Rising reich-wing hero Tim Ballard faced with allegations of lying & sexual misconduct, making him a perfect GOP candidate

 

Tim Ballard, the inspiration for the American reich wing's favorite summer movie, Sound Of Freedom, is in the news again. Honestly, I had thought I was finished with this egotistical, endlessly self-aggrandizing Trumpist blowhard and career grifter for the duration, but alas, Ballard has been making headlines once again this month, not only for being rebuked by higher-ups in his beloved Mormon Church, but also for allegations of sexual misconduct. Meanwhile, his political star continues to rise as he threatens a 2024 Senate run to replace the departing Mitt Romney, and endears himself to the ultra-reich by telling lies to Congress about how the Biden administration is supposedly enabling child sex trafficking and kiddie porn because of loose border policies.

Ballard v Ballard? The denouncement from on high
Now, maybe it's just a matter of he said/he said, but, according to a September 15, 2023 report by Vice.com, it appears that Tim Ballard was deceptively exploiting his (former) close friendship with one M. Russell Ballard (no relation to Tim). From the Vice piece:

Documents obtained by VICE News show anti-trafficking activist Tim Ballard claimed that a revered and powerful figure in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints played a secret, central role in Operation Underground Railroad, or OUR, the organization Ballard founded. Insiders who spoke to federal and local investigators as part of a since-closed criminal inquiry described Ballard claiming that OUR and his personal business ventures were backed by the senior member of the church’s second-highest leadership body, and part of a larger mission to use the anti-trafficking cause to bring Americans to the Mormon faith—or, in his words, “lead them to the covenant.”

“Tim is fully convinced that he is supposed to be the 'Mormon Messiah and lead people back to the church,’” read notes from an interview between criminal investigators and a former OUR higher-up.

But now a spokesperson for the church tells VICE News that while the apostle in question, President M. Russell Ballard, was once close to Tim Ballard—to whom he is not related, despite their sharing a last name—the OUR founder “betrayed their friendship, through the unauthorized use of President Ballard’s name for Tim Ballard’s personal advantage and activity regarded as morally unacceptable.” 

You really need to read the entire Vice.com article -- here's that link again -- to understand the extent to which Tim Ballard's ego was invested not only in his (often exaggerated) battles against human trafficking, but also in his mission to use the full force of his multiple organizations and influence to bring all of America into the Mormon fold. (There's even a photo of a whiteboard chart outlining his master plan.)

Tim Ballard has bitten back regarding the allegations about the Church and the elder Ballard. He insists that he was not rebuked by the Church and that he never, ever, ever exploited his friendship with the Apostle. He even made a video rant about the matter. He's very upset about what he calls years-long "attacks" on him, and says his family is being threatened too. If his family really is being threatened, shame on those who are threatening them, but, for that matter... shame on the Sound Of Freedom fans who, apparently having swallowed Tim Ballard's version of reality hook, line, and sinker, have been threatening sex trafficking survivors and advocates. Threatening innocent folks is never a good thing, no matter who's doing it and who's being threatened.

Then there are the sexual misconduct allegations
As if the Church debacle weren't enough, more details have come out about the sexual misconduct allegations that may have (probably?) prompted Ballard's June 2023 departure from the rescue org he founded, Operation Underground Railroad (OUR). Here's Vice.com again:

Tim Ballard’s exit from Operation Underground Railroad earlier this year followed an investigation into claims of sexual misconduct involving seven women, according to sources with direct knowledge of the organization.

Sources familiar with the situation said that the self-styled anti-slavery activist, who appears to be preparing for a Senate run, invited women to act as his “wife” on undercover overseas missions ostensibly aimed at rescuing victims of sex trafficking. He would then allegedly coerce those women into sharing a bed or showering together, claiming that it was necessary to fool traffickers. Ballard, who was played by Jim Caviezel in the hit film Sound of Freedom, is said to have sent at least one woman a photo of himself in his underwear, festooned with fake tattoos, and to have asked another “how far she was willing to go,” in the words of a source, to save children. These sources requested anonymity because they fear retaliation.

I wonder if Timmy was wearing magickal Mormon underwears in that photo, or just regular briefs or jockeys.

OUR responded. Vice.com (here's that link again) quoted their response in part:

“Several weeks ago, an OUR employee who accompanied Tim on an undercover operation filed a sexual harassment complaint against him with OUR’s HR department,” the letter, which was sent this summer to donors to anti-trafficking causes, reads. “This resulted in an extensive internal investigation into Tim and his individual operational tactics and led to more women speaking up as part of the investigation process.

“It was ultimately revealed through disturbingly specific and parallel accounts, that Tim has been deceitfully and extensively grooming and manipulating multiple women for the past few years with the ultimate intent of coercing them to participate in sexual acts with him, under the premise of going where it takes and doing ‘whatever it takes’ to save a child.”

The letter further said that OUR’s board and lawyers had made agreements preventing executives from discussing the circumstances of Ballard’s exit from the organization he founded, making it “virtually impossible for them to defend the organization against Tim’s false narratives.” The author or authors of the letter did not respond to requests for comment. An OUR spokesperson did not dispute what was in the letter when asked about it by VICE News In July, or respond further when told that reporters could only take this as confirmation of its accuracy. 

Vice also provided a link to journalist Lynn Packer's YouTube video regarding the allegations and the statement from OUR.

On September 19, 2023, Ballard, via the organization to which he is senior advisor, the SPEAR Fund, denied the sexual misconduct allegations. Ballard, not surprisingly, claims to have always been a choir boy in all of his dealings with women in the course of conducting his rescue ops. Or, in his words (according to the SPEAR Fund statement):

“During my time at O.U.R., I designed strict guidelines for myself and our operators in the field. Sexual contact was prohibited, and I led by example. Given our meticulous attention to this issue, any suggestion of inappropriate sexual contact is categorically false.”

Still, the allegations won't go away. But hey, no worries. Tim's star is just beginning to rise.

Bad moon rising
If you're thinking that these allegations of lying and sexual misconduct make Tim Ballard an ideal GOP candidate, I totally agree with you. Indeed, all indications are that he's running for Mitt Romney's soon-to-be-vacated Senate seat in 2024. From The Deseret News, September 15, 2023:

Rumors of Ballard’s potential Senate bid started after Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes, who is close to Ballard, said Wednesday he was looking forward to supporting “a great conservative, patriot, and warrior” who would be announcing a Senate run “in the days to come.”

Multiple sources close to Ballard have confirmed he is considering a run.

And although some consider him a long shot due to the Church conflicts, don't count him out (especially given the fact that, as the Deseret News article indicated, Tim Ballard and his fellow Trumpian and fibber, Utah AG Sean Reyes, are good buds). Vice.com elaborated on this point in their September 15 article:

For now, Ballard’s professional and political futures aren’t certain– but he has made ambitious efforts to move himself closer to a new power structure. On Wednesday [September 13, 2023], he testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, where he made a highly politicized statement about the Biden administration’s role in aiding human trafficking, one which proved immediately popular with right-wing news sites. 

“Tragically, as a result of this administration’s current policies, [the Department of Homeland Security] and [the Department of Health and Human Services] have unwittingly become a child trafficking delivery service,” Ballard said, in part.

It’s difficult to imagine that Ballard could successfully run for elected office after being effectively denounced by the power structure of the most powerful religion in his home state. But he has proven himself, if nothing else, to be remarkably persistent, willing to reinvent himself—to spin new stories, to seek new allies—as many times as necessary. 

I'd say that, judging by events in recent years, the allegations against Tim Ballard won't destroy him, at least not politically, but will only make him stronger and more dangerous, just like the overuse of antibiotics makes the hardiest bacteria stronger and more dangerous. After all, look what multiple indictments did for #NeverWasMyPresident Donald John Trump. And in slightly more recent developments, look what impeachment and acquittal did to Texas' criminally corrupt attorney general, Ken Paxton. And consider how little both of these men's sexual shenanigans, both alleged and proven, seem to matter to the diehard red base.

Given all of that, it would appear that Tim Ballard, like so many other Christofascists littering the political and social landscape these daze, is here to stay.

Update, October 19, 2023:
The headline on the web site of Salt Lake City's CBS affiliate KUTV (News2) reads: Ex-police officer Eric Moutsos, friend of Tim Ballard, says he believes Ballard's accusers. Well, maybe ex-friend would be a better description. As reported on October 18, 2023 by KUTV, Moutsos used to be all-in for Tim and for Operation Underground Railroad (OUR) and for Sound Of Freedom. (He's also an anti-vax fanatic to boot.)

Despite all of the above, Moutsos said he believes the alleged vics of Tim's alleged sexually predatory behavior, and that if he were still a cop he would definitely recommend criminal charges against Ballard. He told News2, "We need beacons, we need hope in the world. This has been absolutely devastating to me because I wanted him to be the person he said he was."

Ballard, of course, continues to deny these "false accusations," claiming to be faithful to his wife and his God.

Be sure to read some of the other linked articles on the page too -- for instance, this one regarding Utah's Attorney General (and good buddy of Ballard) attempting to shut down News2's questions about a lawsuit against Ballard. That's what friends are for, right?

And here is news about the lawsuit in question. According to News2:

That lawsuit, which was filed Monday, alleged that Ballard used anti-trafficking operations as a way to sexually abuse and exploit female OUR employees and volunteers. The suit also claimed the donor-funded missions largely consisted of “going to strip clubs and massage parlors across the world, after flying first class to get there, and staying at 5-star hotels, on boats, and at VRBOs across the globe.”

Here's a direct link to the lawsuit itself, in which we learn more than we ever wanted to know about Saint Timothy's bacchanalian indulgences and sexual activities in the field. For instance...

78. At the strip clubs, Ballard would pay for and receive lap dances, and ingest alcohol and pills at these practice “Ruse Ruses” on OUR’s dime with donor monies.

79. Ballard engaged in a ploy where he would tell the women that if they were offered alcohol, which is forbidden by the Mormon Church, that she should take the drink and then open mouth, kiss him and spit the alcohol into his mouth, and then he would spit it out when the traffickers were not looking.

80. However, Ballard was doing the exact opposite–he was consuming excessive amounts of alcohol (tequila) of his own volition, which he drank at strip clubs, massage parlors, and on trips, to the point of passing out. For example, he missed a $250,000 speaking engagement a few weeks ago because he was drunk and missed his flight.

81. Through these COUPLES RUSES, both in the office and in the field, Ballard eventually engaged in coerced sexual contact with several women and propositioned others.

82. Ballard participated in several sexual acts with the exception of actual  penetration, in various states of undress while on an OPS mission.

83. Ballard developed a sexual position where it appeared he was having full on sexual intercourse with his COUPLES RUSE victims, while not actually penetrating.

84. While inside private accommodations, when no one else was around that they needed to fool, Ballard would claim that he and his female partner had to maintain the appearance of a romantic relationship at all times in case suspicious traffickers might be surveilling them at any moment.

85. Ballard requested the women he invited to act as his significant other, to first have a Brazilian wax.

86. Ballard would ask each woman, "Is there anything you wouldn't do to save a child?"

87. To further convince the women of his need for them on the next OPS mission, Ballard would badmouth previous female partners, claiming that the women who had allegedly gone on COUPLES RUSES in the past were "crazy," and claiming that they had fallen in love with him along the way.

88. Ballard used these mythical stories to motivate the women in his COUPLES RUSE to prove their mettle and their devotion to the cause by trying to outdo their supposed predecessors.

89. When these women found themselves questioning the legitimacy of tactics involving sexual contact, they often doubted their own instincts, relying on Ballard's breadth of knowledge about rescue missions to convince themselves that such tactics were normal.

90. Other employees of OUR would warn these women not to question Ballard or their lives would be put in danger.

91. Ballard would also tell the women that engaging in sex play with him would improve their marriage, even as he also told them not to tell their husbands about what they were doing (or it would compromise the mission, children, their lives, and other informants’ lives)

92. Ballard would repeatedly warn these women that if they failed in their COUPLES RUSE mission, they would have wasted the hard-earned money that honest donors had entrusted to OUR or be caught or killed by the cartel.

93. …In the mind of the victims, this was very real and serious and the cartel was essentially all knowing and seeing.

But hey, at least he didn't penetrate his vics! So, yeah... totally faithful to his wife. And I'm sure he still loves his God too. (Besides, everyone knows that any underground op involving a fake significant-other relationship requires that the female operative have a baby-smooth vulva. A Brazilian wax is just SOP for a COUPLES RUSE.) So all is well, and Tim has nothing to worry about. Maybe he'll even end up on the short list for Donnie John's running mate.

Related on this Whirled:

August 13, 2023: Sound Of Freedom funders' hall of shame, and the Utah/Mormon huckster connection

August 7, 2023: Sound Of Freedom funder Fabian Marta's arrest: juicy scandal or dry nothingburger?

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

Burning Man conspiranoia and God-dun-it claims are burning up the media, online and off

Conspiranoia, much like rust in the world of singer Neil Young, never sleeps. The same goes with weaponization of God whenever bad things happen. Whether the focal point is a deadly pandemic, a devastating hurricane, a tragic wildfire, or yet another mass shooting in the USA, the conspiranoids and the insufferably righteous will be front and center with a series of increasingly wackadoodle narratives -- all too many of which are politically motivated these days. So it should come as no surprise that Burning Man, the infamous nine-day masochist "radical-self-reliance" festival, should have attracted a new round of conspiracy tales and God-dun-it explanations when extreme weather conditions -- flooding, to be exact -- turned it into a calamity.

I'll state right off the bat that I am probably not the most sympathetic or empathetic soul when it comes to Burning Man attendees. The mass camp-out and self-deprivation orgy seems to have changed very little since I snarked about it (and, more specifically, about one of its most pretentious attendees) waaaaay back in September 2007. The big differences between then and now seem to be that the Burning Man of today has become significantly more expensive over the years, and there are tens of thousands more attendees than there were back then.

But as silly as I think Burning Man devotees are, I also think they're relatively harmless. They do their thing, I do mine (which mostly involves being inside in front of the air conditioner, far away from the cruel desert heat, and staying well-hydrated). Not so harmless are reich-wing nutcakes and conspiracy peddlers such as Georgia Congresswoman/proud insurrectionist/Trump sycophant Marjorie Taylor Greene and the vile Alex Jones, whose recent conversation about the reasons for the Burning Man 2023 disaster are making the news.

On the Sunday night (September 3, 2023) episode of Jones' infernal Infowars show, he and Greene took to gabbing about the fact that 70,000 or so folks were stranded at Burning Man due to the torrential rains and the mud. (You can watch the video here.) Greene mentioned the strandings, upon which Jones interjected with a harrumphing comment about a "mock sacrifice" that had supposedly occurred just before the weather turned dangerous, and then Greene responded, "God has a way of making sure everyone knows who God is."

The implication could not be plainer: Clearly, the flooding was God's way of punishing those heathen attendees. The punishment-from-God angle has actually been a go-to narrative for Christofascists for years whenever there has been a natural disaster. And Marge is nothing if not a Christofascist...oops, I mean "Christian nationalist."

Apparently not satisfied with the divine-disaster explanation, Marge then lapsed into reich-wing political conspiranoia, asserting that the stranded Burners were probably being "brainwashed" into believing that climate change was the root cause of the weather disaster in the desert, after which they were certain to go forth and evangelize about fighting the human-made climate crisis. She said, "I believe this is the left's new lie that they're going to put on the American people. This is what they're brainwashing people to believe."

It's not entirely clear whether she was insinuating that the radical left might have somehow colluded with the Almighty to produce the dangerous weather that benefited their agenda, or if she thought they were merely stopping the attendees from leaving the festival in order to create a mass panic that would inspire the stranded to jump on board with the lefty climate agenda. Either idea is bonkers, especially since it's a pretty safe bet that most of the folks who attended Burning Man already believe that human-induced climate change is actually a thing. In other words, there's nothing at all "new" about the generally accepted science that Marge and her reich-wing colleagues continue to insist is a "lie" or a "hoax."

