Tag: sexual predators

Twitter defends its child sex trafficking users, cites Section 230 immunity protection for pedophiles

A new lawsuit alleges that Twitter is aiding and abetting child sex traffickers and pedophiles by allowing them to buy and sell children, as well as spread child pornography, on its platform. Twitter, in its own defense, says the immunity protections outlined in Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) do not require the social media service to act on behalf of innocent children who are being exploited.

If it was Donald Trump attempting to tweet about the fraudulent 2020 election from a separate account – Trump’s personal account was banned by Twitter several months ago – you can be sure Twitter would immediately flag and remove the “offending” tweet, as well as the account used. Since we are talking about children being raped and abused, however, Twitter is not at all concerned.

According to Jack Dorsey and Co., the lawsuit should be dismissed because Twitter bears no responsibility in removing child pornography and those who create and spread it from its platform. Section 230 of the CDA ensures this, which is why many are now calling for it to be rescinded.

“Given that Twitter’s alleged liability here rests on its failure to remove content from its platform, dismissal of the Complaint with prejudice is warranted on this ground alone,” the company insists.

According to reports, Twitter is not only supporting child sex trafficking and child pornography – it is also benefitting from it financially. Nearly every time an incident is reported, Twitter takes its sweet time responding, if it ever even responds at all.

“Twitter is not a passive, inactive, intermediary in the distribution of this harmful material; rather, Twitter has adopted an active role in the dissemination and knowing promotion and distribution of this harmful material,” the lawsuit states, further blaming “Twitter’s own policies, practices, business model, and technology architecture.”

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Judge Rules Some Ghislaine Maxwell Details Are Too ‘Sensational and Impure’ to Be Revealed to the Public

A federal judge in Manhattan on Thursday ruled on a series of redactions proposed by Ghislaine Maxwell and prosecutors regarding a compilation of transcripts submitted under seal by the government last month.

After reviewing arguments from both sides, U.S. District Judge Alison J. Nathan allowed most of the government’s redactions to remain in place over Maxwell’s objections while also adding several additional redactions at her request.

Maxwell’s legal team in January filed 12 motions requesting that the court, among other things, dismiss all of the charges relating to her alleged role as a recruiter of young girls for infamous and since-deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The government responded in February with an “omnibus memorandum of law” opposing Maxwell’s motions, all of which were filed under seal pending rulings on the redactions.

The government argued that its redactions were required in order to “protect the integrity” of its ongoing criminal investigation into Maxwell and to protect the privacy interests of third parties. Judge Nathan granted most of the government’s requests, reasoning that the redactions were based on legitimate interests to overcome the presumption of public access to judicial documents.

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Former Head of Group That Sponsors Drag Queen Story Hour Arrested on Child Pornography Charges

The former head of the Cream City Foundation, which sponsors Drag Queen Story Hour in Milwaukee, has been arrested on charges of possessing child pornography.

Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Brett Blomme was taken into custody by special agents “following an investigation into multiple uploads of child pornography through a Kik messaging application account in October and November 2020,” according to a statement.

38-year-old Blomme had uploaded 27 videos and images containing child pornography, including two files that were uploaded at the Milwaukee County government building.

Blomme, who is currently assigned to Milwaukee County Children’s Court, “Was the head of the board of zoning appeals for the City of Milwaukee, appointed to the post by Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, and head of the Cream City Foundation, which provides grant money to LGBTQ groups in the Milwaukee area,” reports the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

“A longtime LGBTQ activist, Blomme previously was director of major gifts at the AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin for 18 months, following a stint at the Madison City Attorney’s Office. From 2011 to 2015, he practiced criminal defense with the State Public Defender’s Office,” states the report.

Blomme, who championed himself as “the progressive alternative” during his last political campaign, is married to a man and has two adopted children.

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Democratic Wisconsin Judge Arrested With Seven Child Pornography Counts

A 38-year-old Democratic judge was arrested on Tuesday in Wisconsin for seven felony counts of possessing child pornography, according to the state’s Justice Department.

