Former Trump GOP staffer arrested in DC on child porn charges
On February 5, multiple law enforcement agencies in Washington D.C., including the Metropolitan Police Department’s Youth and Family Services Division, Internet Crimes Against Children Unit, the Northern Virginia Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, and Homeland Security Investigations, announced that they had joined together to arrest 27-year-old Ruben Verastigui, of Northeast, D.C. Verastigui, a former digital strategist for the Senate Republican Conference, who also worked for pro-life groups and designed social media ads for Donald Trump’s re-election campaign, was charged with distributing child pornography, according to D.C.’s Metro PD and The Daily Beast.
Between March 2020 and February 2021, an investigation revealed the suspect distributed, received and possessed images of child pornography. ~ Metropolitan Police Department
The Daily Beast and The Washington Post were both able to refer to disturbing court documents alleging that Verastigui distributed, received, and possessed images of child pornography while working in the nation’s Capitol for Republican senators.
Homeland Security special agents came across Verastigui while looking into a group of at least 18 people who were trading child porn on a website that remains unnamed “to protect the integrity of the ongoing investigation.”
In a group chat on the site, Verastigui went by the username “Landon” and the handle @somethingtaken, according to investigators.
The court documents detail a very disturbing chat on the site in which Verastigui told another user that “babies” were his “absolute favorite.” ~ The Daily Beast
At one point, Verastigui allegedly asked another member of the chat group to come to D.C., “for the purpose of sexually abusing a minor,” according to The Business Insider.
In several of his online messages, Verastigui was soliciting hardcore child porn videos and wrote, “Well like I said babies are some of my biggest turn-ons and beast,” Verastigui wrote in the direct message, per court documents. “Young rape… F**k I love all that.”
Law enforcement was able to identify the 27-year-old thanks to a naked pic he took of himself and posted to an online chat room. That pic showed a tattoo on his left arm that matched one of his public Instagram images. Note the tattoo on his left arm in the Instagram image below.
Detectives arrested Verastigui at his D.C. apartment on Friday and recovered child porn images stored on his cell phone and also recovered texts wherein he allegedly discussed exchanging the child porn files and videos. During an interview with investigators, Verastigui admitted to receiving some of the files, according to The Washington Post.
According to his LinkedIn account, Verastigui worked for the Republican National Committee and worked on social media ads for the Trump Make America Great Again Committee and Donald J. Trump for President, Inc.
When the investigation into his criminal activities first began, Verastigui had already left his digital strategist position working for the Senate Republican Conference to take the job as the Communications Manager for the Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions, a conservative green energy non-profit. According to The Business Insider, it looks as if Verastigui was fired from that Communications Manager position following his February 5 arrest on child porn charges.
“The details of the allegations against Mr. Verastigui are tragic and shocking,” a spokesperson for the non-profit told The Daily Beast on Saturday. “He is no longer employed by the organization and we are prepared to fully cooperate with law enforcement requests in this matter to any extent needed.”
~ Posted by Richard Webster, Ace News Today / Follow Richard on Facebook and Twitter
