suggested that Democrats embrace immigration because they want “white America” to be “punished by being replaced.” Rumble, *Loomer Unleashed*, [6/7/24]

- Tomi Lahren of Fox’s OutKick said that migrants including men from “Venezuelan gangs” in the U.S. are “preying on young women” and targeting them because they are “the most vulnerable among us.” Fox News, *Outnumbered*, [6/21/24]

- Watters said Biden is “catching and releasing killers and rapists,” saying they’re “serial sexual predators, they’re serial killers, and they don't belong here.These are third world animals.” Watters also claimed, “Biden migrants are exploding all inside our country like IEDs. It feels like a terror attack to me.” Fox News, *The Five,* [6/21/24]

- In a discussion about the killing of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray, whose alleged attackers were migrants, Fox news host Lawrence Jones claimed, “They’ve emptied the jails and now we have to deal with it.” Fox News, *Fox & Friends*, [6/26/24]

- Jones also complained that people are calling “the former president crazy for saying they were emptying their jails, and what do you know, Venezuela, crime rate is going down.” While talking about the killing of Rachel Morin, allegedly by an immigrant, Jones continued, “There is actual proof of people that have criminal records, that have committed murders in their country now coming to our country to do the same thing.” Fox News, *Fox & Friends,* [6/21/24]

- Fox News contributor Tyrus claimed,“They are emptying their jails and their psych asylums to America and we don't have asylums for anybody.”He added: “The floodgates are wide open.” Fox News, *Gutfeld!*, [6/24/24]

Claim: Migrants are stealing jobs from Americans

In the debate, Trump claimed that migrants “are taking Black jobs and they’re taking Hispanic jobs. And you haven’t seen it yet.” The New York Times, [6/27/24]|}:

- Research is mixed on the impacts of migrants on jobs, but some research shows that “immigrants raise wages and boost the employment of U.S.-born workers.” Forbes reported on research that looked at 2000-2019, also noting: “Even simulations for the most recent 2019-2022 period suggest small positive effects on wages of non-college natives and no significant crowding out effects on employment.” Additionally, as Brookings senior fellow Vanda Felbab-Brown explained in 2017, “Undocumented workers often work the unpleasant, back-breaking jobs that native-born workers are not willing to do.” The New York Times’ fact check of the debate says that “whether or not immigrants depress wages or displace some workers has been examined by economists for decades, and there is no clear conclusion.” Forbes, [5/1/24; Brookings Institution, 8/24/17; The New York Times, 6/27/24]

- Right-wing media have been lying for at least a decade about migrants stealing jobs from U.S. workers.Media Matters reports from 2013 and 2015 gathered right-wing media commentary claiming migrants steal U.S. worker jobs, countering that “there is no evidence that immigrants crowd out U.S.-born workers in either the short or long run.” Media Matters, [2/1/13, 10/27/15]

- Right-wing influencer Amuse posted that “military aged” Chinese migrants “are here to steal our jobs, our information, our welfare benefits, our elections, and our freedom.” Twitter/X, [2/5/24]

- Fox Business host Sean Duffy said, “The Biden White House keeps bragging about the strong economy, pointing to the job market as evidence, … but a closer look under the hood reveals that all those job gains — they’re going to immigrants.” Duffy’s co-host Dagen McDowell further added: “Why are all the jobs going to these people and not people born here in the United States? Hmm. Is it DEI? Maybe.” Fox Business, *The Bottom Line*, [2/14/24]

- The Center for Immigration Studies’ Steven Camarota wrote a piece for The New York Post complaining that “job gains are going to immigrants, and keeping young US-born men out of the workforce.”Camarota further claimed, “Allowing millions of immigrants into the country to fill lower-wage jobs means we have little incentive to undertake the difficult task of getting more men back into jobs.” The New York Post, [2/13/24]

- Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo said, “When you look at the jobs numbers, they look really strong -- they do -- every month. We seem to have a strong jobs market. But when you peel back the onion, a lot of those jobs are going to noncitizens; a lot of those jobs are part time.” Fox News, *America’s Newsroom*, [6/20/24]

---

4 24

QAnon Was Born Out of Sex Ad Moral Panic Over Backpage.com

intercept no lnx

QANON WAS BORN OUT OF THE SEX AD MORAL PANIC THAT TOOK DOWN BACKPAGE.COM

For years, the political establishment opportunistically railed against sex trafficking. Then came Pizzagate.

