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24 August 2025
25 July 2021
How HBO Helped the Guy Hosting QAnon Dodge a Serious Accusation 8APR21
Filmmaker Cullen Hoback and Jim Watkins in Washington, D.C. on January 6.Courtesy of HBO
THESE people are disgusting, and it is no surprise they love and worship drumpf / trump. After all, birds of a feather.....This from Mother Jones.....
How HBO Helped the Guy Hosting QAnon Dodge a Serious Accusation
Jim Watkins has admitted to profiting off child porn web domains. Viewers wouldn’t know it.
Over the course of his new six episode HBO documentary, Into The Storm, filmmaker Cullen Hoback exhaustively details the intrigue and shadowy players involved in the QAnon conspiracy theory. As CNN’s Brian Lowry explains, “Hoback appears determined not to leave any stones unturned.”
The documentary is comprehensive and does flip a lot of stones. Hoback leverages sustained access to key players in the QAnon movement to tell a story about one of the most consequential disinformation operations of the Trump era. He does, however, pass on overturning one rather large stone: chief Q-enabler Jim Watkins’ history of running an internet company that has profited off child porn themes. The omission deprives HBO’s audience of key information on Watkins’ past, especially given his prominent role in movement seeking vengeance against a supposed cabal of elite liberal pedophiles.
QAnon is a conspiracy movement based on postings from an anonymous account that purports to be a national security insider with so-called Q-level clearance. The Q posts emerged on 4chan, a notorious online message board, before moving to 8chan, a web forum that Watkins controlled—and where users frequently posted child porn. (The most recent Q posts appeared on 8kun, a successor site also controlled by Watkins.) In the second episode of the documentary series, Hoback raises this point briefly, asking prominent Q adherents how they feel about 8chan’s sordid reputation and historic ties to child sexual abuse material. Each of them express deep discomfort with the site’s general fare. One, Liz Crokin, says she wasn’t aware about 8chan’s ties to child pornography, calling it “troublesome.”
At another point, Hoback asks Watkins about his long-running connections to pornography generally and how he feels about having been called “the king of porn.” Hoback also focuses on Ron Watkins, Jim’s son and a figure of his own right in Q world, and notes the younger Watkins’ interest in pornography and brothels. “If you’re thinking these guys seem to be into porn, like more than the normal amount, you would be right,” Hoback narrates over a shot capturing Ron loading a sexualized anime doll into a car and driving away, as pornography plays on a dashboard monitor. “But Ron takes it to another level.”
In August 2019, Wired reported that law enforcement officials in the Philippines, where Jim Watkins was based before his recent return to the US, were investigating the “alleged prevalence of child pornography” on 8chan. They quoted an official with the country’s National Bureau of Investigation: “If you are going to visit his site, he is actually trying to promote, or catering to, child pornography, and it is a serious offense here.”
On October 29, 2020, Mother Jones published an investigation revealing that Watkins’s web company had hosted scores of domains featuring child sex abuse material themes in the past. Here’s what we reported:
The domains’ names include terms such as “preteen,” “schoolgirl,” and “child” alongside graphic terms for genitalia and words like “rape” and “love.” It’s unclear what, if anything, is currently being served at the domains. However, an analysis of metadata collected years ago from one by archive.org shows dozens of filenames and links containing highly suggestive terms, including “xxxpreteen,” “children,” and sexual references to girls aged 12 to 15.
Hoback addresses this in the documentary but in a way that misrepresents our findings and minimizes the extent of Watkins’ involvement with these sites. He suggests the story was somehow undermined by subsequent reports. It hasn’t been.
Much of the narrative drive of Into The Storm is the battle between Fredrick Brennan, the original founder of 8chan, and both Watkins. They all once worked together, but Brennan has since disassociated himself from 8chan and the Watkins and established himself as one of their chief antagonists. Brennan’s allies include include Aubrey Cottle, a ringleader of Anonymous, the no-holds-barred “hactivist” group.
Hoback characterizes our investigation as the product of a smear campaign mounted by Brennan and Cottle that unfairly relied on a domain name that Jim Watkins says he set up some 16 years ago. And he suggests they manipulated Mother Jones into slamming Watkins by publishing unvetted material.
