NeverTrump political consultant Joel Searby was arrested by police on charges related to attempting to meet up with and molest a 15-year-old boy.
Searby ran Evan McMullin’s independent 2016 campaign for president in a last-ditch effort by NeverTrumpers to stop Donald Trump, including the Lincoln Project’s Rick Wilson, according to the Washington Post.
According to the arrest report, the 43-year-old began speaking to the boy using the picture-messaging app Snapchat.
Joel Searby, 43, was charged with lewd/lascivious conduct and 2 counts of obscene communication related to luring a minor to meet him for sex. Searby recently led an initiative to convert three schools in Newberry to municipal charter schools. https://t.co/SnTrZxg6gp
— Alachua Chronicle (@AlachuaChronic1) June 20, 2024
Searby sent the young boy explicit photographs, described sexual encounters, and asked him if he had a crush on an older man, authorities said.
He then eventually attempted to set up a secret meeting with the fifteen-year-old.
After receiving reports on the messages, law enforcement officials contacted the 15-year-old.
Following conversations with the boy, authorities then executed a search warrant on Searby’s home.
Searby was later arrested and charged with the following:
- Lewd and lascivious behavior
- Communication to lure a minor
- Communication to travel to meet a minor
- Using a communication device to commit a felony
- Â
Searby’s case isn’t a rare one among the NeverTrump crowd.
Wilson’s Lincoln Project’s founder, John Weaver, was accused of sexually inappropriate behavior toward young men, the New York Times reported.
Joel Searby was the chief strategist for Evan McMullin's 2016 presidential campaign.
— America 2100 (@America_2100) June 22, 2024
He was just arrested in Florida for allegedly soliciting sex from a teen boy.
This is the second major figure from the Lincoln Project circle to be accused of soliciting sex from underage men. pic.twitter.com/QAgYoe98cJ
Twenty-one young men, including one just 14 years old, accused Weaver of sending them unsolicited sexual messages.
“To the men I made uncomfortable through my messages that I viewed as consensual mutual conversations at the time: I am truly sorry. They were inappropriate and it was because of my failings that this discomfort was brought on you,” he said, according to Axios.
The news comes just days after the head of the Maryland Democratic Party (MDP) LGBTQ+ Diversity Leadership Council (DLC) was caught on video in a disturbing child predator sting.
A vigilante organization, Predator Poachers, caught Michael Knaapen after he tried to meet a young boy.
