Trump, Republicans, and Child Sex

Republicans have a child sex problem. To be sure, far too many Democrats have also been caught behaving inappropriately with children. However, Republicans appear to be particularly prone to being caught having sex with children or trafficking child pornography. Connections to sex with children reach to the top of the Republican party, where cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump and Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson are both doing their utmost to keep information related to Jeffrey Epstein hidden from the public. The problem extends downward throughout Republican leaders across the nation.

Let's start with Epstein. In 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty to procuring for prostitution a girl under the age of 18. As punishment, Epstein served less than 13 months in prison in very cushy conditions. Trump later appointed the prosecutor who agreed to this sweetheart deal to be the Secretary of Labor. In 2019, Epstein was arrested again and, this time, charged with sex trafficking and conspiracy to traffic minors for sex. Subsequently, Epstein was found dead in his jail cell, officially as a result of suicide. Much of the evidence collected during the Epstein investigation has been withheld from the public. Releasing the so-called "Epstein files" became a central issue of the MAGA movement, promoted by, among others, Kesh Patel and Dan Bongino, the current number 1 and number 2 officials in the Federal Bureau of Investigation. When they assumed office, Patel and Bongino — along with Attorney General Pam Bondi — promised a quick release of the files. There was particular interest in what has been called Epstein's "client list," allegedly a list of powerful individuals who Epstein provided with often underage women for sexual encounters. At one point, Bondi announced that the list was "sitting on my desk right now to review."

However, four months after saying the list was on her desk, Bondi's Department of Justice and the FBI released a memo saying that there was no client list and that no further disclosures about the case would be made. There was considerable speculation that this change in position was caused by the inclusion in perhaps hundreds of instances of Trump in the files. Elon Musk, for instance, tweeted, and later deleted, a tweet saying "Time to drop the really big bomb: @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public." Trump was known to have been close friends with Epstein. In 2016, three lawsuits were filed against Trump accusing him of having sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl at a series of parties at Epstein's Manhattan residence. All three lawsuits were subsequently dropped. Following Musk's claim, Trump appeared to take considerable interest in ensuring that no information about his involvement with Epstein was released. In July, Todd Blanche, who had previously been one of Trump's personal lawyers but was at that time serving as the Deputy Attorney General, met with Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s sidekick who had been convicted of helping him procure and sexually abuse underage girls.

Blanche received Maxwell's assurance that she was not aware of any improper activity by Trump. Just days after Blanche's meeting with Maxwell, Maxwell was transferred from a federal prison in Florida to much more comfortable conditions in a minimum-security women's prison in Texas. Simultaneously, Maxwell was pursuing an appeal of her conviction. Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected her appeal, leaving her no further avenues within the justice system. Maxwell's only option to escape from her 20-year prison sentence is a pardon from Trump. When Trump was asked about providing a pardon, with the reporter clarifying that Maxwell had been convicted of child sex trafficking, Trump replied that he "would take a look at it." It is notable that Trump did not immediately reject the suggestion of a pardon.

Speaker Johnson, a man who claims to be so religious and opposed to inappropriate sex that he has admitted that he and his teenage son use an app to monitor each other's phones for porn, has also been engaged in preventing the Epstein files from being made public. In July, Johnson abruptly stopped a House legislative session and sent Representatives home in order to avoid votes to release the Epstein files. A bipartisan group of House members began a discharge petition that would force a vote. Such a petition requires 218 signatures, and the petition currently has 217. On September 23, Democrat Adelita Grijalva won a special election in New Mexico. In three recent special elections, Johnson had sworn the victors in as Members of Congress within 24 hours. However, Grijalva has promised to be the 218th signature on the Epstein discharge petition. If all signatories to the petition vote in favor of the release, the vote will pass. Johnson has responded by refusing to swear in Grijalva. Two weeks have now passed, and Johnson has done nothing but suggest further delays. In the meantime, Grijalva is prevented from being allocated an office or providing constituent services to residents of her district. This is the lengths to which Johnson is willing to go in order to prevent the release of material that might identify those who have committed sex offenses against children.

