Former CEO of evangelical voters’ group caught with child pornography images

The former leader of the Christian conservative voter program My Faith Votes has been indicted in McLeod County on multiple child pornography charges.

Jason C. Yates, 55, of Hutchinson, has been charged with eight counts of criminal possession of child pornography, and his first court appearance was on Monday.

The Christian-based voter group, which was part of a coalition of nonprofits that rallied around voting and supporting Donald Trump, has confirmed to religious news site RNS that the board voted in early August to ‘split’ from Yates.

Just a few weeks before the hard drive’s discovery, Yates had published an op-ed in The Washington Times urging Christians to oppose “sexually deviant” messages allegedly targeted at children by LGBTQ people.

“This hellish programming is being downloaded to our children, and it will be much easier if it is not resisted in our public square – if it is allowed to fill the void left by the absence of our faith,” Yates wrote.

The complaint alleges that on July 31, a special agent with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) interviewed a witness regarding an investigation into child sexual abuse material. He was given a hard drive, which the witness said was accidentally discovered in Yates’ office by a second witness.

When the second witness found the hard drive, they tried to put it on their computer for storage and found a collection of child pornography material.

The hard drive contained more than a hundred sexually explicit images of children under the age of fourteen.

When investigators met the second witness, they said they found the hard drive in a dresser drawer in Yates’ office. The witness said they didn’t know what to do and put it back in the cupboard, before later contacting the first witness for advice.

On September 13, BCA officers and a child protection supervisor met with Yates and his attorney. During that conversation, an officer reportedly confirmed with Yates that the collection of sexual material did not come from the second witness.

Yates also reportedly stated to officers that he had a previous conviction in connection with child pornography, but that that data has since been deleted.

The hard drive was confirmed to be linked to his work email address and user account. The agent also asked Yates for a password to access some TOR encrypted files on the device, but Yates refused.

Yates is now out of custody and his next court date is January 3, 2025, at 8:30 a.m.