Joe.My.God. LGBT News
From the Justice Department:
Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and James Smith, the Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), announced today the arrest of JUSTIN HEATH SMITH, an adult film actor who uses the stage name “Austin Wolf.”
SMITH is charged with sending and receiving hundreds of videos of child pornography via the Telegram application. Those videos depicted children as young as infants, including a video showing a 10-year-old child bound and raped.
In addition to sharing child pornography via Telegram, SMITH is also charged with possessing hundreds of additional videos containing child pornography in his Manhattan apartment. SMITH will be presented later today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Robyn F. Tarnofsky in Manhattan federal court.
Between March 24 and March 28, 2024, SMITH, using an anonymous Telegram account, exchanged hundreds of videos containing child pornography with another individual whose phone was later seized and searched by the FBI pursuant to a search warrant.
An undercover FBI agent subsequently began a conversation with SMITH’s anonymous Telegram account. In the course of those conversations, SMITH revealed details that confirmed his identity.
On April 21, 2024, the FBI executed a search warrant at SMITH’s Manhattan apartment, which revealed an SD card with hundreds of videos containing child pornography.
SMITH, 43, of New York, New York, is charged with one count of distribution and receipt of child pornography, which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison and a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and one count of possession of child pornography, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
NBC News reports:
Smith is well known in the world of LGBTQ adult film and has recently found a new level of fame through social media. He has nearly a million followers on X and has gained a reputation on TikTok for collaborating with popular creators.
Smith ran a Telegram channel linked on one of his websites with over 12,000 subscribers. Telegram is known for being a freewheeling online environment, where content that’s been banned elsewhere can potentially be broadcast or traded with less scrutiny.
In broadcast channels, Telegram says that it will enforce rules against illegal content, but on its website, Telegram says it does not apply monitoring to any type of messaging between users.
The cult is reacting exactly as you’d think.
Austin Wolf has been arrested on charges of child pornography. pic.twitter.com/iIwsCnzTq9
— Pop Base (@PopBase) June 28, 2024