Anti-Trafficking Activist Tim Ballard Hit With Human Trafficking Allegations in Federal Lawsuit

Tim Ballard, the anti-trafficking activist whose wildly exaggerated missions abroad were the basis of the hit 2023 film Sound of Freedom, is facing a new legal action from six women who last year sued him for sexual exploitation — leading Ballard to sue them for defamation earlier this month.

The latest complaint is the first federal suit targeting Ballard; it comes from accusers Celeste Borys, Mary Hall, Sasha Hightower, Krista Kacey, Kira Lynch, and Bree Righter. The filing names Ballard associates Matthew Cooper and Michael Porenta, as well as Ballard’s former organization, Operation Underground Railroad (OUR), as defendants.

The women once again lay out a narrative of being recruited by Ballard and OUR to take part in rescue missions of trafficked individuals, only to then be “groomed” to become physically intimate with the married Ballard as part of what he called a “couples ruse,” intended to fool traffickers into believing they were romantically involved. They claim they were coerced into “performing sex, labor, and services for [Ballard’s] personal benefit and the benefit of OUR,” and sometimes endured violent sexual assault, or had sex with Ballard while Cooper was present, always with the assurance that it was “necessary to rescue children.” The plaintiffs further claim that Ballard and his associates laundered money in order to hire sex workers while on missions abroad, and that “OUR actively participated in the solicitation, recruitment, and exploitation” of female operatives.