RJ May pleads guilty to 5 counts of distributing child porn
Former state Rep. RJ May, who was a hard-line conservative member of the General Assembly, pleaded guilty Monday to federal five counts of distributing child pornography.
He faces between five and 20 years in prison on each count, at least five years of supervised release after his prison term and will have to register as a sex offender. He also faces up to $1.45 million in fines and assessments when he is sentenced.
Sentencing for May has been scheduled for Jan. 14, and he will have his public defenders back. He is being held in the Edgefield County Detention Center without bond.
May was indicted in June on 10 counts of distributing child pornography, which prosecutors said he did through the Kik, an instant messaging app. As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors dropped five of the counts and May gave up his chance to appeal the case’s outcome.
May’s decision to plead guilty spares his family and the public of a six-day trial, which was slated to take place next month, where graphic descriptions of videos of child sexual abuse he exchanged would have been shared in open court.
Investigators found 265 child sexual abuse material videos on May’s Kik account, and he exchanged 1,147 messages on Kik between March 30 and April 4, 2024, before deleting the app from his phone. Prosecutors said 220 of the videos were unique with the remaining being duplicates. The initial 10 counts May faced were for the videos prosecutors called the most deplorable.
The videos included 62 victims, 21 of whom have been identified by investigators so far, so they can file claims for restitution. The victims in the videos are both domestic and international, U.S. Attorney Bryan Stirling said Monday.
Stirling called May’s actions “deplorable, depraved and disgusting.”
“It’s a priority for the Department of Justice to protect children and take down pedophiles like Robert John May. This heartbreaking case is not victimless. These files are shared over and over again,” Stirling said. “Every download revictimizes these children and fuels this evil industry.”
As Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Matthews described May’s conduct that led to his arrest and graphic nature of the videos, the former lawmaker stared forward keeping a stoic demeanor.
The investigation into May produced 10,000 pages of data to review, which included assistance from the Department of Justice’s child exploitation and obscenity unit.
Stirling said May’s title and high-profile role as a lawmaker did not make the case more difficult for investigators who searched his house and reviewed the evidence they gathered.
“We just proceeded like we would against anybody else, any other pedophile,” Stirling said.
A tip of the former lawmaker’s activities came to law enforcement in May 2024. Federal law enforcement eventually searched May’s house in August 2024, but the indictment did not happen until June of this year.
“We’re going to take the investigation where it leads us. That’s what we did and if it takes a little bit longer to get to where we are today, I think the folks behind us did a great job and worked very diligently and hard on this case,” Stirling said.
Prosecutors said May used the username “JoeBidennnn69” on the Kik app to exchanges videos with other Kik users in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Australia.
May also used a pseudonym “Eric Rentling,” which he used to plan trips to Colombia to pay for sex with women. He recorded himself in Colombia during those trips.
May, who told the judge he is on medication for anxiety, depression and high blood pressure, admitted Monday in court to using the JoeBidennnn69 username and Eric Rentling pseudonym.
The former Lexington County lawmaker, who had a public defender during earlier court proceedings, opted to represent himself after a disagreement over legal strategy. In handwritten motions, he asked a judge to throw out the warrants used to search his house and phone. May’s change of plea comes after Judge Cameron Currie denied May’s request to have search warrants for his house and cell phone thrown out of the case.
May was initially offered a plea deal where prosecutors would have dropped eight of the charges, if he had not insisted on a hearing on the motion to suppress the search warrants. May turned that deal to go forward with the hearing./
He also wanted references to Eric Rentling, his travel history and discussion of other apps barred during trial. May also wanted his trial moved out of Columbia. The judge didn’t rule on these requests.
When May is released from prison, he will have supervised released of anywhere from five years to life.
“In many child pornography cases, the term is life,” Judge Cameron Currie told May of the supervised released conditions he could receive.
May, who resigned from his seat in August, was an outspoken member of the General Assembly after he was elected in 2020 to represent a Lexington County House seat. He helped create and was the driving force behind the hard-line conservative S.C. House Freedom Caucus, which was often at odds with the House GOP Caucus over the tactics used by the group. He also ran Ivory Tusk Consulting, a political consulting business that worked for conservative candidates.
May’s indictment has become a political football between the House GOP Caucus and Freedom Caucus. The Freedom Caucus has sought to distance itself away from May.
“He will be in prison where he belongs. Our prayers continue to be with his innocent victims,” The Freedom Caucus posted after news of May’s planned guilty plea became public.
The GOP caucus has repeatedly reminded the public of May’s connections to the hard-line group.
“Former Rep. and SC Freedom Caucus Founder RJ May will be held accountable for his crimes. Our prayers are with the victims. No one is above the law and crimes against the innocent will not be tolerated,” the House GOP Caucus posted on X.
May is married and has two kids.
This story was originally published September 29, 2025 at 3:14 PM.