This is not true. Cottle did tip us off to this story—as we reported at the time—which prompted us to investigate these domains and their connections to Jim Watkins. This included contacting Watkins by telephone multiple times and asking him about the history of the domains and his hosting company. Though we didn’t know it at the time, Hoback filmed Watkins talking to us on speakerphone on one of these calls. Hoback’s documentary includes snippets of that 28-minute call and falsely implies the conversation was about a single domain: “00preteen.com.” In reality, we asked Watkins about a series of domain names that suggested child sexual abuse that his company registered over a several year period beginning in the late 1990s.
“Fred and Aubrey’s attacks made an initial splash,” Hoback narrates in the film, displaying a screenshot of our story‘s headline. “But once mainstream news sources investigated the claims, they found that the website in question had no actual child porn. It was only clickbait for pedophiles, which was gross but not illegal.”
This is an odd and inaccurate summation. In providing it, Hoback gives cover to Watkins by minimizing what his company did and mischaracterizing what Mother Jones reported.
Watkins hadn’t just hosted one child porn-themed domain. It was scores. Some had names that are even more disturbing than 00preteens.com. There’s also Hoback’s definitive claim that other journalists found there was no child porn content there. But no journalist has reported that, and there are many other domains in question. It’s unclear how many, if any, remain operational or what they once held.
As part of our investigation, we consulted a lawyer. Because the domain names suggested the presence of child abuse sexual material, we were limited in how far we could go in examining the websites or archives that might document them. (Anti-child pornography laws put anyone who accesses such material, for whatever reason, at legal risk.) Analysis of the metadata archived from one of the sites showed filenames and URLs with references to child pornography, suggesting there may have been child sex abuse material there. One unsigned account posted online by someone claiming to have visited an archive of one of these sites reported it contained material that was “probably illegal” and told anyone going there to “be prepared there is CP.”
For all these reasons, the Mother Jones article didn’t establish whether the sites Jim Watkins’ company hosted held child pornography. But Watkins himself confirmed his company had hosted these domains, though he claimed customers could have registered them and that they were removed as soon as the company became aware. He also offered multiple explanations of their purpose—that whoever established them did so because they might later sell them, or that they were set up to lure search traffic to other sites. He admitted that he did not vet clients or take action to determine if they used his service for nefarious or illegal activity, calling it “about the most un-American thing I can imagine.”
But there was no question or debate that Watkins was working to make money off of hosting scores of child porn-themed domains. As the article put it, “at a minimum…Watkins profited from domains with names explicitly related to pedophilia—the very thing that QAnon followers say that they’re motivated to end.”
When we contacted him, Hoback declined to answer detailed questions about his characterization of the Mother Jones story. But he insisted, “I’m giving zero cover to Jim…I think what Jim’s company did is gross and unethical, but there’s no evidence suggesting it was illegal.”
That may or not be true. But legal liability isn’t the only issue. There’s Watkins’ apparent hypocrisy and how it undermines his credibility as a leading player in a purportedly anti-pedophila crusade. Remember the Q believer who became uncomfortable when Hoback mentioned 8chan’s history with child porn. What would she and others who’ve fallen for the conspiracy think of Watkins’ history profiting from these domains, if it were clearly explained?
04 April 2021
Rep. Matt Gaetz faces Justice Dept. investigation over alleged relationship with teen girl 30MAR21
THEY just don't learn do they. Rep matt gaetz frp* FL, uber conservative neo-nazi fascist pig who just loves to legislate how others should live their lives is being investigated for bringing an underage girl across state lines to have sex with her. THIS explains why he is such a strong supporter of donald drumpf / trump. From the Washington Post.....
Rep. Matt Gaetz faces Justice Dept. investigation over alleged relationship with teen girl
The investigation into Gaetz began some time last year, when Trump was still in office, after a criminal case against a different Florida politician led investigators to allegations that the congressman had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl and paid for her travel, a person familiar with the matter said on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. As that probe was underway, the person said, Gaetz’s family raised allegations that the congressman was being extorted, and the FBI separately is exploring those claims.
The Justice Department activity, which had been conducted in secret for months, burst into the open Tuesday when the New York Times published a report on the investigation into the alleged sexual relationship, and Axios published an interview in which Gaetz confirmed the probe but said the allegations against him were “rooted in an extortion effort against my family.”
