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Anti-child slavery activist, motivational speaker, and author Tim Ballard was accused of s*xual harassment of at least seven women in June, following which he resigned from the position of CEO of the anti-s*x trafficking organization Operation Underground Railroad (OUR), which he founded. However, the news of his resignation was first reported on September 18 by the online media outlet Vice, in collaboration with journalist Lynn Packer.
Tim Ballard, on whose life the controversial 2023 Hollywood action movie Sound of Freedom is based, was accused by multiple female employees of his firm of s*xual assault, following which a s*xual misconduct investigation was launched by OUR.
On Thursday, September 28, a series of fresh allegations against Tim Ballard came to light courtesy of attorney Suzette Rasmussen, who is representing several former employees and contractors of OUR who have accused Ballard of s*xual harassment.
Rasmussen clarified on Thursday that, apart from the first set of seven women, others have also come up in the last ten days with similar accusations against Tim. In fact, during a press conference outside the Utah state capitol, Suzette read a joint statement from a few of her clients.
“We were subjected to s*xual harassment, spiritual manipulation, grooming, and s*xual misconduct,” the statement read.
Suzette Rasmussen is the litigation lawyer representing the alleged victims of Tim Ballard
As per the official website of Freeman Lovell, a law firm specializing in business and real estate cases, Suzette Rasmussen is one of their attorneys. Her areas of work include litigation, corporate governance, government affairs, lobbying, and international business. She is based in Utah.
Suzette Rasmussen has earlier served as the staff attorney of Utah Governor Gary Herbert and as the Chief Operating Officer of World Trade Center, Utah. At present, she also serves on the Board of Directors for the Utah Infrastructure Agency and the Utah State Bar Business Law Leadership Committee, alongside her legal practice. She is also the recipient of the Secretary of Utah Business Law Section 2022 award.
As for her education, Rasmussen graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English from UC Davis, followed by a master’s degree in education from Southern Utah University. She also attended the J. Reuben Clark Law School of Brigham Young University, from which she earned her Juris Doctor degree.
Suzette has also written two non-fictions including Utah Council for Citizen Diplomacy: The Power to Make a Social Impact (2019) and Utah Diplomatic Conference on International Trade Relations: Free Trade & Foreign Investments (2018).
Currently, she is representing the alleged victims of former OUR CEO and anti-s*x trafficking crusader Tim Ballard who is facing s*xual abuse charges from several women.
In brief, exploring the allegations against Tim Ballard
In June, Tim Ballard was forced to resign from the role of CEO of OUR after he was accused of s*xual assault by at least seven women. However, the news of his s*xual misconduct came to public attention on September 18, when Vice broke the news. Following this, Ballard was also excommunicated from the LDS Church, of which he was a long-time member, while they also publicly condemned his rumored actions.
According to the media source, Tim Ballard was accused of inviting female employees of the company and other volunteers and contractors to accompany him on his foreign business trips and allegedly play the role of his wife or girlfriend. Later, he reportedly coerced the women to share the bed with him or take showers together because “it was necessary to fool traffickers.”
Vice also reported that two of the alleged victims anonymously shared their harrowing experiences with them. They said how Tim Ballard allegedly tried to s*xually entice them by sending them semi-n*de photographs of himself flexing his fake tattoos or were directly approached, asking how far they were willing to go to rescue enslaved children.
On Thursday, Suzette Rasmussen, the attorney representing the alleged victims of Tim Ballard, did not confirm the number of plaintiffs but said that the reports of Vice were “pretty close to accurate,” as posted by Axios. She neither confirmed nor denied whether her clients were planning to file lawsuits, and she also did not give any details about police reports or the exact incidents that might have occurred. Rasmussen told the news outlet:
“I can say that complaints have been filed and statements were known for several months.”
She also added how the plaintiffs now stood together and expected more women to come forward so that unitedly they could “affirm the truth” and that they accused Ballard of s*xual harassment and misconduct, spiritual manipulation, as well as grooming.
Previously, Ballard denied all allegations during a speech he delivered in Boston at the American Covenant Tour, saying, “Nothing you hear is true.” After this fresh launch of accusations, Tim has once again maintained his innocence and told the anti-trafficking nonprofit The Spear Fund that everything was “baseless inventions designed to destroy me and the movement we have built.”
Not only that, but he took to Instagram and stated in a video how OUR employees often engaged in “couples’ ruse" but did not “cross the line” anytime, anywhere during the raids. In addition, he also posted an anonymous testimony from a woman who mentioned how she encountered “zero inappropriate behavior” when she accompanied Ballard during overseas stings.
In response, Rasmussen said on Thursday that the women would like to maintain their silence and wait for the right time for the truth to come out in public.
In the wake of the new allegations, OUR issued a statement to Axios saying:
“Mr. Ballard's alleged misconduct does not represent OUR's values or others within the organization.”
OUR further mentioned that an independent law firm was hired to carry out an unbiased and thorough investigation into the matter.
For those uninitiated, Tim Ballard was a former special advisor to Donald Trump on child s*x trafficking and slavery during his presidency and also served as a member of the White House anti-trafficking advisory board at the time.
Prior to that, Ballard also worked for the CIA and Homeland Security before founding OUR in 2013. Ballard is also an ultra-conservative who is also an alleged QAnon conspiracy theorist. As per Vice, he was on his way to run for a U.S. Senate seat in his state, Utah, when the allegations first arose.