Trevor Aaronson

April 27 2024, 6:00 a.m.

AMERICANS ADORE A moral panic.

During the Red Scare, we believed that Soviet agents were everywhere, having secretly infiltrated all levels of society. In the 1950s, the U.S. government banned switchblades over unfounded fears that we were in the throes of “West Side Story”-style knife violence. The Satanic Panic convinced Americans of the 1980s that absurd claims of ritual abuse and sacrifice were somehow credible. Around the same time, there was “stranger danger” — which was debunked like other moral panics, but never went away entirely.

At any given time, America is moving in and out of some moral panic or another. Harm to children is a persistent theme. In recent years, however, our national obsession with these moral panics has consumed our politics. We’ve come to believe that sex trafficking rings are all around us. The driving force may come as a surprise: a moral panic about consensual sex workers who advertised legally on the internet.

The far-right’s current obsession with “child sex trafficking” — the animating force behind such conspiracy theories as QAnon and Pizzagate, as well as coded political insults like “groomer” — has roots in this moral panic hyped by powerful Republicans and Democrats alike. The panic reached its crescendo with the 2018 federal indictments related to a sex ad hub called Backpage.com.

The Backpage story may stand as a cautionary tale not only of overzealous prosecutions, but also of the second- and third-order effects of moral panics.

A classifieds site that became known predominantly for “adult” advertising, Backpage was born of a more dispersed industry that used to operate in the back pages of local alternative weekly newspapers like the Village Voice, Chicago Reader, and LA Weekly — known as alt-weeklies. For a time, the sex ad industry had its central platform on Craigslist, the free classifieds website, which spurred large-scale campaigns against the ads. As the campaigns took hold, Craigslist buckled and effectively handed the mantle to Backpage — until eventually it, too, came under a sustained morality attack.

I spent four years reporting on this saga — the rise and fall of alt-weeklies, adult advertising, and Backpage — with fellow journalists Sam Eifling and Michael J. Mooney. The result, a documentary podcast series, now on Audible, titled “Hold Fast: The Unadulterated Story of the World’s Most Scandalous Website,” reveals how cynical politicians can take hold of a moral panic and exploit it for political gain.

One thing that struck me during my reporting was that the Backpage story may stand as a cautionary tale not only of overzealous prosecutions, but also of the second- and third-order effects of moral panics — in this case, conspiracy theories like Pizzagate and QAnon. If you look closely enough, you can trace a line from adult ads in alt-weeklies to escort ads on websites like Craigslist and Backpage, to conspiracy claims that Donald Trump is fighting to break up a global child sex-trafficking cabal run by Hillary Clinton and her malevolent minions.

Conspiracy theories don’t grow in isolation. They wrap themselves around kernels of truth. The truth here is that sex trafficking and sexual exploitation are horrific crimes, and no one should underestimate the harms experienced by survivors. For the last two decades, though, powerful politicians, breathless news media, and a host of ill-informed celebrities have conflated “sex trafficking” with “prostitution” — fanning a national hysteria that underpins the conspiracy theories now wracking American society.

Sex Ad Industry

A quick history: Starting with the Village Voice in the 1950s, alt-weeklies popped up in cities nationwide. These papers prized investigative reporting and magazine-style narrative writing; pioneered attitudinal pop-culture criticism; and published classified ads in their back pages that would make half the country blush.

The “adult” ads on the last pages of the tabloid-style papers promoted sex work. At first, they were written in coded language, which created enough ambiguity that federal judges had upheld the ads’ First Amendment protections. The legal doctrine was simple: The government couldn’t deprive a massage therapist or a dancer of their First Amendment right to advertise on mere suspicion that they might also provide an illegal sexual service behind closed doors.

