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South Carolina state representative RJ May III – the focus of an ongoing federal child pornography investigation – was taken into custody by federal and state law enforcement agents on Wednesday afternoon (June 11, 2025) outside of his West Columbia, S.C. home.
May – clad in a white t-shirt and gym shorts – was handcuffed and placed in the back of a black Nissan Titan truck accompanied by a pair of Chevy Suburbans shortly before 5:00 p.m. EDT. The convoy departed from his neighborhood to whereabouts unknown.
May’s wife, Beth May, was present during her husband’s arrest – pacing the sidewalk outside their home and appearing to record or photograph what was transpiring on her cell phone.
News of May’s arrest was exclusively reported by FITSNews‘ Andy Fancher. It comes less than two weeks after we reported his arrest was “imminent.”
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??EXCLUSIVE: SOUTH CAROLINA REP. TAKEN INTO CUSTODY
— Andrew Fancher (@RealAndyFancher) June 11, 2025
?Lexington County, South Carolina
South Carolina Rep. R.J. May III was taken into custody on a federal arrest warrant shortly before 5 p.m. EDT Wednesday at his West Columbia home.
According to sources, May has been under… pic.twitter.com/nAa9Q5OwoE
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“According to sources familiar with its progression, criminal indictments against the conservative lawmaker are indeed ‘imminent’ – with May likely to be arrested and indicted on multiple counts related to this inquiry ‘before the end of spring,'” we reported on May 30.
May, 38, originally of Newport News, Virginia, is the former vice chairman and top political strategist of the S.C. Freedom Caucus. As of this writing, he is the elected representative for S.C. House District 88 in Lexington County. However, once May is indicted on a crime of “moral turpitude,” he will be automatically suspended from office per the S.C. Code of Laws § 8-13-560.
That suspension would last until May “is acquitted, convicted, pleads guilty, or pleads nolo contendere.”
In the event of a conviction, the office is declared vacant and a special election ensues. In the event of an acquittal or dismissal of charges, the official “is entitled to reinstatement and back pay.”
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While a warrant for May’s arrest was reportedly issued on Wednesday afternoon (June 11, 2025), our media outlet has not obtained a copy of the document detailing the charges against him – nor has any law enforcement agency associated with the investigation advised us as to the date or time of an arraignment.
We have received conflicting reports on the timing of May’s arraignment on the charges he is facing, with some reports suggesting he could appear before a federal judge as soon as 10:00 a.m. EDT on Thursday (June 12, 2025).
As FITSNews first reported last summer, federal and state law enforcement agents descended upon May’s West Columbia, S.C. home on the morning of August 5, 2024. Upon arrival, they executed a search warrant in connection with an ongoing federal investigation into child sex abuse materials (CSAM, a.k.a. “child porn”).
Our media outlet subsequently confirmed the focus of the raid – and shortly thereafter confirmed that multiple devices had been seized in connection with it. We further confirmed that federal investigators with the special investigations unit (HSI) of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) were securing additional warrants which would enable them to search these devices.
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Assisting HSI in its inquiries were assets of the S.C. State Law Enforcement Division (SLED).
Weeks later, federal prosecutors acknowledged being in possession of “various electronics identified as one Lenovo laptop, one Amazon tablet, four cell phones, four hard drives, four SD cards, two DVD-Rs and nineteen thumb drives” which were “seized by agents of (HSI) on August 5, 2024.”
Once indicted, the presumption of innocence applies to May as it applies to all defendants. He is considered innocent until proven guilty by our criminal justice system – or until such time as he may wish to enter some form of allocution in connection with a plea agreement with prosecutors related to any of the charges filed against him.
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UPDATE |
The Freedom Caucus has responded to the news…
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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9 comments
Couldn’t have happened to a nicer Trump-er
SHAAME
TYPO
“placed in the black of a black Nissan”
I can understand that the HSI agents look like absolute unprofessional slobs but so do the SLED agents. An agent in yoga pants?
His wife was pacing around outside! She and her family need a strong reality check. They used to be good people but changed a long time ago. If he is arrested for what we all think is about to happen and those kids have been left in his care, there needs to be an investigation.
Nineteen thumb drives….unless you are an IT guy I don’t know why anyone would have that many for a good reason. And, never put a thumb drive (that is not straight from the store) in your computer that originated from someone you don’t know really, really well. It’s one of the ways sneaky bastards can plant all kinds of stuff on your tech.
The chick in the yoga pants is his wife.
Weird how it seems to basically always be the guys pointing the finger on this kind of thing. Goes literally all the way up.
I wonder if this guy had been a Democrat, would you have mentioned his party affiliation?