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| The now-infamous Fabian Marta, Sound Of Freedom crowdfunding participant who was arrested in late July 2023 and charged with being an accessory to felony child kidnapping (please do see updates below, however). The "Sugar Ball" image (left) and the screenshot of Marta's boasting about his participation in funding Sound Of Freedom (right) were shared on Twitter (X) by "anti-disinfo activist" Jim Stewartson, who to my knowledge was the first to report Marta's July 2023 arrest, as well as being the first to report on Marta's various other misdeeds. |
Spoiler alert/update: Nothingburger
regarding the felony child kidnapping charges, as charges against Fabian Marta were dropped on
September 25, 2023.
(More details at the end of this post.) That said, see the
section, also in this post, with the subhead, "Even if he's
not a child kidnapper..."
~CC, September 26, 2023
I had thought I'd written everything I wanted to
write about the highly fictionalized and politically/culturally
divisive summer hit movie about child sex trafficking, Sound
Of Freedom (see here and here) -- but after news broke
on August 4 that one of the film's financial backers, Fabian Marta, had
been arrested for felony child kidnapping, that started a whole
new round of controversies about an already controversial film.
So of course I had to chime in.
Newsweek was apparently the
first mainstream media outlet to report Marta's arrest. Numerous
other news outlets soon followed, and noted blogs such as Jezebel picked up the story as
well. Even the fact-checking site Snopes.com weighed in.
But a Twitter X user named Jim
Stewartson, who describes himself as an
anti-disinfo activist, had reported the arrest first, on August 2. And he had actually been on Marta's case well before
Marta's arrest, as a perusal of his X feed will reveal. More
about that in a while.
Here's that "n" word again:
nuance
On the same day that Marta's arrest was made
public by mainstream outlets, which were running wild with the
theme that a "funder" of or "investor" in Sound
Of Freedom had been arrested for felony child kidnapping, Deadline attempted to put things in perspective. Also from August 4, 2023:
Now just to be clear, we’re talking one person who contributed an unidentified amount of money to the $5M P&A crowdfunding campaign put together by Angel Studios. The person charged, 51-year-old Fabian Marta of Chesterfield, Missouri on July 23, was not a financier of the actual feature production. Deadline confirmed the arrest with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police per Case # 2322-CR01608.
Note child kidnapping and sex trafficking, the latter subject which Sound of Freedom focuses on (via the story of former Homeland Security agent Tim Ballard, who took rescuing abducted children into his own hands), are two different types of crimes...
...Marta is a landlord to a woman who was involved in a custody dispute with her aunt. Marta was allegedly providing living arrangements to said woman and her child, the former who is involved in rehabbing the rental property.
"P&A" means "prints and advertising." That's what the crowdfunding campaign was about. And while that campaign helped rescue Sound Of Freedom from feature film purgatory, Marta and thousands of other crowdfunders, as noted on the Deadline article, were not major financial backers of the original production.
Here's a link to a Missouri courts site that offers more
details about the case. This page also
has a link ("Track This Case") allowing you to sign up
for notifications about docket entries, though it doesn't provide
links to actual documents, for which you most likely have to pay,
which I'm not willing to do.
And I can't access the police report, but if you want to try, here's
a link to the records department for the St. Louis Metro Police. It looks like you'll have to pay for that report too,
if you're even allowed to access it. Share it here if you can get
it.
Newsweek and other outlets also reported that
Marta's bail was set at $15,000 but that he was released on his own
recognizance on July 24 after a brief court appearance. His next
court date is August 28, 2023.
Even just the bare-bones details about this case should
be enough to stop a headlong leap into a full-blown scandal
narrative. Being an accessory to felony kidnapping of a child is
a serious charge, but again, this does not appear to be a
sex-trafficking case. Here's more, from St. Louis, Missouri CBS affiliate KMOV.com, August
4, 2023:
A probable cause statement against Marta, 51, alleges he helped somebody who had unlawfully taken her children and interfered with the return of the two children to their lawful parent “by refusing to allow police access to the residence and impeding the kidnapping investigation.”
The probable cause statement says the children were taken from an address near Midtown in St. Louis City and taken to an address in the Fountain Park neighborhood about 10 minutes away. It alleges Marta helped harbor the children at the Fountain Park address. Both children are under 14 years old.
