The former leader of a nonprofit urging Christians to vote their values has pleaded guilty to two felony counts of possession of child sex abuse material.
Jason Yates, former CEO of Fort Worth-based My Faith Votes, filed a guilty plea July 21 in McLeod County, Minnesota, to two felony counts of possession of pornography involving minors under 14. If the deal is accepted by the court, six additional counts of possession of child sex abuse material will be dismissed.
Conditions of the plea deal include supervised probation for up to five years, 240 days in jail, a psychosexual evaluation, no contact with females under the age of 14 and registration as a sex offender.
The court released Yates on his own recognizance, according to a court document signed July 22. It requires Yates not to have contact with females younger than 14 years old, not possess or use any pornographic or sexually explicit material, and to post a $100,000 bond.
A sentencing hearing is set for Sept. 29.
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Yates, 56, did not respond to a request for comment from The Roys Report (TRR).
Yates was charged with eight counts of possession of child sex abuse material in November 2024. If he had been found guilty in court, Yates could have faced up to 10 years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine for each count.
The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) began investigating Yates in July 2024. According to a probable cause affidavit, an unnamed witness provided the agency with a hard drive containing more than 100 images of child sexual abuse material.
The witness told investigators that a relative of Yates discovered the images on the hard drive in Yates’ office while attempting to use it for additional computer storage. The relative gave the hard drive to the witness.
Investigators determined some of the files were downloaded in February and March 2023 and that some had been accessed in July 2024.
In September 2024, Yates told BCA agents he had a prior conviction related to child sexual abuse material that had been expunged. My Faith Votes did not respond to previous questions from TRR about whether the organization knew about Yates’ past conviction when it appointed him CEO.
My Faith Votes is “a non-partisan movement that motivates, equips and activates Christians in America to vote in every election, transforming our communities and influencing our nation with biblical truth,” according to its website.
My Faith Votes cut ties with Yates in early August 2024, according to a statement the nonprofit sent TRR in November 2024. At that time, the board appointed Chris Sadler as acting CEO.
My Faith Votes did not respond to a request for comment or updated information on who is leading the nonprofit. Its website no longer lists those serving in leadership positions.
Honorary national chairmen of My Faith Votes have included Mike Huckabee, former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential candidate; and Dr. Ben Carson, a neurosurgeon and former Republican presidential candidate.
In 2015, My Faith Votes was founded by Sealy Yates, a lawyer and literary agent who has represented several top Christian authors. Sealy Yates is Jason Yates’ uncle.
Ann Marie Shambaugh has reported as a print journalist in multiple states, including currently in Carmel, Indiana.
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16 Responses
Well, there ya’ go. The ones screaming the loudest about family values don’t hold to such values themselves.
You beat me to it. This was the first thing that came to mind when hearing about this.
Group doubtless advocated voting for Trump. No reason it wouldn’t– two peas from same pod.
My suspicion is that Yates is no longer a Leading Conservative Activist! Pleading guilty to two felony counts of possession of child sex abuse material erased that.
It’s getting hard to believe that there are ANY “good” men who claim christianity and political power.
every accusation is a confession.
from king david on, it’s ALWAYS been the wrong choice to mix faith and empire- empire wins and corrupts every time. every. single. time.
There are good people out there who embrace both but the lure of power prevents too many from being morally consistent.
Might I add that much of what is going on in the church and in politics is best defined as Practical Atheism. If one believes in an all powerful, all knowing, Holy, righteous and loving God then it’s impossible to believe when someone is doing these evil things they can possibly have God and Jesus on their minds at the same time.
Hear what your saying and do wonder why all this jockeying for any form of profile ministry or community work to attain status and power, when Jesus taught and lived otherwise for Kingdom service.
Perhaps, just perhaps, this alone, let alone heinous willful criminality and sin like child exploitation and abuse, is clear evidence that such people never knew Christ in the first place and were simply in character. Once off stage, well, the worlds an oyster. 🤔
For too many of these organizations it’s politics and power first. Faith issues and related morality second.
When one of their leaders is caught in a severe moral failing there’s a mad scramble to fix the reputation of the organization.
On the individual moral level Yate’s moral failings were found out by someone else not him coming forward and confessing them first. I wonder who else is hiding dark secrets?
George, you seem to be suggesting that it’s a matter of priorities, that they’re seeing power and politics “first” but things would be fine if those were lower on the list.
I would suggest that seeking power and politics “at all” is the problem (and lets throw money in their while we’re at it). That the reason the american evangelical church keeps failing is because it has bough into “the american way”. Whenever the church has partnered with empire it fails. Every single time. The empire just gets a weapon to control people with.
Will we ever heed the warning we get from David’s life about how money and power (and politics) corrupt? Seems unlikely.
That’s much of what I am saying. Sadly too many in the GOP are not holding to Biblical principles in their policies (At least they think they are)
No need to bifurcate and be left with an ‘either/or’ here. And yes I am against Christian nationalism. Power can be used for good or evil (Like the Force in Star Wars) Let’s hope more of it will used for good.
He clearly voted his values when he voted for Trump.
And he had a prior occurence of this that had been “expunged.” Where was his Board of Directors?
Typical maga…
Wait until Trump pardons Maxwell!
Interesting that Huckabee is involved with this “man” Huckabee also defended Josh Duggar. Trump, Biden, Bill and Hillary, Obama and more all deviants. Dennis Hastert, this has been going on in high and low places for a long time. In actuality it is Satanism, these people follow their father the devil. Have nothing to do with their unfruitful deeds of darkness. I for one will vote no more, the Kingdom of GOD is not of this world.
I know people that think the same about voting. My advice is to still vote. They want us discouraged and not voting. Vote for all the local stuff. Then third party for the president. It will send a message to the discouraged fellow Americans. America’s problems are simple. We think only what we say and do matters and the world needs to know this or else.
It doesn’t get more foul or lower than that. It’s demonic. It started somewhere, somehow. The law of increase. I hope a requirement of his sentence is he must get counselling etc etc.