It’s Trump that has the real “Pizzagate” problem

During the 2016 presidential campaign, disreputable websites attempted to tie Hillary Clinton and her campaign staff to a fantasy tale about a network of pedophiles who trafficked in child sex slaves using, of all things, pizzerias. Members of Donald Trump’s inner circle trafficked in the “Pizzagate” myth using such social media networks as Twitter.

Although there was absolutely nothing to the tale of pizzerias and pedophiles, an actual network of pedophiles in the Trump campaign has emerged.

The Trump campaign pedophile story begins on March 9, 2017, with Oklahoma Republican state senator Ralph Shortey checking into a Super 8 Motel in Moore, Oklahoma. Shortey was not alone. Entering the room with him at 12:30 am was a 17-year old teenage boy. Shortey was arrested and charged with three felonies: engaging in child prostitution, engaging in prostitution within 1000 feet of a church, and transporting a minor for prostitution. Shortey, a six-year veteran of the state senate, resigned after his arrest. Shortey was the chairman of the Trump campaign in Oklahoma and was chief among Trump’s campaign officials in the state to organize Trump’s appearance at the Oklahoma State Fair. Police were tipped off about Shortey and the boy by a relative requesting a “welfare check” on the minor.

Ralph Shortey, left, and Donald J. Trump, Jr., right, during the campaign. After the police "got Shortey," the Republican Party tried to remove the photographs and postings from Facebook and Twitter, but to no avail. The Internet never forgets.

In August 2016, former Campbell County, Kentucky Judge Tim Nolan, the chairman of the Trump campaign in Campbell County, was involved in the sex trafficking of a minor. Nolan had served as a member of the Kentucky Boxing and Wrestling Commission—an appointment made by Kentucky Republican Governor Matt Bevin—before being elected to the Campbell County School Board last November. After a Ku Klux Klan photograph appeared on Nolan’s Facebook page, Bevin fired him as a member of the Boxing and Wrestling Commission. The Klan scandal did not faze Trump, who kept Nolan as his country chairman. Nolan was recently arrested for the trafficking of the minor but Campbell County police Chief Craig Sorrell denied journalists and others access to law enforcement records, pursuant to Kentucky open records laws, that involve the case.

Former Trump campaign chair Judge Tim Nolan was appointed a member of the Kentucky Boxing and Wrestling Commission, a position that could benefit the Trump Organization, which has a business relationship with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), the world's top professional wrestling outfit. WWE's former CEO, Linda McMahon, was appointed by President Trump to head the Small Business Administration.

It is noteworthy that Nolan’s arraignment was held before a judge in Boone County, not Campbell County where the crime allegedly took place. The reason is that Campbell County Circuit Court Clerk Taunya Nolan Jack is the daughter of Judge Nolan. There are suspicions about the reason Nolan, now charged with a crime involving pedophilia, sought to become a member of a school board district comprising 5000 students in the Cincinnati suburbs. Nolan is free on $50,000 bail, is required to wear an electronic ankle bracelet.

During the 2016 campaign, disgraced former Florida U.S. Representative Mark Foley, who resigned his seat in 2916 after it was discovered he was engaged in “sexting” two underage male House pages, was spotted at a Trump campaign rally. Foley was an outspoken supporter of Trump in Florida during the campaign.

Trump supported by "Pagegate" perpetrator Mark Foley during 2016 campaign.

Trump and his billionaire friend and Mar-a-Lago member Jeffrey Epstein, convicted in Palm Beach County, Florida for engaging in prostitution with an underage female, have faced civil lawsuits alleging both engaged in the rape and brutalization of underage girls in 1994 at Epstein’s former Manhattan mansion. The arrest of two top Trump campaign officials within a month on charges of child sexual abuse may be an indication that some sectors of law enforcement are nipping at Trump’s heels by taking out relative small fries in order to flip them to rat out the more important pedophile players in the GOP. Any Republican politicians who claim they are leaving their elected offices to “spend more time with their families” should be seen through jaundiced eyes.

Previously published in the Wayne Madsen Report.

Copyright © 2017 WayneMadenReport.com

Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist. He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report (subscription required).