Former South Carolina Rep. RJ May has been sentenced to 17½ years in federal prison after pleading guilty to five counts of distributing child sexual abuse material, according to information released in the case.
U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie, who presided over the sentencing, said the abuse described in the case was among the most severe she has encountered. Federal prosecutors had urged the court to impose a 20-year sentence, while May’s legal team argued for a shorter prison term followed by home confinement, citing work on his family’s farm in Virginia.
What the case alleges
Court filings and case summaries indicate the investigation centered on activity tied to the messaging app Kik. Prosecutors alleged May used multiple aliases—including one handle referencing the former President Joe Biden to share explicit videos with other users and to communicate with people across the U.S. and internationally.
Authorities also described evidence suggesting May removed certain apps in rapid succession in spring 2024, including Kik and other platforms investigators say are sometimes used for encrypted or file-sharing activity. In addition, investigators linked an alias account to other online activity, including conversations and searches that prosecutors argued were relevant to the broader digital footprint they were examining.
Notably, investigators said they did not recover child sexual abuse material stored on May’s devices, but prosecutors relied on platform-reported data and account activity to support the charges.
Timeline and plea agreement
May was arrested and indicted in June and later pleaded guilty in September. As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors dropped additional charges that had been filed earlier in the case.
After the indictment, May was suspended from office, then resigned from the South Carolina House within weeks.
Political background
May, 39, represented part of Lexington County and was first elected in 2020, taking office in 2021. He became a prominent figure among hardline conservatives at the State House and was a founding member of the South Carolina Freedom Caucus, where he served in leadership during the group’s early growth.
A special election was later held to fill the seat, with John Lastinger elected to serve the remainder of the term.