Child sex offenses appear to extend throughout the Republican Party. Just days ago, Robert Morris, the founder of one of the largest megachurches in the country and a man that Trump once named as his spiritual adviser, pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a 12-year-old girl. Could you imagine the outcry if the religious advisors to former Presidents Barack Obama or Joe Biden had pleaded to such a crime? Days after that, police in Texas arrested another religious leader with connections to the Republican Party. This time it was Jon Paul Sheptock, "a fervent Trump supporter who has been associated with far-right and religious circles," was arrested and charged in connection with a long-running child pornography case. Sheptock once sang the national anthem at a Trump campaign event.

Both Morris and Sheptock are from Texas, and sex crimes among pastors in Texas seem rampant. A local news website is keeping a running list of those caught up in scandals. It currently lists 12 individuals. One of those is Luke Cunningham, who was arrested after being charged with sexual assault of a child. Another entry is Craig Stone, who was arrested last year for indecency with a child and possession of child pornography.

One prominent Republican arrested recently was RJ May, a Republican member of the South Carolina House of Representatives. May was charged with distribution of "sexual abuse material involving children". He is "accused of using the screen name ‘joebidennnn69’ to exchange 220 different files of toddlers and young children involved in sex acts". Another Republican state legislator, Minnesota state Senator Justin David Eichorn, was charged earlier this year with "attempted coercion and enticement of a minor".

Last year, an investigation by the House Ethics Committee found that former Republican Representative Matt Gaetz had violated Florida’s statutory rape law, reporting that there "is substantial evidence that Representative Gaetz engaged in sexual activity with a 17-year-old girl." Gaetz, who resigned from the House, had been nominated by Trump to be the U.S. Attorney General. Gaetz’s nomination was derailed by concerns that he could not gain Senate confirmation. But the fact that Trump was comfortable nominating someone who was credibly accused of having sex with a child to the highest law enforcement position in the country is troubling.

Last year, Bo Michael Dresner, a leader of the Hays County, Texas Republican Party, was sentenced to 400 years in prison for Child Sex Abuse. At around the same time, a high-ranking former Maryland state official who served under Republican Gov. Larry Hogan was charged with distributing child sexual abuse images. Luis Esteban Borunda, who served as Maryland Deputy Secretary of State for eight years under Hogan, was arrested after sending suggestive images to an Army criminal investigator that Borunda believed to be a 13-year-old girl.

Certainly, a similar list of Democrats could be compiled. However, what would be missing is the incredible number of child sex offenders linked to Democratic leadership in the way that there are such connections to Trump. Trump himself has been accused of sexually assaulting an underage girl. He has clear connections to Epstein and appears to be preventing Epstein's files from becoming public. Trump has harnessed a full echelon of top Republican political figures to help him prevent the release of the Epstein files, including Bondi, Patel, Bongino, and Johnson. He may well pardon Maxwell in exchange for her silence. Trump nominated a man known to have had sex with an underage girl to be Attorney General. Trump's spiritual advisor pled guilty to sexually abusing a 12-year-old girl. Even a guy who sang the national anthem at a Trump rally was involved with child porn. Trump cannot stretch out his arms without hitting someone involved with sex with children. MAGA conspiracy theorists, who once believed that a restaurant that does not have a basement was hiding child sex slaves in its basement, are remarkably silent about Trump's connections to child sex offenses and offenders.

Update: While I was writing this blog post, the Senate Judiciary Committee was holding a hearing with Attorney General Pam Bondi. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse asked Bondi if the FBI had found photographs that a witness had reported seeing that show Trump with "half-naked young women". Bondi ignored the question and launched a personal attack on Whitehouse. Video at this link: https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3m2mdrosktx2d