Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel announce arrest of 205 child sex predators

Good morning. Thank you all for being here. We have a busy day here at the Department of Justice, as I'm sure a lot of you have seen already. Today we are proud to announce the results of the FBI's Operation Restore Justice initiative. This historic, unprecedented, nationwide operation led to the arrest of 205 child sex predators, unbelievable, in just five days. This was an incredible operation done in conjunction with the FBI and our prosecutors. Children and their families now have a chance to heal. These are online predators. Think about this. 115 victims, victims, children, in five days we were able to help. This kind of work takes a toll on the FBI agents and the prosecutors who are doing this every single day. They are working tirelessly online dealing with the drugs of our society, the worst of the worst, the people that hide behind a computer and target our young children every single day. Our law enforcement, our prosecutors sit there and deal with this every day to get these monsters off the street. Director Patel and almost daily in our meetings talk about these cases and what it does to our officers and our prosecutors, but also how many lives are being saved and how many children are being helped by this. Director Patel is going to get into the specific cases with you in a minute, but what I will tell you is these depraved human beings, if convicted, will face the maximum penalty in prison, some life. We will find you, we will arrest you, and we will charge you. If you are online targeting a child, you will not escape us. The FBI and the Department of Justice will come after you and we will prosecute you. Parents, you have to know this is so serious. Your child has no right to privacy on the internet, none. You have to monitor what your kids are doing, whether they're playing games on the internet, on social media, any other websites that children, teenagers frequent, an online predator can find them. I always say it's from instant message to instant nightmare. Parents, they're talking to your kids like they're other children and they're predators. They pose as children. They get them sometimes to post explicit pictures of themselves after they talk to them and then in some cases they even try to blackmail the children. The suicide rate among teens ages 14 to 17 has increased as a result of this as well because teens are taken advantage of and they're manipulated online by child predators. So all of you being here today and covering this is so important because parents need to know. You've got to talk to your kids. They think they're talking to other children, but most of the time they're not. Director Patel, thank you. First and foremost to the Department of Justice under General Bondi's leadership and all its components, because of your courage, we are here today protecting our most vulnerable, our children. Thank you, General Bondi. Thank you to so many of your colleagues here today that do this work tirelessly day in and day out and never get a moment's thanks. We should acknowledge all of them today. As the FBI Director, I'm humbled to leave some of the greatest men and women in law enforcement and I want to thank our 55 field offices, our 90 plus United States Attorneys offices, our CI section, our CRIM division here at the Department of Justice and our field offices throughout the country with lawyers and prosecutors and agents working tirelessly on some of the harshest criminality we've ever seen. They don't take breaks because our children deserve a free and open society. I also want to just take a moment to emphasize the priority of this Department of Justice and this FBI. Our children, if you harm our children, you will be given no sanctuary. There is no place we will not come to hunt you down. There is no place we will not look for you and there is no cage we will not put you in should you do harm to our children. The prioritization of this administration and General Bondi has made it abundantly clear to child predators, you will be hunted down and you will be prosecuted and that is a refreshing thing to hear for the men and women who do this work tirelessly and it's also an acknowledgement of the safety that we look forward to bringing America. As the Attorney General mentioned, there are a couple of cases worth highlighting. People in places of public trust have violated not only the law but that public trust to include teachers, law enforcement personnel and other professionals that we look to safeguard our children have not only violated the law but violated the trust. In Minneapolis, Defendant a Minneapolis State Trooper and former Army Reservist was arrested for producing child sexual abuse material while in uniform. Not anymore. In Norfolk, Virginia, Defendant an illegal immigrant from Mexico again allegedly arrested for transporting a minor across state lines. No more. Another example right here in Washington D.C. in the Metropolitan Police Department, Officer Linwood Barnhill, a former already convicted sex offender was arrested again for exploiting more victims, more children while on supervised release. These are just three examples that show you the extent and the depravity of these horrific crimes and we need to team up together with the American public to find the rest. I want to give a special thanks to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children for the tireless work they do in partnering with us and again I want to thank the Department of Justice and all these folks here and Pam, thank you for never wavering to defend our children. Thank you. Thank you Director Patel and this ranges from we have cases from California to New York to Florida, our entire country and just in one week again 115 victims. Victims we have. 205 offenders have been charged in one week thanks to the FBI. So think what's happening throughout this country. Children are being taken advantage of and we have to stop it. Thank you for covering this very important topic today. Thank you. Will you guys take a few questions? This is a really important topic. It's a press conference. Press conference you bring us here you answer a few questions even on topic. Guys it's different getting it from the two nations, two top law enforcement officials on an issue like this. If this is a priority they should take questions.