A former Commerce Department official in the Trump administration was sentenced to a five-and-a-half year prison term after pleading guilty to possession of child pornography, federal prosecutors announced last week in a court filing. Under the terms of his plea deal, Adam Hageman was also sentenced to five years of parole after release and a mandatory requirement to register as a sex offender.
Hageman was arrested in November of 2020 after he was found to be a member of an online group chat dedicated to sharing images of child sexual abuse.
The site’s name on which the discussions allegedly took place has not been publicly disclosed, but according to an affidavit filed by prosecutors, Hageman shared with members at least one video of a child being molested, claimed to have sexually abused a child as young as 15, and indicated that he wanted to sexually assault children between the ages of 12 and 16 years old. Prosecutors asserted that they found “dozens” of child sexual abuse videos on Hageman’s phone after federal authorities executed a search warrant against him.
According to court documents, Hageman also requested that the members of the group find “a dad with a young kid he will rent out to us.”
Before working for the Commerce Department, Hageman lived in Arizona and worked at Turning Point USA, a Christian supremacist organization which markets far-right political views to high school students. He appears to have established a connection with the group while a student at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.