For decades, wink-and-a-nod adult ads could be found in alt-weeklies nationwide. Publishers knew what was being advertised. Most readers knew. So did police and prosecutors. No one, however, seemed to holler about sex ads in newspapers that could be found at busy bus stops, crowded restaurants, or smoky bars. Society didn’t collapse. The kids were all right.

The Majority of Voters Now Support Decriminalizing Sex Work. It’s About Time.

Then came Craigslist, a simple website that slashed a gaping hole in the newspaper industry’s hulking money bags. Who would pay for an ink-smeared classified ad in a newspaper when you could get a more effective one for free, in minutes, on Craigslist? People selling cars, boats, guitars, whatever — they moved to Craigslist. And those sex workers advertising in the back pages of alt-weeklies? They did too.

In response to the migration of classifieds to the internet, the largest publisher of alt-weeklies launched a Craigslist competitor, Backpage. Essentially a knockoff, Backpage used a design and category scheme almost identical to Craigslist’s. Throughout its early existence, the alt-weekly-run Backpage never matched the popular site from which it was cribbing.

Then the government and the press turned on the burgeoning online classifieds industry. Public officials latched on to a study from the University of Pennsylvania that claimed 326,000 children in America were “at risk for commercial sexual exploitation.” The report analyzed data from the 1990s using methodologies so deeply flawed that the Washington Post described it as “bogus.”

The jaw-dropping stat — More than 300,000 children in the United States could be victims of sex trafficking! — nonetheless lodged itself in our national consciousness. Politicians trumpeted the claim. Actor Ashton Kutcher, fashioning himself an advocate against sex trafficking, announced unchallenged on CNN that there are “between 100,000 and 300,000 child sex slaves in the United States today.” It sounded even then like an improbable total. But with kids’ lives reportedly at stake, few Americans pushed back.

Pressure Campaigns

The FBI, conditioned to view any national clamor as a federal funding bonanza, launched Operation Cross Country to investigate the supposed scourge of sex trafficking. The FBI’s ongoing efforts now include partnerships with 400 law enforcement agencies nationwide, but the feds still haven’t uncovered any sort of large-scale, highly organized trafficking ring as part of Operation Cross Country.

That’s because — while cases of sexual exploitation and trafficking do occur, many of them horrific in their details — the perception of a large-scale threat in the United States is perched on a mountain of distortions and exaggerations.

“If you believe that hundreds of thousands of kids are being trafficked, you have to believe your husband, your dad, your brother, your sons are the ones buying them,” Juliana Piccillo, a sex worker advocate, explained to me. “It’s not just a handful of guys buying 300,000 kids.”

For context, the union-covered employees of UPS, those brown-clad delivery drivers we see daily, number 300,000.

As America bought into myths of large-scale sex trafficking, individual accounts of sexual exploitation made headlines. Yet the more nuanced story of online adult ads went unreported. Put simply, the internet made sex work, on the whole, safer by giving consensual sex workers a marketplace away from the streets and the ability to screen potentially dangerous clients.

Sex Workers and their supporters protest a police raid on Oct. 25, 2016, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, saying shutting down sites like Backpage.com exposes them to more risk.

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These gains in worker safety benefited a large portion of Americans, and the reason is simple: The nation’s sex work industry is enormous. The National Institutes of Health estimate that sex work in the U.S. generates $14 billion per year in economic activity. That makes sex work a significant American industry, on par in revenue with the streaming music industry.

As police and politicians conflated sex trafficking with sex work, journalists dutifully followed along. A study from the University of Minnesota of 1,500 news articles from 1995 to 2014 found a dramatic increase in the media’s use of “sex trafficking” in place of “prostitution.” That trend hasn’t reversed. A local news report from Florida last year described a standard prostitution bust as being part of “a sweeping sex trafficking investigation.” Or consider a local news report from South Dakota, where an undercover cop posed as an underage sex worker in a prostitution sting. The TV anchor described it as “an undercover sex trafficking investigation,” even though no one involved was being trafficked. A right-wing sheriff in Florida fashioned a national profile by running prostitution stings and hosting chest-beating press conferences that promote how he’s bravely fighting “human trafficking.”

