Top Highlights

• The majority of defendants were living in Arizona, but others charged were residents of Illinois, Wisconsin, Washington, DC, California, and South Africa. Ten children were rescued, including four children actively suffering abuse at the time of the rescue. The youngest victim identified was 6 months old, and the oldest was 17 years old.
• At least one federal prosecutor told a judge that authorities never would have gained access; however, one of the defendants, Adam Hageman, “fully cooperated” with investigators and granted access through his account to offending Telegram groups.
• Hageman is one of two defendants with ties to the Republican Party, the Sun-Times and other outlets have reported, while other defendants include a youth soccer coach, a grocery store employee, an amusement park employee, and a police officer’s son.
• Authorities such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, in recent times, have controversially sought ways to get around encryption, a privacy concern that the American Civil Liberties Union has previously reported on. For Operation Swipe Left, authorities did not need so-called "backdoors" to access encrypted chats, instead relying on Hageman's co...

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