BOMBSHELL REPORT: Iowa’s Congressional Delegation Accepts Donations from GOP Megadonor Charged in 2019 Sex Trafficking Sting
Iowa Starting Line: “A Republican Megadonor Who Was Charged in a 2019 Sex Trafficking Bust is Dropping Serious Money in Iowa’s Biggest Races”
DES MOINES – A new bombshell report from Iowa Starting Line has uncovered that Ashley Hinson, Randy Feenstra, Mariannette Miller-Meeks, and Zach Nunn, along with the Iowa Republican Party, accepted tens of thousands from billionaire John W. Childs, who was charged with solicitation of prostitution from a sex trafficking operation.
Iowa Starting Line: Ashley Hinson, Iowa GOP accepted donations from megadonor accused in 2019 sex trafficking sting
- A Republican megadonor who was charged in a 2019 sex trafficking bust is dropping serious money in Iowa’s biggest races.
- John W. Childs, a Florida-based private equity executive, has donated tens of thousands of dollars to Republican campaigns across the Hawkeye State, connecting him to US Reps. Ashley Hinson, Mariannette Miller-Meeks, and Zach Nunn, as well as the state party.
- Childs of Vero Beach, Florida has also given US Rep. Randy Feenstra $12,000 since 2020.
- A review of Federal Election Commission records found Childs gave $50,000 to Team Hinson, a joint fundraising PAC for Hinson’s US Senate race; $17,000 to Ashley Hinson Victory Committee, another PAC; and $7,000 directly to Hinson’s campaign.
- NPR reported a multi-jurisdictional sting revealed a $20 million human trafficking operation. Women were allegedly brought from China with the promise of jobs at massage parlors. Their passports were taken and they were forced to do sex work.
- For his part, Childs was charged with solicitation of prostitution. At the 2019 news conference, Aronberg said each case was being charged as a First Degree misdemeanor because that charge includes mandatory 100 hours of community service, a mandatory $5,000 fine, and a mandatory class on the dangers of prostitution and human trafficking, as well as the potential for increasing the jail sentence from 60 days to a year.
- Following the charges, Childs stepped down as chairman of his private equity firm J. W. Childs Associates and director of the board of KeyImpact, telling Institutional Investor he was “muzzled by my lawyers.”
- Iowa Starting Line reached out to the campaigns of Nunn, Hinson, and Miller-Meeks, as well as the Republican Party of Iowa about the money they received from Childs. They did not respond to questions by press time.
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