Backpage became the world’s internet brothel. It was the same legal business alt-weeklies had been in for decades, now operating at an industrial scale.

In August 2010, 17 attorneys general banded together in a letter pressuring Craigslist to take down its adult ads. It wasn’t a legal threat; federal judges had upheld the legality of such ads since their days on the back pages of alt-weeklies. Instead, the attorneys general were mounting a coordinated pressure campaign. And it worked. Bowing to the coercion, Craigslist shuttered its adult section, slapping the word “CENSORED” across it on the website.

Suddenly, adult ads flooded into the also-ran, Backpage, and the company’s annual revenue skyrocketed from $11.7 million to $78 million in just a few years. Backpage became the world’s internet brothel. It was the same legal business alt-weeklies had been in for decades, now operating at an industrial scale.

Backpage’s owners, Arizona newspaper moguls Michael Lacey and James Larkin, believed they could withstand what the nerds at Craigslist couldn’t. After all, they were career alt-weekly publishers, owning 17 papers nationwide, including the Village Voice, LA Weekly, and Miami New Times. They’d printed adult ads in the back pages of their papers for decades. How could the internet be any different?

Political Opportunism

As the world’s largest platform for adult ads, Backpage became the target of withering scrutiny and sensational claims that it was encouraging child sexual exploitation. New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof led the charge with stories headlined “When Backpage.com Peddles Schoolgirls for Sex” and “Google and Sex Traffickers Like Backpage.com.”

Protestors gathered outside the Village Voice’s office in New York. They held up signs reading “End Sex Trafficking” and “Women and Girls Will Not Be Silenced.” An anonymously run website, VillageVoicePimps.com, aggregated reports of violence and sexual exploitation.

The drumbeat drowned out a more complicated reality. Backpage, whose owners and employees knew large amounts of its ads were using ambiguous language to promote illegal sex work, was minting money by cynically pushing First Amendment protections and internet laws to their legal limits. Backpage, though, didn’t turn a blind eye to possible harm. One of the company’s executives had received an award from the FBI for working proactively with law enforcement. Prosecutors at the Justice Department had even advised against filing criminal charges involving Backpage after concluding, in an internal memo, that “Backpage genuinely wanted to get child prostitution off of its site.”

Politicians, on the other hand, saw blood in the water.

FILE - In this April 25, 2014 file picture California Attorney General Kamala Harris, who as a prosecutor once specialized in child sexual assault cases addresses the Domestic Human Trafficking symposium in Los Angeles, Trafficking, forced labor and modern slavery are big business generating profits estimated at $150 billion a year, the U.N. labor agency said Tuesday May 20, 2014. The report by the International Labor Organization finds global profits from involuntary workers an estimated 21 million of them have more than tripled over the past decade from its estimate of at least $44 billion in 2005. ILO Director Guy Ryder said his agency?s report Tuesday calls attention to the need ?to eradicate this fundamentally evil, but hugely profitable practice as soon as possible.? (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes,File)

Then-California Attorney General Kamala Harris addresses the Domestic Human Trafficking symposium in Los Angeles on April 25, 2014. Photo: Damian Dovarganes/AP

Vice President Kamala Harris, then the ambitious attorney general of California, boasted of being tough on human trafficking. In 2016, while running for U.S. Senate, she filed criminal charges against Backpage’s owners. The case garnered Harris national headlines — What politician doesn’t want to be seen as tough on child sex trafficking? — but a judge threw out most of the charges shortly after the newly elected Harris was sworn into the Senate. Her case hadn’t helped end exploitation at Backpage, but it had launched her into national politics.

Around this time, Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain’s think tank, the McCain Institute, focused its efforts on human trafficking. His wife, Cindy, became a self-appointed expert in the subject. McCain Institute reports circulated in Washington, pointing the finger at Backpage for sex trafficking cases in the United States.