Marta’s attorney, Scott Rosenblum, confirmed to News 4 in an interview that Marta was “one of many investors” of “Sound of Freedom.”
Rosenblum said Marta was providing living space to the other suspect in the case in exchange for rehab on some of the properties Marta owned. He claimed his client is completely innocent of the charge.
“These charges are completely unfounded,” Rosenblum said. “I believe they are conflated and I believe Mr. Marta will be exonerated.”
So at its core this might possibly be little more
than a very acrimonious custody battle, with Marta caught in the
middle. As I said, all of the details have yet to be made public,
and I'm too lazy/cheap to dig for them now. If/when I find out
more, I will be sure to update this post. And if you find
additional details, feel free to drop a comment to this blog, and I'll publish it. I can't do all of this stuff by myself; it
takes teamwork to make a dream work.
Angel Studios on the defensive, once
again
After the news of Marta's arrest broke, Angel Studios was fairly
quick to throw him under the bus From MSN, August 4, 2023:
Angel Studios has responded to the arrest of "Sound of Freedom" investor Fabian Marta on charges of child kidnapping. Marta was charged with felony child kidnapping in July...
..."Angel Studios adhered to the requirements of federal and state laws and regulations in allowing 6,678 people to invest an average of $501 each into the launch of 'Sound of Freedom,'" Angel Studios CEO Neal Harmon states. "Just as anyone can invest in the stock market, everyone who meets the legal criteria can invest in Angel Studios projects. One of the perks of investing was the ability to be listed in the credits."
The statement continues, "We're grateful to brave law enforcement officials who have already arrested dozens of traffickers in the weeks following 'Sound of Freedom's release. Our film speaks to this globally-pervasive problem, and it is our hope that perpetrators everywhere will be brought to justice no matter who they are and that even more people will see the film to raise awareness."
Initially, however, Angel Studios co-founder Jeffrey Harmon called the case
a "nothingburger" and said
that it must have taken a lot of work to extract one name from a
list of more than 6,600 random crowdfunders. But that seems a bit
disingenuous, as Marta probably wouldn't have been on anyone's
radar, even disinfo activist Jim Stewartson's, if he hadn't
publicly boasted about being a funder who helped save Sound
Of Freedom from oblivion after Disney shelved it. Not only
did Marta brag about his contribution, but he also appeared to
exaggerate his role, insinuating that he was a major investor who
had the vision to see the potential of Sound Of Freedom.
Jim Stewartson had previously highlighted Marta's boasts, and posted about them again recently. Attached to the linked Twitter/X post are screenshots of Marta's posts about being a funder of the film. Stewartson also
clarified:
Since I keep getting asked about Fabian Marta’s Facebook account being down, it isn’t. He just made it private after all the attention I’ve given him. Here is his post about “Sound of Freedom” from July 9th. I exposed him on July 10th. These were taken less than an hour ago.
The point is that, contrary to Jeffrey Harmon's
implications, Marta put himself on the radar. He made
himself the low-hanging fruit. It wasn't the doing of Jim
Stewartson or any mainstream news media outlet.
And while we're still on the subject of the Angel
Studios statement, I have an issue with that part where it says,
"We're grateful to brave law enforcement officials who have
already arrested dozens of traffickers in the weeks following Sound
of Freedom's release." It seems pretty clear that this
is an insinuation that the film's release was somehow
responsible for those arrests. Whether or not that was the
intention (and I'm really not all that willing to give the
benefit of the doubt in this instance), the film's devotees in
the reich-wing media are only too happy to take this notion and
run with it. For instance, the headline on an August 7 piece on the ultra-reich Daily Signal crowed,
"Child-Trafficking Bust Proves the Left was Wrong About
'Sound of Freedom.'"
The premise of the Daily Signal piece rests on a
ludicrous straw-man argument (and gaslighting tactic) that the
"left" and "liberals" and most especially the
evil "legacy media" don't believe that child
trafficking and human trafficking in general are actually
problems. This claim is not at all true; instead, what the
critics have asserted, in most cases citing credible sources
involved in fighting human trafficking, is that Sound of
Freedom distorts the very real problems of trafficking, and
in some ways may be doing more harm than good. Here is but one example of one of those "legacy
media" citing some of the film's potentially dangerous
distortions. That piece, from USA Today
(July 28, 2023) fully acknowledges that there is indeed a
horrific and widespread human trafficking industry, but that Sound
Of Freedom misleads audiences about the problem.
