Tim Ballard is being sued by five women accusing him of sexual misconduct and detailing what precisely they say happened. The suit was first reported by the Utah outlet KSL. https://t.co/UpwKyVSXno
— Anna Merlan (@annamerlan) October 10, 2023
Mike Lee (… roy Jenkins!) just dodged a bullet:
The suit was — and I suspect this is not a coincidence — filed the day before Mr. Ballard was reportedly about to announce his Senate run. Multiple people told us that he was going to announce his candidacy today, October 10.
— Anna Merlan (@annamerlan) October 10, 2023
Best guide to ‘conservative’ politics — Every accusation a confession:
Tim Ballard, the founder and former head of the anti-trafficking group Operation Underground Railroad whose heavily fictionalized exploits were the subject of this summer’s surprise box-office hit Sound of Freedom, has been sued in Utah’s Third District Court by five women accusing him of sexual misconduct. The Utah news outlet KSL was the first to report the filing. An accompanying press release issued by their attorney, Suzette Rasmussen, reports that additional suits are likely to be filed by more women in the coming month.
“The tragic irony is not lost on these five women,” Rasmussen wrote in the press release. “Tim Ballard literally trafficked them for his own sexual and egotistical gratification.”
In the suit, the women, who all live in Utah, and who filed the suit using initials to protect their privacy, accuse Ballard in detail of “coerced sexual contact.” The suit alleges that Ballard and/or the co-defendants have committed sexual assault and battery, conspiracy, fraud, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and “outrage,” and accuses OUR of failing in its fiduciary duties, asking for a trial by jury and damages in an amount to be proven at trial.
The central allegations have to do with the so-called “couples ruse,” which is described in the suit as “a tool for sexual grooming.” …
The suit names a slew of co-defendants alongside Ballard, including Operation Underground Railroad, Children Need Families (an adoption grant organization founded by Katherine Ballard, Tim’s wife), the SPEAR Fund (a new anti-trafficking group for which Ballard has said he is a senior adviser), Liberty and Light (a Utah organization that appears to be the entity behind the SPEAR Fund), and three Utah shell companies that have been associated with Ballard: Rockwell Group Inc., Deacon Inc., and Slave Stealers LLC. The suit also names members of OUR’s board and Janet Russon, the purported psychic medium whose “intelligence” was used to carry out ineffectual missions for OUR and who was, the suit says, complicit in Ballard’s abuse…
The suit is the latest in a swift and stunning reversal of fortune for Ballard, long a prominent figure in anti-trafficking circles, and in Utah more broadly. It was filed on October 9, the day before Ballard was said to be planning to announce a bid for U.S. Senate, in the seat recently vacated by Mitt Romney. One of Ballard’s biggest supporters in the state, Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes—who has himself gone on missions with OUR—said recently that in light of the allegations, he wouldn’t support Ballard in a Senate run…
If you don’t remember / were lucky enough to miss the whole Sound of Freedom circus, here’s a pretty comprehensive update from the Washington Post, dated last July 13th — “The man at the center of ‘Sound of Freedom’ abruptly leaves group he founded” [unpaywalled gift link]: