Joel Searby, a veteran political consultant who headed up ex-CIA officer Evan McMullin’s independent presidential bid in 2016, has been arrested and charged with multiple felonies relating to child sex crimes.
Searby, 43, is charged with felony counts of lewd and lascivious behavior, communicating to lure a minor, traveling to lure a minor and using a device to commit a felony. He is currently being held at the Alachua County Jail without bond.
According to the arrest report, Searby used the messaging platform Snapchat to send inappropriate pictures and text messages to a 15-year-old boy. He later attempted to lure him to a meeting for sex acts.
Searby used a fake name and photo in order to coordinate the meetup, police said.
The Alachua County Sheriff’s Office took over the boy’s account in order to continue communication with Searby. This led to a judge granting a search warrant for the consultant’s home.
Searby allegedly told the boy that he had a “secret crush” on an older man in his 40’s when he was around the boy’s age. He wrote that they first kissed and then “did more stuff in secret whenever we could. He kind of taught me stuff. …”
According to the report, Searby then asked the victim if he “Would ever do something like that?” The victim then replied with, “maybe I would have to think abt it.”
The consultant then went into detail about his sexual encounters with his “secret crush” before asking if the boy would ever “do that stuff.”
Searby also stressed that the boy would need to keep things secret. “I’m super secret. I have to know you will keep it between us. It’s a huge deal,” Searby wrote, according to the report.
Searby was ultimately arrested without incident on Friday.
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