But these crucial points do not matter in the
far-reich narrative. According to the Daily Signal article, the
naysayers on the left and in the legacy media were proven wrong
about Sound Of Freedom -- which the writer of the piece
inaccurately describes as a "child sex-trafficking
docudrama" -- when the FBI recently announced the arrests of
suspects in a massive child-trafficking investigation. Take that,
lib'ruls and lefties!
Note that among the major participants in this
heroic bust that was celebrated on the Daily Signal is the FBI:
the very same FBI that the reich-wing lunatics want to defund and
dismantle along with the rest of the "Deep State." And
note the article says that this bust was announced by Attorney
General Merrick Garland in a prepared statement on August 1 --
yes, the AG whom the reich-wingers want to oust, and who was
appointed by President Joe Biden, the latter of whom the wingnuts claim is
enabling pedophilia and trafficking, and whom many of them want,
for various reasons, to impeach/imprison/execute.
Even if he's not a child kidnapper,
Marta is icky
Even if the case for which Fabian Marta was
arrested does turn out to be a big nothingburger, at least in
regard to it having anything remotely to do with sex trafficking
of minors, and even if Marta is ultimately exonerated as an
accessory to felony child kidnapping, there appears to be plenty
that is objectionable about the man. As mentioned towards the
beginning of this post, Jim Stewartson was on Marta's case weeks
ago, Among other matters, Stewartson revealed the latter's participation in the
sexually/financially exploitative sugar baby/sugar daddy culture. (Here is a 2018 piece on Medium about the exploitation and
"grooming," even of underage girls, that can go on in these circles.)
Stewartson also wrote about Marta's girlfriend,
one Jessica Laurent Clark. Marta and Clark apparently met at one of those sugar baby/daddy events
back in 2020. Here, from Stewartson
again, is more about Ms. Clark,
highlighting her "Sugar Boot Camp" for prospective
sugar babies, for which there was apparently "no age
limit." Hmmm. Here is an "unrolled" version of Stewartson's thread about Marta and Clark and their sugaring" activities.
But don't just take Stewartson's word for it. Others have weighed in too. An April 18, 2022 opinion piece on the Uexpress.com site
offers some additional insight into Clark's "boot camp" and the hypocrisy of the culture warriors on the reich
who are pearl-clutching over "grooming" until one of
their own does it. It's worth a read.
And here, from August 2022, is something from St.
Louis CBS TV affiliate KMOV about Clark's illustrious career as a school board member for
the Rockwood School District in St. Louis. Speaking at a conservative radio station event, she
engaged in the kind of political hate speech that's typical of
reich-wing "conservatives," jeering about
"libtards," kids in wheelchairs, "transgender
crap," gays, critical race theory, and so forth. (Stewartson also mentioned this in his thread on Twitter/X.)
Riverfront Times in August of this year
-- August 7, 2023 to be exact -- has more about not only Fabian Marta's arrest but also
about Clark's "sugar baby" background. She was exploiting her sugar baby status as part of
her "brand" for a while.
...the more interesting local angle of the story is Marta’s connection to controversial Rockwood School Board member Jessica Clark, who was elected in April 2022. Clark’s claim to fame was that she was the first person elected to a school board after proudly holding the title, “Sugar Baby.”
It turns out, from all appearances, that Marta was her first “Sugar Daddy."
In a since-deleted Facebook post dated February 10, 2020, Clark – posting under the name “Jessica Laurent” – displayed photos of herself with Marta. Under the heading “Jessica Laurent is with Fabian Marta,” there was this:
“On this day last year, I walked into this weird-ass party and met that weird-ass man (heart emoji). Now we spend our days being weird all day. It was pure magic. Cheers to the sweet life.” On the same day, Clark/Laurent also posted an invitation to “Sugar Ball” – “the finest sugar party experience” – at a place called “Elmo’s Love Lounge” in University City.
Still, Rockwood voters elected Clark to shake up their school district. And Marta, himself a Rockwood parent, has supported her efforts in social media and as a frequent front-row attendee at school board meetings, according to a reliable source (and fellow Rockwood parent).
