Former Justice Department official Patrick Trueman, who proudly
participated in federal pornography prosecutions during their “heyday”
in the late 1980s and early 1990s, told The Daily Caller that Mitt Romney’s campaign assured him that Romney would “vigorously” prosecute pornographers if elected president.
Trueman, the president of Morality in Media, contacted the Romney
campaign earlier this year about the “untreated pandemic” of Internet
pornography. “They got back to us right away,” he said.
Bob Flores, another former Justice Department official who prosecuted
pornographers, accompanied Trueman to an hour-long meeting with Romney
foreign and legal policy director Alex Wong, Trueman said.
“Wong assured us that Romney is very concerned with this, and that if
he’s elected these laws will be enforced,” Trueman told TheDC. ”They
promised to vigorously enforce federal adult obscenity laws.”
Trueman said he would like for Romney to speak publicly about
cracking down on porn, but believes Romney avoids the subject because he
“saw that Rick Santorum got beat up in the mainstream press for being
so forthright.”
“With respect to Romney, I believe him,” said Trueman, “but I’d like to make sure he means it.”
Trueman said convictions for distributing porn that displays group
sex, simulated rape, incest, psuedo child porn, violence or unusual
fetishes — such as “scat” porn — are relatively easy. But, he said,
“unless it’s just waist-up nudity of women’s breasts it probably can be
found obscene somewhere in the country.”
Juries can find pornography obscene, and therefore unlawful, if the material violates subjective “community standards.” (OPINION: How pornography harms women — and men)
Companies, rather than individuals, are the targets of federal
prosecutions, Trueman said. “You don’t go after your neighbor who
happens to get a magazine in the mail,” he explained.
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