Tim Ballard’s work on sex trafficking became the basis of the hit movie “Sound of Freedom.” But a series of women, in lawsuits and interviews, have accused him of being a sex predator.
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Tim Ballard had fashioned himself into a made-for-Hollywood hero.
For years, he led a nonprofit that proclaimed daring undercover missions to rescue children from the horrors of international sex trafficking. Politicians embraced his call for more barriers on the Southern border to block smuggling. President Donald J. Trump brought him on as an adviser. Last year, the hit movie “Sound of Freedom” showcased his life and work, making more than $250 million and becoming one of the most successful independent films of all time.
But while the world knew him as a champion of the vulnerable, many of the women he worked with now tell a much darker story: that Mr. Ballard himself was grooming, manipulating, harassing and sexually assaulting women. In lawsuits beginning last year, the women said that Mr. Ballard preyed on their desire to help trafficking victims, coercing or forcing them into sexual encounters as part of their undercover work in brothels, strip clubs and massage parlors.
A former Homeland Security agent, Mr. Ballard had built his nonprofit, Operation Underground Railroad, at a time when the issue of child sex trafficking was already on the rise. High-profile cases — some of them appallingly real, some of them inventions of conspiracy theorists — drove outrage about minors being forced into sexual servitude and exploited by U.S. elites.
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In Utah, where the organization’s leadership is based, Mr. Ballard talked up his close connections to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, at times appearing alongside one of the church’s 12 powerful apostles
As concerns about his conduct began percolating last year, the empire he created appeared to be crumbling. In June 2023, he stepped down from Operation Underground Railroad. The Latter-day Saints church last September denounced Mr. Ballard’s “morally unacceptable” activities
in a statement to VICE News, which had published a series of stories raising questions about the nonprofit’s operations.
And yet, in many conservative circles, Mr. Ballard’s star keeps rising.
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But questions about Mr. Ballard’s conduct at Operation Underground Railroad have continued, and more women have come forward. The New York Times interviewed 10 who worked with Mr. Ballard at the organization and now describe their time there as a nightmare of sexual harassment, coerced sexual contact and sexual assault.
Many had long ties to the Latter-day Saints and said in lawsuits and interviews that they initially trusted Mr. Ballard because of his broad acclaim and the support he had received from the church leadership, and they believed deeply in the cause of saving children.
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In interviews and legal papers, the women described similar scenarios: Mr. Ballard recruited them to act as his romantic partner in undercover operations in which they would pose as wealthy sex tourists, a tactic he referred to as a “couple’s ruse.” It had two purposes, he told them: It provided an easy excuse to avoid having sexual contact with the sex workers, and some people might be more open to confiding in a woman.
But many of the women say that Mr. Ballard turned the “ruse” into an opportunity to assault them.
Six women filed lawsuits accusing Mr. Ballard of sexually assaulting them, with some describing situations in which he used his strength to overpower them despite their explicit pleas to stop.
Three of the women told The Times that they witnessed Mr. Ballard engaging in erotic encounters with sex workers, ranging from lap dances to oral sex.
The women recalled being stunned and confused by Mr. Ballard’s conduct, alarmed not only by how he acted on operations but how much he expected the women to “practice” their romance in private. Many described feeling isolated and fearful as Mr. Ballard warned that disclosing operational details could allow powerful traffickers to identify and kill them.
Amy Morgan Davis, a former Miss Utah who worked as Mr. Ballard’s makeup artist on a variety of occasions over several years, is among the women who said that Mr. Ballard exploited her desire to participate in the cause of rescuing children. She recalled meetings with Mr. Ballard in which he repeatedly told her to prove that the two of them had a “connection” and then made escalating sexual advances that included caressing her body with his hands.
