A warning. This episode contains discussion of sexual assault that may be disturbing.

Listener discretion is advised. As a note, we reached out to Tim Ballard's attorney to request an

interview. Our requests went unanswered. And one last thing. After Tim Ballard left the

anti-trafficking organization OUR in 2023, it was renamed OUR Rescue.

Its new leaders say they do not condone Tim Ballard's alleged actions while part of the old

organization. The first time hairdresser Kira Lynch met Tim Ballard, she was brought in to

help and prepare for one of his

undercover operations. She was there in a professional capacity to cut and dye his hair. But Ballard

had other things in mind for her. As Kira worked, she said Ballard talked himself up. He made sure

to name drop his ties with former President Trump and Apostle M. Russell

Ballard, a very high up figure in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who is not

directly related to Tim Ballard. He boasted about the children he personally rescued from

sex slavery. Then he propositioned her. Would she like to join him? If it sounded like a pickup line, that's because essentially it was.

But it was for a pretend relationship.

Ballard was asking Kira to pose as his girlfriend on his undercover operations to break up sex trafficking rings.

He promised that this risky and salacious act was for the godly purpose of

saving children from a terrible fate. There was a question behind Ballard's invitation,

one that he explicitly asked other potential partners. How far would you go to save a child?

The answer, as it turned out, was pretty far.

This is the opportunist, an original podcast from Podcast 1. You're listening to the fourth

episode of a 10-part series on 10 Ballard and Operation

Underground Railroad.

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