More than 100 child porn files found in home of former Pennsylvania lawmaker, officials say
More than 100 child pornography files were found in the central Pennsylvania home of Jesse White, a former Democratic state representative, officials said.
According to court records, FBI agents discovered more than 100 files containing child pornography on laptops and drives belonging to the former state representative, who served parts of Allegheny, Beaver, and Washington counties from 2006 to 2014. He is now charged federally with receipt and distribution of child pornography, and possession of child pornography.
Court documents reveal that on Sunday, Google flagged images and sent them to the tip line for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which then forwarded the reports to the FBI. On Tuesday, the FBI executed a search warrant at White's home in Upper Allen Township near Mechanicsburg.
On two laptops and multiple external hard drives, they said they found "numerous files containing images of child pornography depicting minors between the estimated ages of seven to 15 years old engaged in sexually explicit activity."
Investigators said White used Proton Mail accounts and encrypted applications like Telegram, along with a peer-to-peer file-sharing program, to send and receive the material.
During the search of his home, authorities said White admitted his devices contained child porn that he accessed on "the 'dark' web."
Back in 2017, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court disbarred White and forced him to surrender his law license for stealing more than $100,000 from his clients to fund a gambling addiction. Police filed charges against him, but they were dropped.
A few years earlier, his mother also sued him for impersonating her to get a credit card and racking up nearly $28,000 in debt.
Before that, a KDKA investigation revealed White had used false identities online to attack political opponents.
During a hearing in Harrisburg Wednesday, a judge ordered White to remain in jail, with the case presented to a grand jury in the next 30 days. KDKA-TV reached out to White's attorney for comment but did not hear back on Wednesday.