Brett Blomme, Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge, is facing class D felonies after a thorough investigation was performed by authorities in both Minnesota and Wisconsin. Blomme used the Kik messenger app to store the content, which authorities tracked between the months of October and November. The judge was apprehended in Dane County.

On Friday, a Division of Criminal Investigation unit filed a 44-page search warrant. Investigators learned that Blomme uploaded 27 total child pornographic videos and images to Kik, using the pseudonym “dommasterbb” to conceal his identity. Two of these files were being stored in a government building in Milwaukee County.

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No Jail for “Monster” Cop Found Guilty for His Role Child Sex Ring Run by Fellow Officers

As TFTP has reported, since 2017, information over a years-long child abuse saga involving Louisville Metropolitan Police Department (LMPD) officers has slowly trickled out, leading to multiple officers being arrested and sentenced to prison. Hardly an isolated incident, in total, a series of seven lawsuits names more than eight current or former LMPD officers. One of those officers — who was subsequently arrested for child sex abuse — was officer Brad Schuhmann, 32.

Despite horrifying details coming out in the case against Schuhmann, he was granted a sweetheart plea deal in which he will avoid jail for sexually abusing a little girl in the department’s explorer program.

According to his indictment, Schuhmann willfully deprived the victim of liberty without due process of law, which includes the “right not to have her bodily integrity violated by a person acting under color of law.”

Nevertheless, Schuhmann was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Rebecca Jennings Grady on Wednesday to just six months of home confinement and two years of probation, the Courier Journal reported. He must also register as a sex offender.

The victim called Schuhmann a “monster” and a “predator” in an impact statement and said “this man robbed me of my goals.”

As the Courier Journal reports, identified only as “Jane Doe,” she said she has lived in shame since Schuhmann had sexual contact with her when she was a teenager in the now-defunct scouting program for youngsters interested in law enforcement.

Schuhmann did not deny the sexual abuse and instead admitted to having sexual contact with her at her home and other locations. He said he has since changed since that incident, which he called “the worst decision of my life.”

Schuhmann becomes the third cop in this child sex scandal to be convicted. It has taken years to make such a small headway as the department has been helping to cover it up.

As TFTP reported, inside information into the years-long child sex abuse saga was not at all easy to obtain and now we know why. The department hid 738,000 records documenting the sexual abuse of Explorer Scouts by officers — and then, according to records requested by the Courier Journal, lied to keep the files from the public.

According to the Journal, the newspaper requested all records regarding the sexual abuse of minors by LMPD officers involved in the Explorer program, a program for children who are interested in becoming cops. However, police claimed that they couldn’t turn over the records, telling the Journal that they had already been turned over to the FBI.

“LMPD does not have possession or control of the records,” LMPD records custodian Alicia Smiley wrote in a Sept. 3, 2019, letter to Assistant Attorney General Marcus Jones. “When the investigation was taken by the FBI, all copies of the investigative materials … were physically removed from the premises, digital devices and servers of LMPD.”

But that was a lie, the LMPD had hundreds of thousands of records on child sexual abuse by officers in the Explorer program.

According to the Journal, the department still had at least 738,000 records, which the city allowed to be deleted.

The records detail the actions taken — or rather not taken — when the department learned about the sexual abuse of children in the program.

“I have practiced open records law since the law was enacted 45 years ago, and I have never seen anything so brazen,” said Jon Fleischaker, an attorney for the Courier Journal. “I think it an outrage.”

Another lawyer for the Courier Journal, Michael Abate, said the city’s conduct was especially egregious given the case involves the sexual abuse of children by police officers and the department’s failure to prevent it. 

Metro Council President David James said, “it’s very disturbing to me that either the county attorney’s office or the police department was so dead-set on making sure those records never reached the public.”  

Councilman Anthony Piagentini, R-19th, said, “There aren’t the appropriate words to describe how indefensible this is. The administration oversaw the sexual exploitation of minors and then deleted evidence.”

Jean Porter, a spokesman for Mayor Greg Fischer, said his “focus is getting to the truth in this horrific case.”

But what does the truth matter when the abusers avoid jail for their actions?

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