The McCains had a wounded history with the owners of Backpage, who started their publishing company in Arizona with the muckraking alt-weekly Phoenix New Times. The paper had written unflatteringly about the McCains for decades and in the mid-1990s revealed how Cindy McCain was stealing painkillers from her medical charity — a story headlined with the very alt-weekly pun “Opiate for the Mrs.” Cindy spun the scandal as a story of addiction and redemption, but it dogged her husband through his failed presidential bids.

Political chicanery and sensational news reports about sex trafficking fueled each other, creating a media environment by 2016 in which Americans had been inundated with reports about sex trafficking and online classifieds. Just as Americans had come to believe that strangers were abducting thousands of children in the 1980s, we came to believe that child sex trafficking was endemic, with hundreds of thousands of our kids at risk.

In April 2018, bowing to pressure from Harris, McCain, and other elected officials, the Justice Department seized Backpage and filed criminal charges against its owners. None of the charges alleged sex trafficking — of either children or adults. The government accused Backpage’s owners and executives of money laundering and facilitating prostitution. Because prostitution is not a federal crime, the Justice Department filed charges under the Travel Act, which outlaws interstate activities intended to violate state laws.

In the first Backpage trial, federal prosecutors repeatedly referred to “child sex trafficking” — even though none of the charges alleged such activity — forcing the judge to declare a mistrial. In November 2023, a federal jury in Arizona convicted Backpage’s principals following a second trial. Lacey was convicted on one count of money laundering, acquitted on another, and no verdict was reached on the other charges, many of which were thrown out by a judge this week ahead of an possible retrial. He faces sentencing in June. Larkin took his own life in 2023, on the eve of the second trial.

Any of the nation’s alt-weeklies — which published the same types of adult ads that Backpage did — could have faced the same charges decades earlier, but prosecutors had deferred to First Amendment protections.

Until the political pressure ramped up on Backpage.

QAnon/Pizzagate filmmaker claims Trump said he wants to watch his conspiracy theory movie

WRITTEN BY ALEX KAPLAN

PUBLISHED 04/08/24

QAnon and Pizzagate conspiracy theorist filmmaker Mike Smith and Mary Flynn O’Neill, the sister of former national security adviser Michael Flynn, claimed that Donald Trump said he wanted to watch Smith’s conspiracy theory movie Into the Light. The claim comes after Trump appeared on stage with Smith at a recent event at Mar-a-Lago that featured a screening of the film and the former president receiving an award from Michael Flynn for supposedly combating human trafficking.

During an April 3 X (formerly Twitter) Space, Smith discussed the Mar-a-Lago event — which was hosted by America’s Future, an organization run by the Flynn family which has become increasingly tied to QAnon — with O’Neill, America’s Future executive director. While hyping Trump’s appearance at the event, O’Neill said that the former president is “supposed to watch that movie. He’s supposed to watch Into the Light,” and seemed to promise that she would “follow up” with Trump’s staff about it. Smith responded that when Trump was on stage, he said to Smith, “I’m going to watch it.” And when Smith expressed hope that Trump would follow through on his promise, O’Neill said, “Oh, he will.”

Into the Light — the sequel to Smith’s Out of Shadows, which pushed Pizzagate — is described as “a movie made to bring to surface that psychological operations are present and active in today’s society.” The film features fellow QAnon and Pizzagate conspiracy theorist Liz Crokin (another member of America’s Future), and pushes conspiracy theories about the World Economic Forum and the “great reset.”

QAnon/Pizzagate filmmaker claims Trump said he wants to watch his conspiracy theory movie

APRIL 3, 2024

Audio

CitationFrom an April 3, 2024, Twitter/X Space

MIKE SMITH (DIRECTOR, OUT OF SHADOWS AND INTO THE LIGHT): I told everybody before you came on that you — Gen. Flynn gave President Trump an award for fighting human trafficking, for doing more than anyone —

MARY FLYNN O’NEILL (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, AMERICA’S FUTURE): Children. With children, yeah, that’s right. He's the only president that has ever done anything for human traffic but for children. And it was just a beautiful award. If I had it in front of me, I’d read it to you. But he was really taken by it. He didn’t know it was going to happen, you know, so —

SMITH: Yeah.

