South Carolina lawmaker indicted for distributing child sexual abuse material

https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/crime/rj-may-indicted-child-sex-abuse-
charges/101-efde3537-a769-4b33-8343-249c9b72218c

LEXINGTON, S.C. — South Carolina State Rep. Robert John "R.J." May III 
appeared before a federal court judge in Columbia, Thursday and was 
ordered to remain in detention until a court date could be set on charges 
pending from an investigation involving child sexual abuse material.

May, 38, is facing a 10-count indictment for distributing child sexual 
abuse material, handed down by a federal grand jury convened in 
Greenville.

U.S. Attorney Bryan Stirling confirmed the indictment against the 
Lexington County lawmaker Thursday morning. 

Appearing in court Thursday morning, May pleaded not guilty. 

Prosecutors called in a special agent with the Department of Homeland 
Security to testify about the investigation regarding the social media app 
Kik and an account believed to belong to May, which disseminated 220 
unique videos of sexual content.

In previous court documents and statements filed with the court, the 
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received a cyber-tip in 
May 2024 from the social messaging app Kik. Kik flagged several videos 
from the username “joebidennnn69” as containing child sexual abuse. 
Investigators were able to connect the account to the home IP address and 
mobile device of May and identified at least 10 videos depicting child 
sexual abuse that were shared from the account. Allegedly, children in the 
videos were as young as a toddler.

A request for detention filed by federal prosecutors goes into more detail 
about the allegations. They claim the first message of sexual abuse 
material was transmitted on March 31, 2024. Once the cyber tip regarding 
this activity came in May, the Lexington County Sheriff's Department was 
assigned by the South Carolina Attorney General's office to investigate. 

On June 27, 2024, the Sheriff's Department got a search warrant for the 
contents of the Kik account. Kik provided investigators with the 
subscriber information on July 12. Investigators said that between March 
30, 2024, and April 4, 2024, the Kik account sent or received 
approximately 1,147 messages with other Kik users, some of which discussed 
trading child sexual abuse materials with other users. 

Investigators determined that the activity on the account dates back to 
May, either at his home or on his cell phone. 

On August 5, 2024, authorities executed a search warrant on May's home and 
began analyzing its contents. Prosecutors said they found evidence of an 
email address linked to the Kik account. The documents also said the Kik 
account, a Telegram account, and a Mega account were all deleted on April 
4 within seconds of each other. Prosecutors claim May discussed using 
Telegram and Mega in his messages on Kik.

The 10 videos the grand jury indicted May for show extremely graphic 
depictions of sex acts involving minors, based on verbal descriptions 
included by prosecutors in documents online. 

The documents say May was messaging users on Kik while going back and 
forth with the normal routine work of his daily life, including politics 
and communicating with his family. Prosecutors said they feel that proves 
it was May, not someone else, searching for this material. 

Documents show that a grand jury formally indicted May on June 10. May was 
arrested on Wednesday and booked at the Lexington County Detention Center. 

May faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison with a minimum 
of five years, a fine of $250,000, and a term of at least five years of 
supervised release to follow any term of imprisonment.

Following his indictment, South Carolina House Speaker Murrell Smith 
suspended May from office without pay. The suspension remains in effect 
until the indictments are resolved. If he were found guilty, the seat 
would be declared vacant.

https://www.scribd.com/document/875188826/SC-Rep-RJ-May-suspension-
letter#download&from_embed

May had been the vice chair of the South Carolina Freedom Caucus until 
mid-2024. After his arrest on June 11, the group posted a statement on 
social media calling for his immediate resignation from the S.C. House.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide 
initiative launched in May 2006 by the U.S. Department of Justice to 
combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by 
the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation 
and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and 
local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who 
sexually exploit children, as well as to identify and rescue victims. 

May has represented House District 88 in Lexington County since 2021. May 
was reelected in November 2024 after facing no opposition in the general 
election.


-- 
November 5, 2024 - Congratulations President Donald Trump.  We look 
forward to America being great again.

We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that 
stupid people won't be offended.

Every day is an IQ test. Some pass, some, not so much.

Thank you for cleaning up the disasters of the 2008-2017, 2020-2024 Obama 
/ Biden / Harris fiascos, President Trump.

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the 
The World According To Garp.  Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood 
queer liberal democrat donors.