Which MAGA-aligned representatives have faced allegations of child exploitation and what legal actions were taken against them?
Executive summary
Several politicians and MAGA-aligned figures have been publicly accused or charged in cases involving minors or child sexual material; among elected officials, Minnesota state Sen. Justin Eichorn resigned after a sting alleging solicitation of a minor [1], and South Carolina state Rep. R.J. May was arrested and later agreed to plead guilty to charges tied to distributing child sexual abuse material [2] [3]. Other MAGA-affiliated influencers and clergy have faced criminal charges or indictments, but outcomes and levels of proof vary across the record [4] [5] [6].
1. Justin Eichorn — sting, arrest, and resignation under criminal charge
Minnesota state Sen. Justin Eichorn was arrested after an undercover sting in which he allegedly solicited sex from someone he believed to be a 17-year-old, and he resigned from the legislature after the federal criminal complaint became public; reporting describes the complaint as alleging requests for sexually explicit images and discussions about the age of consent with an undercover detective [1] [4]. Legal action included arrest and the decision to resign; state and local leaders publicly framed the felony-level allegation as disqualifying from continued legislative service [1].
2. R.J. May — charged with exchanging child sexual abuse material and plea developments
South Carolina state Rep. R.J. May was arrested on allegations he used the screen name “joebidennnn69” to exchange hundreds of files depicting toddlers and young children on the Kik network, according to court documents cited by The Guardian and local reporting [2] [7]. Prosecutors sought detention citing similarities between some files and the ages of his own children, and May resigned from the legislature after the charges surfaced [2] [7]. Subsequent reporting says May agreed to change his plea to guilty ahead of a scheduled trial, with prosecutors laying out evidence they planned to present at trial [3].
3. MAGA-aligned influencers and clergy — indictments, arrests, and arraignments
Beyond elected officials, several MAGA-aligned figures have faced criminal allegations involving minors or child sexual material: Ricci Wynne, a California MAGA influencer known as “RawRicci415,” was arrested on state charges of pimping and federally indicted on producing child sexual abuse material involving minors [8] [4] [5]. Zachary Joseph Radcliff, a conservative church leader who performed at CPAC, was arraigned on multiple counts including aggravated child sexually abusive activity and using the internet to communicate to commit a crime, with prosecutors linking alleged acts back as far as 2014 [6]. Reporting describes arrest, arraignment and the possibility of lengthy prison exposure should convictions occur [6].
4. High-profile MAGA figures, investigations without charges, and historical convictions
Some high-profile MAGA-aligned names appear in reporting as subject to investigations or past convictions: reporting cites that Rep. Matt Gaetz has been investigated in a long-running probe into alleged sex trafficking of a minor and that the Justice Department once closed an investigation without charges, and other sources point to long-ago convictions such as former Speaker Dennis Hastert’s child-molestation case to underline patterns critics see within the movement [9] [10]. It is critical to distinguish documented convictions and guilty pleas (Hastert; R.J. May’s reported plea) from investigations that concluded without charges or are ongoing, and the corpus of sources shows both outcomes across different cases [3] [9].
5. Patterns, partisan framing, and limits of the available reporting
News outlets and advocacy sites assembling “lists” of MAGA-linked offenders frame these cases as evidence of hypocrisy by “family values” politicians, a perspective reflected in partisan outlets [8] [10], while mainstream reporting tends to detail legal filings—arrests, indictments, arraignments, resignations and, in at least one case reported later, a guilty plea [1] [2] [3]. The available reporting is uneven: some items are from advocacy or aggregation websites that emphasize pattern over process [8] [11], and for several high-profile names the public record includes investigations or allegations that did not result in criminal charges, a distinction the sources themselves note [9]. Where sources do not provide final court dispositions, this account does not speculate beyond what the reporting documents.