Gaetz repeated his extortion claim in a statement and then on Fox News, saying someone had been “seeking $25 million while threatening to smear my name.” He said that his father, Donald Gaetz, a former president of the Florida Senate, had received a text message on March 16 demanding a meeting, and that on Wednesday, his father was supposed to contact a former Justice Department official “so that specific instructions could be given regarding the wiring of $4.5 million as a down payment on this bribe.” Gaetz said his family had contacted the local FBI about the matter.
Gaetz identified the former Justice Department official as attorney David McGee, a former federal prosecutor in Florida now at the firm Beggs & Lane.
In an interview, McGee disputed that he was part of any effort to extort Gaetz or that he was connected to the Justice Department’s investigation of possible sex trafficking by the congressman. He said Gaetz’s father had “called me and asked to talk to me,” though McGee declined to say what the conversation entailed.
“It is completely false. It’s a blatant attempt to distract from the fact that he’s under investigation for sex trafficking of minors,” McGee said, adding, “I have no connection with that case at all, other than, one of a thousand people who have heard the rumors.”
Gaetz asserted that his family had been cooperating with the FBI and that his father had even worn a wire to record interactions. He said that at the Justice Department’s request, his father had made a recording at the Beggs & Lane firm, and the congressman called on the FBI to release the tapes.
“I know that there was a demand for money in exchange for a commitment that he could make this investigation go away, along with his co-conspirators,” Gaetz told Fox News.
McGee said he would welcome the release of a tape of his conversation with Gaetz’s father.
“If there is a tape, play the tape,” McGee said. “There is nothing on that tape that is untoward. It is a pleasant conversation of a dad concerned about his son and the trouble his son was in.”
The Justice Department and the FBI declined to comment. Efforts to reach Donald Gaetz were not successful Tuesday night.
Matt Gaetz also alleged on Fox News that those trying to extort him “claimed to have specific connections inside the Biden White House” and were “promising that Joe Biden would pardon me,” though Gaetz insisted the allegations of his relationship with the 17-year-old were false.
“No part of the allegations against me are true, and the people pushing these lies are targets of the ongoing extortion investigation,” Gaetz said in a statement.
Gaetz has not been charged with any crimes, nor has anyone been accused by the Justice Department of trying to extort him.
The investigation into Gaetz’s alleged relationship with the 17-year-old grew from a federal case against a different Florida Republican: Joel Greenberg, a former Seminole County tax collector who was charged last summer with sex trafficking of a child and a medley of other offenses.
According to an indictment in the case, Greenberg abused his access to a statewide database, using it to look up the personal information of people with whom he was in “sugar daddy” relationships, including the minor, and to help produce fake identification documents to “facilitate his efforts to engage in commercial sex acts.” He was also accused of seeking to undermine a political opponent by surfacing fabricated evidence of racism and misconduct.
Greenberg, who pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to go to trial in June, did not respond to a message seeking comment left at what appeared to be a phone number listed for him in public records. He resigned his political office after he was charged. The Washington Post was unable to learn immediately how Greenberg’s case connected to the allegations against Gaetz, or any details about the 17-year-old with whom Gaetz was alleged to have had a relationship.
A 2019 photograph that Greenberg posted on Twitter shows him with Gaetz at the White House. He also posted a picture in 2017 of him with Gaetz and Roger Stone, another well-known Trump political ally.
As a frequent guest on cable news, Gaetz was sometimes called the “Trumpiest” member of Congress for his seemingly ceaseless promotion of the former president.
A politician from the Florida Panhandle, Gaetz began serving in the state legislature in 2010, when he was best known for pushing to decriminalize marijuana use. In 2016, he won a seat in Congress and as a lawmaker has been outspoken in defense of Trump on impeachment and other issues.
In so doing, Gaetz has regularly courted controversy and been criticized as violating norms of behavior and decorum.
A day after the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, Gaetz argued without evidence that the offenders included members of the leftist movement antifa masquerading as Trump supporters.
In 2019, Gaetz led about two dozen GOP lawmakers who stormed into a secure room in the Capitol used for hearing and handling classified information, disrupting witness testimony related to Trump’s impeachment.
