The federal child sex abuse material case involving suspended South Carolina Rep. RJ May now stretches into the state of Oklahoma.
Federal court documents filed July 30 in the Oklahoma Western District Court said Christian Soto — identified in court filings as a registered Oklahoma nurse who allegedly went by the username "randomcouplehere" on the social messaging Kik app — received more than 50 files of child pornography on April 3, 2024, by Kik user “joebidennnn69.”
Federal court documents said May is the user behind the “joebidennnn69” username.
"The Kik users began sharing media files and continued to send messages to one another," the federal court filings said.
Court filings said investigators executed search warrants for Soto, his car and home, and took 27 "digital items" from his home and 33 "digital items" from his car. One item taken by investigators from Soto's car included a Samsung USB device that court documents said contained at least four images of child sex abuse material.
Soto is charged with receipt of child pornography, possession of child pornography and being a prohibited person in possession of ammunition, according to court documents.
Meanwhile, May remains jailed in Edgefield County pending trial after he was indicted in June on 10 counts of distributing child sex abuse material.
A pretrial conference for May is scheduled Aug. 20.
Filings say jury selection will start Sept. 10 at Columbia's federal courthouse.
The case has been assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Cameron Currie.
He is also the subject of an ongoing state House Ethics Committee investigation.
May, a Lexington Republican, was first elected to represent to represent House District 88 in 2020.
Inside the Statehouse, May helped cofound the hardline House Freedom Caucus, a group of a dozen or so Republican legislators who are not members of the traditional House GOP Caucus. May previously served as the group's vice chair.
May also ran Ivory Tusk Consulting, a Republican political consulting firm that ran campaigns for various GOP candidates, including some freedom caucus members.
