In yet another ‘not a drag queen’ story, former My Faith Votes CEO Jason C. Yates, 55, whose organization is known for voter outreach for Trump, has been charged with possessing child pornography. The MAGA evangelical leader was charged last month in district court in McLeod County, Minnesota, on eight felony charges. Yates is facing up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $10,000 for each charge.
The Christian Post reports:
According to court records, a witness told authorities in July that a family member of Yates “accidentally discovered” a hard drive that contained child sexual abuse material “in the office of Jason Yates.”
“The contents included over 100 sexually explicit images of children,” noted the district court document, with several of the photos believed to be of minors younger than 10.
Yates was released Monday “on his own recognizance,” with a condition of his release being that he not have any contact with individuals younger than 18, reported Ministry Watch.
Yates was listed as the CEO of My Faith Votes on the organization’s IRS Form 990 filed last year, according to Ministry Watch, with articles on the website having been published under his byline as recently as July.
At present, he is not listed on the organization’s website as part of the leadership. Instead, the “About” page identifies former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee as honorary national chairman and Sealy Yates, a lawyer related to Jason Yates, as founder and president.
Dr. Ben Carson, an author and conservative activist, previously served as honorary chairman until he assumed the role of Secretary for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development under the first Trump administration.
My Faith Votes was “founded in 2015 by Sealy Yates to reach millions of Christians to vote and stand for biblical values,” according to its website.
Some of the explicit images and videos involved children between five and seven years old. According to The Independent, Yates met with investigators on September 13 and refused to give the investigators a password to access the encrypted files on the drive. Also, he revealed that he had a prior expunged conviction related to child sex abuse materials.
“In early August 2024, the My Faith Votes board of directors separated Jason Yates from My Faith Votes and board member Chris Sadler assumed the position of Acting CEO,” a My Faith Votes spokesperson told RNS.
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A few weeks before the hard drive was discovered, Yates published an op-ed in the Washington Times encouraging Christians to push back against “sexually deviant” messaging toward children. The “deviant” messaging he was describing involved LGBTQ issues.
I’m starting to see a pattern here. It’s not the LGBTQ community, and it’s not drag queens. It’s them. Who knew! So, he’s out on his own recognizance as long as he doesn’t contact children. Did he swear to God that he won’t? Did he pinky promise? The man should be behind bars.
I need to go throw up now. Brb!
