Operation Underground Railroad, the anti-child-trafficking organization founded by Tim Ballard, says it had no access to records of tithes paid by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“OUR did not have access to tithing records,” Renee Soto, a spokesperson with a public relations firm recently hired by OUR, said Friday. It’s the first time the organization has publicly addressed an allegation made last week in a lawsuit filed by five women who are accusing Ballard of sexual misconduct and assault.
In a filing in the case, attorneys for the women pointed to an internal OUR document stating that at a December 2022 meeting with OUR attorneys, Davis County Attorney Troy Rawlings laid out a number of allegations against OUR that he said he was investigating — including that senior apostle M. Russell Ballard had provided OUR with tithing records so they could be used for fundraising purposes.
After initially declining to comment on Rawlings’ assertion, a church spokesperson said the apostle “never released tithing records to Operation Underground Railroad or any other organization,” and Rawlings himself said there was “insufficient evidence to substantiate the allegation” against M. Russell Ballard, who is not related to Tim Ballard.
“It seems like it’s just an unsubstantiated rumor,” Soto said.
In a separate email, OUR’s public relations firm said that “these were always unsubstantiated allegations and disputes every allegation with respect to the tithing records” and that the “improperly obtained internal OUR memo” states that there was no evidence provided to support the accusation.
Lawyers for the women suing Ballard have declined to elaborate on how they obtained the OUR records, which were attached as exhibits to the lawsuit.