Federal prosecutors say a Mooresville, North Carolina, lobbyist with ties to Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign spent weeks distributing CSAM through Kik, a messaging platform long known as a magnet for predators, burner accounts, and law-enforcement stings. According to newly unsealed records, 61-year-old Scott David Mason shared CSAM 50 times between March 28 and May 1, including 10 videos and five photos flagged directly by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
Investigators say Mason didn’t just forward files; he allegedly used artificial intelligence to “nudify” images and create CSAM involving minors. Prosecutors also accused him of circulating “child erotica,” still labeled here as CSAM for clarity.
If the allegations are true, he didn’t stumble into this world; he curated it.
For anyone new to these stories, Kik is a messaging app built around anonymity, disposable usernames, and minimal verification. It’s been a favorite tool for sex offenders, pedophiles, CSAM collectors, and child traffickers for over a decade because it requires no phone number and stores virtually nothing on its servers.
Whenever a case involves Kik, it’s usually because the activity was extreme enough that the platform tipped off the NCMEC. And that’s exactly what happened here.
According to court filings, Kik logs traced the IP address used to distribute CSAM, which led straight back to Mason’s residence. The Kik accounts matched an email associated with Mason. At that point, the digital trail wasn’t subtle; it was a neon sign.
Mason wasn’t just any random North Carolina resident. He worked as a lobbyist for Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and afterward became a senior policy advisor at a lobbying firm that, as CNBC noted, raked in record lobbying profits in the wake of Trump’s victory.
And here we go again. Because at this point, it feels like every accusation against right-wing power players ends up being an admission, especially with the Epstein files dominating headlines.
The movement that constantly screams about “protecting children” keeps producing headline after headline of adults caught in federal CSAM cases. The hypocrisy is not subtle.
The firm fired Mason on Oct. 3, weeks before the indictment was unsealed. Their statement said the charges were “shocking and profoundly disturbing.” It’s the kind of statement firms release when they want to create distance as fast as legally possible.
When agents confronted Mason on July 14, he admitted he used Kik for sexual conversations, which he called “entertainment” and “fantasy.”
He denied distributing CSAM, denied soliciting for CSAM, and denied downloading CSAM while sitting in front of investigators who already had IP logs, email associations, platform records, and a matched device.
It’s the same tired script every defendant in a digital CSAM case uses, thinking they’re the first to ever come up with the idea.
“It wasn’t me.”
“It was fantasy.”
“I never asked for anything.”
But digital forensics is not a vibes-based field. The logs don’t care whether the defendant says it was just an outlet.
Authorities seized his iPhone and multiple other devices. His attorneys tried to slow things down by requesting a private forensic examiner, citing potential “work materials.” Prosecutors opposed the delay, noting their filter team was enough. As of October, the devices still hadn’t been fully analyzed, meaning the case may be far from its peak.
Mason has pleaded not guilty. If convicted, he faces a mandatory minimum of five years in federal prison.
This case fits the pattern we’ve seen again and again. Powerful conservative political figures accusing others of moral decline while getting caught up in their own scandals involving CSAM. The involvement of AI nudification only underscores how quickly exploitation tools evolve and how slowly public accountability seems to catch up.
More to come once the forensic analysis lands.
Oh, and before I forget, as usual there’s no evidence to indicate Mason is a drag queen.
(Sources)
Real Crime with Trench Reynolds 
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