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by ANDY FANCHER
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Former South Carolina lawmaker and federal defendant Robert John “RJ” May III has filed a handwritten motion to suppress evidence — and requested a hearing — after formally electing to represent himself against ten federal counts of distributing child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
Federal prosecutors allege May distributed more than 220 child pornography videos over a five-day span while campaigning for reelection as a firebrand conservative and former vice chair of the S.C. Freedom Caucus between late March and early April of 2024.
According to court filings, the activity occurred on Kik, a freeware instant-messaging app once marketed to children. Investigators allege May used the alias “joebidennnn69” to exchange hundreds of child sexual abuse files, including videos depicting the rape of infants and minors.
Information regarding these alleged depravities was ultimately referred to Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) tasked with probing crimes such as child exploitation and cyber offenses.
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As FITSNews exclusively reported, a search warrant was subsequently executed on August 5, 2024, by HSI agents at May’s home on Lake Francis Drive in Lexington County, where 35 electronic devices were seized in the presence of his wife and adolescent children.
Ten months later — after one general election and a full session of the S.C. House — FITSNews observed as May was arrested, shackled and escorted into a blacked-out Nissan Titan by HSI, the same agency that had executed the search warrant.
The following morning, June 12, 2025, open-court testimony confirmed that none of the devices seized from his home were found to contain CSAM. May later claimed the devices contained more than 20 years of personal and professional data.
Spectators were further introduced to HSI Special Agent Britton Lorenzen, the government’s sole witness, who testified with confidence that an unrelated online alias of May’s appeared to display a photo of him — a claim FITSNews debunked using a basic reverse image search.
More on Lorenzen in a moment…
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While May’s private counsel argued he was the target of a political attack, the court ultimately denied him bond and remanded him to custody pending the resolution of his case.
As jailhouse communications obtained by FITSNews revealed, May almost immediately began discussing “pumping out some motions” — particularly to suppress evidence — while continuing to shop for new attorneys and consulting with at least one S.C. State House ally.
That ally – civil attorney and Freedom Caucus member Ryan McCabe – stressed how “imperative” it would be for May to secure an expert witness, further noting such a figure “may turn out to be more important than the lawyer.”
“Just want to be sure that you don’t get caught without an expert witness,” McCabe eventually wrote to May’s jailhouse tablet on June 23, 2025 — one day before May told the court he could no longer afford private counsel and was subsequently appointed a federal public defender.
Whatever arguments his appointed counsel may have been preparing were likely complicated last month when federal authorities arrested Christian Soto, a traveling nurse from Oklahoma.
According to a federal complaint obtained by FITSNews, Soto — using the alias “randomcouplehere” — exchanged messages with “joebidennnn69” through Kik and received at least 50 child pornography videos during a single online chat session last year.
As for additional users who allegedly engaged with May’s alias — including “pcjames” and “johnthorton7300” — no identifications or arrests have been publicly disclosed, though that does not preclude investigative steps from having taken place.
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Separately, Lorenzen testified two “like-minded pedophiles” were operating behind VPNs, or virtual private networks — without specifying which accounts those were. Her testimony suggested DHS could not bypass such technology, a notion that is striking.
Last Wednesday (September 4, 2025), May appeared at a requested status hearing before U.S. District Court Judge Cameron McGowan Currie, accompanied by federal public defender Jenny Smith and co-counsel Jeremy Thompson.
May originally requested “hybrid counsel” — an uncommon arrangement that allows defendants to act as their own lawyer while retaining counsel in a limited role. Currie denied that request, prompting May to request to represent himself moving forward.
May’s unexpected push for self-representation triggered a Faretta hearing — a constitutional safeguard that comes into play when a federal defendant insists on going it alone. He was pressed to demonstrate that he fully understood not only the charges against him but also the risks of taking on his own defense.
May answered in the affirmative on all counts after being warned of the many risks “inherent in proceeding” without counsel — including that he would receive no legal assistance at any stage of the case, from pretrial motions to jury selection to potential sentencing.
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While May’s request was ultimately granted, the court appointed “standby counsel” — Smith and Thompson — to remain available for guidance during trial, particularly during jury selection, which Currie noted is “complicated, even for some attorneys.”
May, a political strategist with no legal background, then found himself acting as his own attorney. In his first act representing himself, May announced that he was “nearly complete” with a draft motion to suppress the federal search warrant executed at his residence the previous year.
As a result of his new counsel arrangement, multiple search warrants were unsealed for his review that same day — including the residential warrant — which he was permitted to examine before being returned to the Edgefield County Detention Center.
As arranged, May was escorted to the federal courthouse in Columbia on Wednesday morning to personally deliver his motion( .pdf), which ultimately totaled 32 pages.
Submitted in pencil on notebook paper, the filing accused Lorenzen of acting with “at least reckless disregard for the truth” by omitting “material statements from her probable cause affidavit” and by “including false statements” in the same affidavit to justify last year’s raid on his home.
While the motion might at first read like the work of a desperate defendant, May’s submission underscores clear contradictions between what Lorenzen swore to in her probable cause affidavit and what she later testified to during his detention hearing.
As explicitly laid out, the search of May’s home for “possession of child pornography” was secured upon the special agent’s assurance (.pdf) to a magistrate that investigators were likely to find images or videos of CSAM because individuals who collect such material “rarely, if ever, dispose of their sexually explicit materials.”
Nothing fitting that description was located on any of May’s seized devices.
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At May’s June 2025 detention hearing, Lorenzen testified (.pdf) in open court that it is “very, very common” to execute search warrants and uncover no artifacts of CSAM — or “zero evidence” on seized devices — because of the prevalence of cloud-based storage systems.
May’s motion to suppress the warrant argued the two statements are blatantly inconsistent, asserting that Lorenzen misled the magistrate in order to obtain the search warrant.
“With these facts in mind, it is reasonable to infer such omissions and falsities by a careful and capable police officer are unlikely to be merely negligent,” May submitted.
Federal agents claim to have discovered evidence of the Kik application having been installed on May’s Android smartphone, along with the username “joebidennnn69” and an email address purportedly linked to the account stored in the phone’s user dictionary.
Investigators also noted May’s laptop had been used to search the word “hebephile” — a clinical term describing someone with a deviant sexual interest in pubescent children — shortly after the same term appeared in a Kik chat.
A hearing on May’s motion has been scheduled for Wednesday, September, 24, 2025. His federal trial is set to begin in early October.
This story may be updated.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
(Dynal Nolan/FITSNews)
Andrew Fancher is a Lone Star Emmy award-winning journalist from Dallas, Texas. Cut from a bloodline of outlaws and lawmen alike, he was the first of his family to graduate college which was accomplished with honors. Got a story idea or news tip for Andy? Email him directly and connect with him socially across Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
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1 comment
May’s devices were used to upload CSAM, the devices were password protected and accessed multiple times, the accounts were all deleted before the warrant was served because May was tipped off, May had an alternate ID in the name of “Eric Rentling” that he traveled under and posted under – he’d be better off taking his beating and getting his sentence started now rather than creating this circus side show as he tries to defend himself.
On the other hand, not my monkey, not my circus… might be interesting to watch.