Republican “Protect the Children” Lawmaker RJ May Gets 17.5 Years for Child Sex Abuse Material

A South Carolina Republican who made "protecting children" his political brand was sentenced to 17.5 years in federal prison after admitting he distributed some of the most severe child sex abuse material prosecutors and the judge said they had ever encountered.

RJ May, 39, a former South Carolina Republican lawmaker who publicly warned that transgender people and drag performers posed a threat to children was sentenced Wednesday to 17.5 years in federal prison for distributing hundreds of images and videos depicting the sexual abuse of children.

May pleaded guilty to five counts of distributing child sex abuse material, or CSAM, after investigators found he shared nearly 500 explicit videos over a five-day period in the spring of 2024. The material included images of toddlers and young children being raped, including content involving children as young as seven.

U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie said the images May distributed were “more severe” than any other child exploitation material she had encountered, according to local reporting. Federal sentencing guidelines recommended a prison term of roughly 17 to 22 years.

Prosecutors had sought the maximum sentence of 20 years, arguing May’s conduct was aggravated by both the volume and nature of the material and by what they described as his political hypocrisy. Defense attorneys requested leniency, asking the court to impose a significantly shorter sentence followed by house arrest on his family’s farm in Virginia. The judge rejected that request.

Investigators said May used the screen name “joebidennnn69” on the messaging app Kik to exchange CSAM with users in at least 18 states and six countries. Court records show he distributed 265 unique files involving toddlers and young children and demonstrated a sexual interest in incest, including material depicting abuse by parents.

A forensic analysis of May’s phone showed that he deleted multiple messaging and file-sharing apps, including Kik, Telegram, Mega, and Loki Messenger, within seconds of one another in April 2024, shortly after investigators began examining his online activity. Prosecutors said May also used aliases, including “Eric Rentling,” on cloud storage services and social media accounts.

May was arrested and indicted in June 2024, after which he was suspended from his seat in the South Carolina House and later resigned. At various points in the case, he denied the allegations, attempted to represent himself in court despite lacking a law degree, and claimed he had been framed by political enemies. He ultimately pleaded guilty under an agreement that dropped five additional charges.

Federal prosecutors described May’s actions as a “five-day child pornography spree” that repeatedly re-victimized children each time the files were shared. “May operated an abusive and degrading child pornography distribution scheme that harmed and continues to harm hundreds of children,” prosecutors wrote in court filings. “He chose to amplify and compound their abuse.”

The case drew particular attention because of May’s public record as an outspoken opponent of LGBTQ+ rights. A founding member of the hardline South Carolina Freedom Caucus, May frequently accused transgender people, drag performers, and LGBTQ+-inclusive educators of exploiting children.

During a January 2024 debate on transgender health care, May told fellow lawmakers, “We as legislators have an obligation to ensure that our children have no harm done to them.” In a 2022 social media post, he claimed that exposing children to drag shows or providing gender-affirming care amounted to “child exploitation.”

May also compared Medicaid funding for gender-affirming care to the state subsidizing drug addiction, a line of rhetoric echoed by national anti-LGBTQ+ organizations. In 2023, he was honored as Legislator of the Year by Moms for Liberty, an extremist group that has repeatedly labeled LGBTQ+-inclusive books and school policies as “pornography” and accused queer people of grooming children. May also appeared as a speaker at the group’s 2022 event on education policy.

Prosecutors emphasized that May voted at least eight times for legislation purportedly aimed at protecting children or increasing penalties for abuse, calling that record an aggravating factor rather than a defense.

In a handwritten letter to the court, May asked for mercy, describing his arrest as the “total destruction” of his life and blaming pornography addiction and testosterone treatments for his behavior. He said he would never again attend his son’s soccer games or share tea with his daughter at home. The judge was unmoved.

In addition to his prison sentence, May was ordered to pay $72,000 in restitution to victims, register as a sex offender for life, and permanently surrender his right to vote or possess firearms.

Victim impact statements submitted by prosecutors detailed how the continued circulation of the images has haunted survivors into adulthood, underscoring what the government said was the lasting harm of May’s actions, harm that stood in stark contrast to the moral crusade he once waged from the statehouse floor.