Which Republican state or local officials were federally prosecuted for sex‑related crimes during 2020–2025 and how do those cases relate to federal investigations?
Executive summary
Between 2020 and 2025 the public record assembled in the supplied reporting names a small number of Republican state or local officials accused of sex‑related crimes, but only one — state lawmaker RJ May — is explicitly tied in these sources to federal charges for child sexual abuse material; broader compilations show many allegations of sexual misconduct by lawmakers without clearly documenting federal prosecutions or their relationship to federal investigations [1] [2] [3]. The available reporting is fragmented and often aggregates state and federal cases together, so any firm count of “federally prosecuted” Republican state/local officials in 2020–2025 cannot be drawn from these sources alone [2] [4].
1. The clearest federal case in these sources: RJ May and child sexual abuse material
South Carolina Republican state representative RJ May is cited in Ballotpedia’s catalog as suspended after an indictment on charges involving child sexual abuse material in 2025, and separate reporting describes a federal indictment and sentencing tied to child‑sexual‑abuse images that led to imprisonment and restitution orders — reporting that frames the case as a federal prosecution of a Republican official [1] [3]. The coverage characterizes the crimes as involving explicit material depicting minors and notes the gravity of federal sentencing and supervised release requested by prosecutors, which indicates a federal investigative and prosecutorial role in that matter [3].
2. Broader tallies conflate accusations, state actions, and federal cases
National compilations and decade‑spanning lists cited here — including an Associated Press tally referenced by PBS and aggregated lists on Ballotpedia and Wikipedia — document many lawmakers accused of sexual harassment or misconduct since 2017, and several state and local politicians convicted of sex‑related offenses in the 2020s, but they do not consistently distinguish which matters were pursued in federal court versus state prosecutions [2] [4]. That conflation means a headline count of “Republican officials federally prosecuted” risks overstating what the supplied sources can definitively show, because many allegations led to state disciplinary processes, resignations, or state criminal cases rather than federal indictments [2] [4].
3. Examples flagged in aggregate lists but lacking clear federal links in these sources
Other names appear in compiled lists of misconduct or convictions — for example, the Wikipedia list of 2020s state and local politicians convicted of crimes cites figures like State Senator Ray Holmberg (R) and cases of possession of child pornography by a city mayor — yet the entries in the supplied material do not uniformly specify federal jurisdiction for those convictions or show how federal investigators were involved [4]. Similarly, partisan projects and private compilations (e.g., blogs and activist lists) highlight many Republican figures accused of sexual offenses, but their sourcing and separation of state versus federal actions vary and at times reflect ideological curation rather than a clear prosecutorial record [5] [6].
4. How federal investigations appear to intersect with state/local allegations in the sources
When the supplied reporting links a state or local official to federal prosecution, it tends to be in cases involving child sexual exploitation materials or offenses that fall squarely under federal statutes (as with the RJ May coverage), which prompts involvement by federal investigators and U.S. attorneys rather than only state prosecutors [3]. By contrast, many workplace sexual‑misconduct complaints and harassment allegations — extensively cataloged by AP/PBS — were worked through legislative discipline, state ethics processes, or state criminal systems, which explains why federal involvement is less visible in those tallies [2].
5. Limits of the record, alternative readings and political context
The supplied material makes clear that extensive lists exist but that they mix allegations, state convictions and federal indictments, and that activist or partisan compilations may amplify certain names; therefore, while RJ May is cited here as a Republican official federally indicted on child‑sex‑material charges, the sources do not provide a comprehensive, independently verifiable roster of all Republican state or local officials federally prosecuted for sex‑related crimes from 2020–2025 — additional targeted searches of U.S. attorney press releases, federal court dockets and state records would be required to produce a complete list [1] [2] [4] [3]. Readers should also note that aggregated lists can carry implicit agendas — whether to highlight partisan hypocrisy or to document patterns of misconduct — and that such agendas affect selection and framing in some sources cited here [5] [6].