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   From: X@Y.com   
      
    Former GOP Hill aide pleads guilty in child porn case   
      
      
      
   By Josh Gerstein   
      
   07/09/2021 10:36 AM EDT   
      
   A former GOP staffer and Republican National Committee aide pleaded   
   guilty Friday to a child pornography charge and is facing 12 years or   
   more in prison under a plea deal with prosecutors.   
      
   Ruben Verastigui, 27, entered the guilty plea from jail during a video   
   conference hearing before U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta in   
   Washington, D.C.   
      
   Verastigui admitted to possession of 152 videos and 50 images of child   
   pornography and to receiving and distributing sexual depictions of   
   children.   
      
   According to an affidavit filed in the case in February by a Department   
   of Homeland Security investigator, Verastigui sought out images of rape   
   of children during an online chat last year. Prosecutors said Verastigui   
   also fantasized online about killing children while abusing them.   
      
   The investigation, focused on a ring of at least 18 people trading child   
   pornography via a chat group on an unnamed website, appears to have   
   zeroed in on at least one other political staffer in Washington.   
      
   Last November, a Trump Commerce Department political appointee, Adam   
   Hageman, was arrested on charges he shared a child pornography video and   
   commented on sexually abusing children. Hageman appears to have been set   
   to enter a guilty plea in April, but court records do not indicate that   
   hearing was ever held.   
      
   Mehta accepted Verastigui’s guilty plea, but deferred a decision on   
   whether to accept the roughly 12-to-15-year sentencing range prosecutors   
   and Verastigui agreed to. Sentencing in his case is set for Oct. 12.   
      
   Prosecutors said earlier this year that Verastigui could also face   
   charges in Arizona over his online conduct, but the plea agreement he   
   signed with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C., precludes   
   further charges in that state.   
      
   Verastigui worked as digital director for the Joint Economic Committee in   
   2018 and as digital strategist for the Senate Republican Conference from   
   2019 to 2020, congressional payroll records show. He was also on the   
   payroll of the RNC from 2017 to 2018, according to Federal Election   
   Commission reports.   
       	   
      
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