Ali Alexander, the organizer of the “Stop the Steal” rally that preceded the Capitol riots, has apologised after being accused of asking teenage boys for sexual photographs.
“I apologise for any inappropriate messages sent over the years. Forgive me,” he said in a statement posted to his Telegram channel, the Rolling Stone reported.
Referring to “battling SSA”, which appears to be an acronym for same-sex attraction, he said that he had “repented before God”.
He said that he had been “careless” in his flirtation, adding that “I’ve flexed my credentials or dropped corny pickup lines”.
He added that “nothing unlawful has occurred” and that he’s been targeted by “fake accusers or literal honey pots eager to frame me”.
His apology comes after Milo Yiannopoulos, a controversial British provocateur and one-time Alexander ally, released video interviews and other evidence to prove that Mr Alexander had sexually propositioned adult men in their 20s and at least two teenagers, reported The Daily Beast.
“The reason I’m doing this is because he used my name,” Mr Yiannopoulos was quoted as saying to the outlet.
According to an account given by Aidan Duncan in a March 2023 podcast, Mr Alexander had asked him for nude images.
Mr Duncan said that in 2017, when he was a 15-year-old boy in Colorado interested in right wing politics, he had been asked to send the images to the activist.
Mr Duncan was then a high school sophomore while Mr Alexander was a 32-year-old who was willing to share his connections in Republican politics if the teen met certain secret conditions, The Daily Beast report said.
“You’ll have [me] sharing my entire network with you,” Mr Alexander told Mr Duncan, according to Snapchat screenshots reviewed by the outlet.
According to a 4 September 2017 exchange about an upcoming trip Mr Alexander was planning, the activist allegedly said to Mr Duncan he would introduce the teenager to Mr Yiannopoulos and speculated about whether the boy would be Alexander’s “arm candy” and suggested he would have to be “entertaining.”
The report said that other screenshots show Mr Duncan sending a picture to Mr Alexander, which was redacted in the version of the screenshot reviewed by The Daily Beast.
In a statement on Twitter last Thursday, Mr Duncan wrote: “When I was 15 I was naive and desperate.
“I thought I had no choice but to cooperate with inappropriate and humiliating requests if I wanted to make it in politics. I figured that was just the nature of the game.”
In the summer of 2019, Mr Alexander allegedly asked then 17-year-old Lance Johnston to start sending him explicit images.
“Show me ur [eggplant emoji] ” Mr Alexander wrote, according to the messages.
“What’s that?” Johnston is quoted as saying in reply.
“Omg d***,” Mr Alexander wrote back, according to the picture.
Mr Johnston said that he refused and quickly blocked him and took a screenshot of the exchange but remained afraid of raising the issue.
When the exchange was publicised by a friend of the teenager, Mr Alexander had defended himself on a video streaming app and said: “You can have any conversation you want with someone who’s 17.”
Last year, Mr Alexander appeared before the House Select Committee during a closed-door deposition and said that right-wing media figure and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk was among those at fault for the riot.
Mr Alexander assured the committee he was innocent of wrongdoing.
Hours after his Friday night apology, Mr Alexander in a late-night Telegram audio livestream said that he is in the middle of a scandal and will survive.
“I’m in the middle of a scandal,” he said at one point.
“I can’t do karaoke. I’m in the middle of a scandal that I’m going to survive.”