O’NEILL: — it was cool. It was really — and it was really cool to see you and Mike and Donald Trump on the stage. It was nice. It was cool.

SMITH: I could — if your brother would not have helped me, I would’ve — I don’t know what I would’ve done because I was literally — I’ll be honest with you. I didn’t expect President Trump to come in, and I’m standing there and I could see him coming in the room and I’m like, what do you say to —

O’NEILL: Yeah

SMITH: — President Trump? I’m like, welcome home?

…

SMITH: And then, you know, I looked over to your brother and I’m like, “Mike, can you help me?” I was like, you know, God’s done some crazy stuff to me in my life, but that was probably one of the biggest God things ever. Like, that was —

O’NEILL: That was awesome.

SMITH: I was like, I cannot believe this moment. I mean, like how cool is it to just have that moment? I mean, I would — I mean, you can’t —

O’NEILL: Well, it was. It was cool. I’m going to call his secretary, there’s an assistant there, because we also — we gave him one of Gen. Flynn’s bats with a inscription on it. And I’m going to follow up and see because he want — he was supposed to — he’s supposed to watch that movie. He’s supposed to watch Into the Light, so I’m going to follow up and and see if he’s —

SMITH: Well, hopefully, he will. I know he whispered to me —

O’NEILL: Oh, he will.

SMITH: He said to me, I don’t know if you saw when he left the stage, but he leaned over and he goes, “I guess I — that’s a thank you, and I’m going to watch — I’m going to watch it.”

O’NEILL: I’ll follow up. I’ll follow up.

SMITH: Well, that’d be great.

===

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an 2 24

Middletown Township, Pennsylvania man was arrested after claiming to have beheaded his father, a longtime federal government employee, and posting gruesome video of what he said is the severed head to social media. The suspect, 32 or 33 year-old Justin Mohn, is facing first degree murder charges. He also decried “far left woke mobs,” BLM and LGBTQ people, President Joe Biden, the federal government, and spewed other right-wing conspiracy theories.

“Some of the talking points made by Mohn echoed those of prominent online conspiracy theorists and far-right political commentators,” local news outlet LevittownNow.com reports.

“Mohn made inflammatory statements advocating for attacks on federal employees and properties. He expressed hostility towards illegal immigrants, President Joe Biden, senior federal officials, communists, ‘far-left woke mobs,’ Black Lives Matter supporters, and members of the LGBTQ community,” LevittownNow.com added. “In his rant, Mohn discussed Christian scriptures, called for debt cancellation, called for more adherence to Judeo-Christian values, spoke about human trafficking, and accused a major tech company of tax evasion. Additionally, he claimed that militias should protect him and mentioned previous FBI threats of arrest.”

WPVI, a local ABC affiliate, adds that “Mohn referred to himself as a militia leader and called his father a traitor to the country for being a federal employee for 20 years.

“In the video, which YouTube has since removed, the son called his father a ‘traitor’ and said he’s happy that he is dead,” The Philadelphia Inquirer adds. ”’He is now in hell for eternity,’ he said, according to the complaint.”

The New York Post notes that in the since-removed YouTube video, “the man, who identifies himself as Justin Mohn, says to the camera before going on an unhinged rant against the government in line with QAnon conspiracy theories, calling for ‘militias’ across the US to unite and kill federal officials ‘on site.'”

“Mohn faces charges of first-degree murder, abuse of corpse and possessing instruments of crime, according to a Middletown Township Police Department criminal docket viewed by The Post,” the paper adds

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an 1 24

Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-TX) served up wild accusations against President Joe Biden and his administration on Monday during a House Republicans’ press conference on the border. After making demands of the Biden Administration to send an ultra-conservative bill that includes funding and stringent policies for the U.S. border, and funding to support fighting in Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, Republicans are now rejecting what they requested after decrees from Donald Trump.