Margie wasn't the only reich-wing zealot to push the punishment-from-God narrative. On the same night Greene appeared on Infowars, Senator Mike Lee of Utah went on Twitter/X to imply that the floods were "God's judgement." From Rolling Stone, via Yahoo:

The post linked to a tabloid article describing some of the more offbeat activities at Burning Man, including “group orgasm sessions, daily whippings and naked oil wrestling.” Of such pursuits, the senator grumbled, “This isn’t healthy.” Shortly before that, Lee had quote-tweeted far-right Daily Wire host Michael Knowles‘ comment that “one should endeavor to avoid traveling to the desert for week-long bacchanalian orgies that culminate in the worship of giant burning idols.” Lee wondered how many may have “had a ‘road to Damascus’ moment” at this year’s Burning Man, making a biblical reference to the conversion of Paul the Apostle to Christianity.

Several other reich wingnuts weighed in on the God angle as well, including one of Donald Trump's co-indictees in the Georgia case. From the Rolling Stone/Yahoo piece again:

Last but not least, Jeff Clark, a former assistant attorney general indicted in Georgia last month along with 18 others, including Donald Trump, for an alleged conspiracy to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election, weighed in with his own moralizing take. Commenting Sunday on a post from former solicitor general Neal Katyal, who had hiked out through the mud to escape Burning Man, Clark called the festival a “neopagan ritual.”

“Pray that these folks come to the light & realize that the only path is through and to our Lord,” Clark wrote. “We are all fallen and need God, and to repent as a Nation.”

Yet another conspiracy tale arose in the midst of the strandings: tongues were wagging about an Ebola outbreak, which was supposedly the reason nobody was allowed to leave the festival. From The Daily Dot:

“Now there’s some new terrifying information coming out that there’s a virus on the loose in the festival and that people are getting really sick with boils, vomiting, hemorrhaging,” a TikToker shared on Sunday. “To me, this makes way more sense than flooding in terms of what their response was to the situation.”

The Ebola tale was causing such hysteria that the local sheriff had to step in to debunk it.

As Bevan Hurley at the (UK) Independent noted, Burning Man 2023 was an undeniable disaster. But the explanations offered by the conspiranoids were not the cause. Nevertheless the conspiracy tales took on a life of their own, as they always do. And various satirical posts, such as a hoax narrative about cannibalism, only muddied the situation (so to speak).

All of this would be merely funny if it weren't for the fact that conspiracy-peddling Christian nationalist loons such as Marjorie Taylor Greene actually possess real power to shut the US government down and further erode our democracy, as noted in a September 5, 2023 opinion piece in USA Today by columnist Rex Huppke. The absurdity of Marge's crackpot tales, wrote Huppke, doesn't mean that we can safely ignore Greene's "willingness to sit next to someone like [Alex] Jones and gin up conspiratorial Burning Man nonsense."

During a town hall meeting with constituents last week, Greene said: “I’ve already decided I will not vote to fund the government unless we have passed an impeachment inquiry on Joe Biden.”

To date, Republicans have provided zero evidence that President Biden has done anything worthy of impeachment. His son, Hunter Biden, is being investigated by a special counsel, but any wrongdoing on the part of the president remains purely speculative.

That clearly won’t stop Greene, or any number of small-minded far-right congressional goofballs, from willingly shutting down the government in promotion of a still-baseless conspiracy.

After all, Greene sees a conspiracy in an inordinately wet Burning Man festival. She proudly sits next to a man who has spun some of the most hateful and damaging conspiracies imaginable.

The Republican Party has been overrun by fools like her, and with a Sept. 30 government funding deadline looming, Greene and her far-right compatriots have the power to wreak havoc.

She’s not a serious person, but she has conned her way into a position that allows her to cause Americans serious problems.

It may all seem overwhelmingly ridiculous, and it is. But we ignore her, and the off-the-rails party that has fostered her, at our own peril.

Yeah. What Rex said.