Anti-trafficking celebrity Tim Ballard is accusing people within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints of derailing his U.S. Senate bid and booting him from the faith after he brought them what he has called evidence of pedophilia within the religion.

In a nearly four-hour video posted recently on YouTube, Ballard alleges he supplied “an abundance of evidence about child abuse in the church ranks being covered up” to a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, the second highest presiding body of the global church.

Ballard alleges that the church leader told him, “Don’t go down this rabbit hole,” but he said that he “knew that Jesus would condemn me if I didn’t go down this rabbit hole, so I continued.”

“They knew that Senator Ballard would expose that with the power of President [Donald] Trump and the power of “Sound of Freedom” behind me,” Ballard said, referring to the 2023 blockbuster film loosely based on his story. “So they had plenty of reasons to make sure I couldn’t win.”

Ballard said the church, as a nonprofit, committed criminal offenses by interfering with the election.

Asked to comment, a church spokesperson did not provide a response to Ballard’s latest accusations, some of which echo assertions he made last year, along with a threat to sue the church. It is the first time, however, that Ballard has alleged the faith was attempting to hide child abuse.

The church has repeatedly stated that it has “zero tolerance” for abuse of any kind and that “abuse of a child or any other individual is inexcusable.”

In his video, Ballard says that Trump and other Republican leaders had asked him to run for the Senate seat, but he was told before announcing his bid that he received a phone call — he did not say from whom — telling him, “Tim, they’re not going to let you run for Senate” and that someone had paid $10 million to “destroy my life.”

He said individuals at church headquarters, spokesperson Doug Andersen, in particular, conspired to issue a statement to VICE News condemning Ballard for allegedly using the name of then-senior apostle M. Russell Ballard “for Tim Ballard’s personal advantage and [for] activity regarded as morally unacceptable.”

The two men are not related. M. Russell Ballard, who was the acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, died in November 2023.

Tim Ballard said he called Russell Ballard after the statement came out, and the church leader told him he knew nothing about such a statement.

Ballard’s loss of church membership

In September 2023, Tim Ballard said he was summoned to a meeting with a recently installed stake president — a regional lay leader in the church — and was “excommunicated” from the religion, which now refers to the practice as withdrawal of membership.

The church’s action came after Ballard had been sued by multiple women accusing him of using his campaign against child sex trafficking to lure them in so he could engage in sexual misconduct and assault. Ballard has denied the allegations, and prosecutors in Utah and Salt Lake counties have declined to charge him criminally.

In his church hearing, Ballard asserts the stake president referenced allegations by one woman who Ballard said “doesn’t exist in the real world.”

“I think she does exist in another realm,” he says in the video. “I think she’s an angel from hell that torments these people.”

Mark Eisenhut, an attorney for Ballard, said Tuesday his client stands by what he said in the video and may still file a lawsuit against the church.

“He did intend to sue The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as he strongly believes they have committed wrongs against him and others,” Eisenhut said. “However, he loves the church and has stood for many years as one of its strongest advocates and, thus far, has chosen not to file a lawsuit.”

Status of women’s lawsuits

The lawsuit filed by one of Ballard’s accusers, Celeste Borys, was dismissed, but Borys is appealing. The lawsuit brought by five other women is ongoing.

Ballard is suing the accusers for defamation. As part of that lawsuit, attorneys for the accusers filed a brief that included an exhibit with previously unreported allegations by another woman, these in a written recounting of sexual encounters with Ballard, short of intercourse. The former employee of Operation Underground Railroad said he had exploited her belief in the anti-trafficking cause and her isolation to persuade her to engage in the sex acts.

The document had been sent to leaders at Operation Underground Railroad, the anti-trafficking organization Ballard founded, and are the first known sexual misconduct allegations made against Ballard.

The OUR board agreed to pay Ballard a settlement to leave the organization shortly before “Sound of Freedom” was released. The statement from the woman, referred to as “JJ,” was obtained by the attorneys through a subpoena to Matt Osborne, OUR’s former president and chief operating officer.