Back in October, after far-right House Republicans ousted Kevin McCarthy and were struggling to find a new Speaker, President Joe Biden requested a $105 billion aid package for the U.S. southern border, Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. Of the $105 billion, $50 billion would go to U.S. defense industry manufacturers to “expand production lines, strengthen the American economy, keep us safe, and create new American jobs,” Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young said, CNBC reported at the time.

“Additionally,” CNBC explained, “the White House is seeking $6.4 billion for border operations, pushing back against Republicans who have criticized it for not doing enough to contend with migration from Latin America. The request also includes about $1.2 billion for efforts aimed at countering fentanyl, which has driven a wave of deadly overdoses in the United States.”

“Some in Congress have said a lot about doing something on border security while refusing to take up the $4 billion request we sent in August to Congress,” Young said. “We will not be lectured by those who refuse to act. As we’ve said repeatedly, Congress needs to take action to provide sufficient resources for the border.”

Three months later, House Republicans under direction of Donald Trump have decided to reject any legislation that is not “perfect.” Just as he did when he launched his xenophobic presidential campaign in 2015, and throughout his 2016 campaign, Trump aims to use immigration as a wedge issue to win the White House in November.

But now, Trump has the support and influence of the Republican Party, and many – especially House Republicans – willing to obey him via often-angry rants he posts on his Truth Social platform.

Congresswoman Van Duyne, a Texas backbencher who failed at her attempt to be elevated into House leadership when Mike Johnson was made Speaker, on Monday in a little-noticed speech served up allegations of “traitorous acts,” “usher[ing] in a new era of slave trade,” and promoting the “endless rapes” of women and children and a “lifetime of sex trafficking enslavement,” against President Biden and his administration.

“Joe Biden and the extremists in his administration are arsonists,” Congresswoman Van Duyne declared. “From day one they have burned down every shred of strong, effective, Trump-era border security policy that was protecting America.”

“Their purposeful and persistent actions, the arsonists of the Biden administration have created a national security and humanitarian nightmare. By turning over control of our southern border to the Mexican cartels, Biden, the Democrats, have ushered in a new massive era of slave trade here in America that is cursing the lives of illegal immigrant women, little girls and little boys. But Biden, [DHS Secretary] Mayorkas, and the Democrats couldn’t care less about the lives of these small children. They’re condemning them to endless rapes in a lifetime of sex trafficking enslavement.”

“And rather than using the power that they already have in existing law, to this end is utter catastrophe,” she continued. “Biden is salivating at the prospect of some staggeringly horrible Senate compromise bill to enshrine that this ongoing disaster continues.”

The Senate bill was drafted by hard-core conservative U.S. Senator Jim Lankford, Republican of Oklahoma, and it is far more extreme than Democrats would ordinarily support, yet has the approval of Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

“I’ve got news for the Senate: You don’t reward arsonists by handing them gasoline. Instead, you do what Texas is doing: you dig in, you fight, you hold the line and you never give in when our national security is constantly being threatened by the traitorous actions of the executive branch. Stand with Texas. Hold the line and never back down.”

Watch Van Duyne’s remarks below or at this link.

twt

“From day one, they have burned down every shred of strong, effective Trump-era border security policy that was protecting America.” -

@RepBethVanDuyne

#WeStandWithTexas

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Benny Johnson: "Ten million cases of human trafficking should be filed against Joe Biden on day one by a Trump Department Justice" | Media Matters for America

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mma 8 23

CAN'T MAKE IT UP

One of the funders behind Sound of Freedom, an anti-trafficking film that was widely embraced by right-wing media this summer, was arrested in July on felony child kidnapping charges, according to Newsweek and a Missouri court website.

Fabian Marta appears to have referred to himself as an “angel investor” in the film, according to a screenshot of a since-deleted Facebook post. (Media Matters has not independently verified the Facebook post.)

