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[Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]
A South Carolina politician is facing the possibility of spending the next 20 years of his life in prison instead of in politics — after being charged with distributing child sex abuse material!
Oh, and prosecutors claim the Republican state rep did the whole thing on a social media account while using a Joe Biden-inspired username. Seriously. Like, WTF is wrong with these people??
On Wednesday, a state lawmaker in South Carolina named RJ May (pictured above) was arrested by federal law enforcement officers on a 10-count indictment. According to multiple media reports, the indictment alleges that the 38-year-old politician exchanged files containing child sexual abuse material on the online messaging app Kik under the screen name “joebidennnn69.” Uhhh…
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This all started in April of 2024 when Kik flagged suspicious activity on its platform and alerted the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. In turn, that outfit contacted federal LEOs, who worked with Kik on getting records. They were eventually able to determine the joebidennnn69 account had distributed at least ten videos which showed child sexual abuse and graphic depictions of sex acts involving minors.
Despicable…
According to local news outlet WTLX which cited prosecutor filings, the first message containing CSAM was sent on March 31 of last year. Then, over the next five days, the Kik account in question sent or received about 1,147 messages — several of which were receiving and distributing child porn with other users.
Five days later, on April 4, the Kik account was abruptly deleted. It wasn’t the only one that was deleted, either. Cops say an IP address connected to the Kik account also deleted a Telegram account and a Mega account as well — both within minutes of the Kik account being scrapped.
Well, fast forward a few months to August of last year, and the Lexington County Sheriff’s Office was finally able to connect the IP address in question to May’s phone. Along with agents from the Department of Homeland Security, they raided the lawmaker’s house that month and seized what local outlets are saying was nearly three dozen (!) electronic devices.
By the way, the GOP politician is married with two young kids at home. Yeah. Totally the party of family values in action here, right? Unreal.
Speaking of those family values… prosecutors released an unsealed legal memo on Thursday, a day after May’s indictment, according to WIS-TV. In that unsealed memo, attorneys claim May’s activity on Kik reveals he had a “sexual interest in children the same age as his own children.” He also allegedly showed a “sexual interest in incest” between young children and their parents.
What. The. F**k!!!
The unsealed memo went on:
“May engaged in this behavior on his cell phone and from his own home on multiple occasions, presumably without his wife’s knowledge. If he can hide this criminal activity from the person he shares a bedroom with, then he can easily hide it from any court enforcement mechanism.”
No kidding…
While May allegedly used the Biden-inspired alias on the Kik and Telegram accounts, he used a separate alias over on Mega, and that one also appears to have helped cops connect the dots. On that social media app, May was registered under the name “Eric Rentling.” Cops say he used that alias to create a Facebook account, as well. And according to WIS-TV, that Facebook account at one point had a profile photo which police believe was the back of May’s head. We’ve got a real genius here.
Not only that, but prosecutors claim in their indictment that May also used the Eric Rentling account to speak to women around the area who were trying to arrange sexual encounters. Oh, and May also searched for his political rivals on Facebook using that same account. Just taking a break to do some work? Yeesh.
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May was first elected to the state’s House of Representatives in 2020, and went on to be re-elected twice more while also becoming a founding member of a very conservative group of lawmakers known as the South Carolina Freedom Caucus. But after he was arrested on Wednesday, the SCFC told media outlets they had actually booted May from the group last August after DHS raided his house!
SCFC Chairman Jordan Pace said this prior to the unsealed memo’s release:
“Although formal charges have not been made public yet, all indications are that these indictments will be for child sex abuse materials. These crimes are heinous and we expect that they will be fully investigated. We pray justice is served.”
Other Republican lawmakers in South Carolina have completely abandoned May, too. The speaker of the SC House of Representatives, Murrell Smith, suspended May from office without pay as soon as the indictment was announced. The politician, who represented the 88th District in Lexington County just outside the city of Columbia, would have his seat declared vacant if he’s found guilty.
And somehow, it still just keeps getting worse!!! Last January, May took to the floor of the House during a debate about transgender treatment for minors. At one point, per The US Sun, he said this in front of the entire House of Representatives:
“We as legislators have an obligation to ensure that our children have no harm done to them.”
Yeah? Really?! Is that so, buddy? You sure about that??
Like we said up top, May faces a maximum federal prison sentence of 20 years if he’s convicted on some or all of the ten counts against him — and potentially up to a $250,000 fine, to boot.
Per local news outlets, the judge presiding over May’s indictment on Wednesday ordered he remain behind bars until his trial.
If you have sincere cause to suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org.
If you or someone you know has experienced sexual violence and would like to learn more about resources, consider checking out https://www.rainn.org/resources.
[Image via MEGA/WENN/FITS News/YouTube]