The article also notes that Marta defended Clark
when she was blasted for her hate speech. He said that she was
being persecuted for her "conservative values." Sounds
like these two would fit right in with more high-profile folks
connected with Sound Of Freedom -- most notably lead
actor Jim Caviezel and the film's
inspiration, Tim Ballard. Not to mention
fitting in with one of the devoted fans of Caviezel, Ballard, and
Sound Of Freedom: the undisputed king of incendiary,
violent-insurrection-inciting hate speech himself, Donald John Trump. Turds of a
feather...
In any case, regarding Fabian Marta, I think it's
worth saying again that this most likely wouldn’t have even
been a story at all, at least not one that went beyond local St.
Louis news media, if Marta himself had not publicly boasted about
and exaggerated his role in financially supporting Sound Of
Freedom. Even though his name is on the closing credits on
the movie, it more than likely wouldn’t have been picked out
from a scrolling list of hundreds of names. But he bragged, and
now it’s a story.
So the question remains: is the Marta arrest case a juicy scandal
or a dry nothingburger? The story hasn't ended yet, but I think I
can say with confidence that, as with most hot-topic narratives,
the truth lies somewhere in between.
Update, September 26, 2023:
Fabian Marta no-billed (charges dropped) in felony
child kidnapping case
The short memorandum, filed
electronically on September 25, 2023 at 02:27 PM, says it all:
Now comes the State of Missouri and enters a memorandum of Nolle Prosequi in the above-styled cause for the reason that this matter has been presented to the St. Louis Circuit Court Grand Jury and the State has insufficient evidence to obtain a conviction.
"Nolle Prosequi" is simply pretentious Latin
legalese meaning "to be unwilling to pursue" -- in other words (and in alternative translations),
"to no longer prosecute." In this case, both a grand
jury and the State of Missouri determined that there wasn't
enough evidence against Marta to obtain a conviction.
As I write this during the late afternoon of September 26, the
reporting on this latest development has so far been sparse to
the point of being nearly nonexistent. National outlets such as Newsweek,
which reported the arrest and the charges back in August, haven't yet reported the dismissal of the case, at
least not that I've seen. (I recognize that it's still fairly
early in the news cycle, so this could change.) And a local (St.
Louis) news outlet, KSDK, having also reported the original story
in August, posted an update on September 25,
that, while factual in a bare-bones way, didn't actually mention
Marta's name (except in the context of a quotation by Marta's
lawyer); it only referred to him as a "Chesterfield
(Missouri) man." Google "News" search results (again, at the time of this writing) yielded only the
KSDK story on page 1, while all of the other page 1 results just
linked back to the original stories in August about the Sound
Of Freedom funder's arrest.
From the time this story first broke, various reich-wing media
sites, such as the American conservative Spanish-language news outlet Voz
Media, slammed the "leftist
media" for making far too big a deal out of Marta's arrest,
and doing so as another means of attacking the producers of Sound
Of Freedom. To a certain extent they had a point about the
spin, particularly when you consider the details of the case
against Marta, and in my own post above, I tried to include the
nuances in the story. Nevertheless, I stand by my original
opinion that Marta is a reich-wingnut with an unsavory resume,
and I reiterate my point that this never would have been a big
national (and international) story if Marta hadn't gone on social
media in the first place, publicly boasting about helping to fund
Sound Of Freedom.
Maybe the no-bill development is being ignored because Sound
Of Freedom's big moment has passed and few give a hoot anymore about
the legal saga of one of the film's thousands of minor funders.
Nevertheless I believe that to gloss over the dismissal of the
Marta case would have been irresponsible on my part, and while I
may be snarky, redundant, and occasionally obnoxious, I am not
irresponsible.
You can read more details of the case against Fabian Marta by
following this link.
Related on this Whirled:
August 13, 2023: Sound Of Freedom funders' hall of shame, and the Utah/Mormon huckster connection
July 22, 2023: Unholy Moses! Sound Of Freedom star Caviezel wets himself kissing up to Donald Trump while amplifying his own QAnon convictions
July 17, 2023: Sound Of Freedumb: God's children are not for sale, but they're perfect little pawns for reich-wing agendas
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