Newsweek reported:

Fabian Marta was charged with felony child kidnapping in July, while since-removed Facebook posts appear to show the same person revealing their pride in funding the film. Marta's name appears in the movie's credits among the "investors [who] helped bring Sound of Freedom to theaters."

…

St. Louis Metropolitan Police confirmed to Newsweek that Marta, 51, from Chesterfield, Missouri, was charged on July 21, and was arrested on July 23.

Police also provided a booking photo of Marta, which appears to show the same person pictured on a Facebook account of the same name. Screenshots of since-removed posts from multiple online sources, seen by Newsweek but which could not be independently verified, show Marta speaking about his involvement with the film.

Sound of Freedom stars Jim Caviezel, who pushed several QAnon conspiracy theories while promoting the film earlier this summer. Caviezel claimed that centralized cabals of pedophiles were torturing trafficked children to extract adrenochrome from them — what’s known in QAnon jargon as the “adrenochrome empire.” He additionally said Ukrainian biolabs were involved in the conspiracy and that the CIA and FBI were implicated in a cover-up.

Marta’s arrest isn’t the only controversy surrounding the film, which is based on the life of Operation Underground Railroad founder Tim Ballard. Ballard has long claimed that his organization saves children from trafficking rings, but critics allege that most of OUR’s work has been in service of glorifying Ballard and building his brand.

Following the film’s release, Ballard and OUR parted ways “after an internal investigation into claims made against him by multiple employees,” according to Vice News. Ballard was later removed as CEO of TheNazarene Fund, an anti-trafficking group funded by Glenn Beck. He had previously been ousted from the same position in 2021.

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an 7 23

no lnx

McCarthy invites lawmakers to screen movie with 'anti-Jewish canards' to boost workplace morale

Brandon GageJuly 25, 2023

Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy (R-California) invited lawmakers to a Tuesday night screening of a film that reviews described as antisemitic to help improve workplace morale on Capitol Hill.

Since he obtained the gavel in January, McCarthy has struggled to herd fringe Republicans in the House whose constituencies are often populated by QAnon fans. A sizeable number of these congresspersons are staunch defenders of indicted former President Donald Trump and his debunked lies about the 2020 election. In addition to intra-GOP squabbling, deep partisan gullies between the two major parties regarding an exhaustive host of issues reliably lead to drama inside the chamber.

McCarthy's olive branch is a presentation of Sound of Freedom starring Jim Caviezel, whom National Public Radio noted last week has "been a prominent promoter of the false, violent QAnon conspiracy theory — specifically, the baseless claim that an international cabal of elites is abusing and killing children to extract a substance called adrenochrome."

READ MORE: Kevin McCarthy tells Hannity Biden family’s business is 'rising to the level of impeachment inquiry'

Although the production avoids that one topic and was released prior to QAnon's spread, it contains other ideas that resonate with QAnon's believers.

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Sound of Freedom "draws from a conspiratorial well that includes a number of anti-Jewish canards, including the 'blood libel' accusation," The Times of Israel explained.

"The adrenochrome theory has roots in a blood libel canard leveled at Jews since the Middle Ages," QAnon researcher Mike Rothschildtold the outlet. "The myth that Jews use the blood of Christian children in rituals was used to justify the torture, imprisonment, and murder of Jews for centuries, even taking a role in Nazi propaganda, before it was adopted by QAnon."

McCarthy asserted at a press conference that Sound of Freedom's theme can unite political adversaries behind a common cause.

READ MORE: 'Technique used by Hitler': House Dems urge McCarthy to revoke RFK Jr. invitation to testify before Congress

"One of my goals is to open up the house and get members working together again. We've made some great progress in that where, where bills actually come through, committees where members are now showing up for work. And so tonight I'm gonna have another movie night," McCarthy said. "I'm hoping Republicans and Democrats can come together, see a movie about human trafficking. We could actually find ways to stop the human trafficking that's continuing to move throughout the world."

Watch below or at this link.

READ MORE: Republicans want to 'rewrite history and science' to push white nationalism: former GOP lawmaker

View NPR's report here. The Times of Israel's analysis is here.

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