Powell, Tennessee – An antifascist influencer known for smearing right-wingers as pedophiles has been arrested for collecting and distributing child sex abuse material (CSAM), the Justice Report has learned.
According to federal authorities, 49-year-old actor, parental author, left-wing podcaster, and street activist Joseph “Josh” Brandon willfully conspired with an accomplice to obtain nude photos from underage victims by posing as a child on social media.
A criminal complaint obtained and reviewed by the Justice Report reveals the true depravity behind Brandon’s actions. In addition to vile chatlog entries, the documents include a confession that Brandon may have plied his 15-year-old stepdaughter with drugs and sexually assaulted her in her sleep.
An advocate for the widely reviled phenomenon of drag shows geared for children, Brandon has previously defended such events alongside other ‘Antifa’ while clad in body armor. Ironically, he is best known for accusing right-wingers, Christians, and “fascists” of secretly harboring pedophilic tendencies themselves.
Despite his moral confidence in the streets, court documents reveal the calculated nature of his alleged crimes. Brandon had confessed to investigators that he cultivated friendships with numerous young victims throughout the years, using apps like Snapchat, TikTok, and Kik to gain their trust before exploiting them for CSAM.
The documents allege that Brandon was a key figure in the child sex trade. Authorities assert he had boasted in DM’s to other pedophiles about his “success” in obtaining nude images from children, treating their exploitation as a mere commodity.
Court documents reviewed by the Justice Report revealed a sickening chain of text messages between Brandon and another alleged pedophile, where they discussed strategies on how to obtain CSAM, including through the use of peeping tom cameras and fake “catfish” accounts.
Cybercrime tips submitted to federal agencies by Kik allege Brandon had used the account “samiamsam08,” among others, to transmit up to 36 videos and images consistent with “probable child erotica” to other users. The documents reveal that these reports include conversations with young girls and boys as young as ten years old.
On these apps, Brandon was said to have posed as a prepubescent girl named “Kaitlyn” with whom he allegedly used to build confidence with victims before duping them into sending him nude photos.
A theme consistent throughout the criminal complaint shows that the seasoned antifascist has an unshakable incest fetish. At one point, the documents state he enacted this fetish in real life, evidenced in a particularly odious conversation where he admitted to getting high with his 15-year-old stepdaughter when his wife was not home and sexually assaulting her in her sleep.
“Her mom is an abusive cow and she doesn’t even live with us, it’s just me and the kid most of the time, so it’s kinda like we are
married…” Brandon said of his wife and 15-year-old stepdaughter. “She asks me for backrubs and things get kinda tense ngl…Massaging her and we were both high and she fell asleep and i rubbed my c@#k on her ass and looked at her.”
An examination of Brandon’s various social media profiles reveals he has written a parenting book titled Your Journal Journey: 30 Days to a Better Relationship With Your Child. He holds a degree in communications and is a stay-at-home dad to his wife’s four daughters.
To make matters worse, a recently unearthed interview with Rebecca Huff of the ThatOrganicMom blog suggests Brandon may have had intimate access to these kids years before his arrest.
“All us girls living here with him are all pretty spoiled rotten by Josh. He cooks for us, babies us, rubs our feet, snuggles all of us…he gives 110% every day,” said Brandon’s wife, Chrissy, in the interview.
Federal Investigators assert they were able to link Brandon to five separate Snapchat profiles primarily used to engage minors in sexual conversations. An IP address traced communications back to Brandon’s home in Powell, Tennessee, a suburb of Knoxville.
The FBI then conducted a court-authorized raid of the home in December of 2024, after they investigated a Michael Bledsoe, of Haslett, Michigan, with whom he had been in contact.
Ultimately, the anti-White pervert would be just one of 205 “child sex abuse offenders” apprehended in Operation Restore Justice, a sweeping dragnet conducted by the Department of Justice aimed at stopping America’s most vile sex criminals. A press release states that Brandon now faces a mandatory minimum penalty of 15 years and a maximum penalty of 30 years if convicted.
He currently awaits extradition to the state of Michigan, where the crime occurred.
“Operation Restore Justice proves that no predator is out of reach and no child will be forgotten. By leveraging the strength of all our field offices and our federal, state, and local partners, we’re sending a clear message: there is no place to hide for those who prey on children,” said FBI director Kash Patel on Wednesday.
Brandon, an outspoken adherent of the anti-White extremist movement, does not hide his radical beliefs. In addition to selling T-shirts that read “I am Antifa mother f*cker,” Brandon has been accused of operating a “multi-year campaign of terror” against right-wingers across Tennessee.
His style of in-your-face street activism often entailed doxxing and hurling credible death threats at those he disagreed with. On his TikTok and YouTube, Brandon regularly complained about a lack of “exposing” right-wingers for perceived acts of racism, and equated Christian evangelism as “assault” against kids.
Brandon often used his public-facing social media accounts to rant about holding right-wingers “accountable” for the “things that they say and think,” and staunchly opposed what he called “fascism,” “White supremacy,” and “toxic White southern culture.”
The alleged pedophile also professed that he believes that “hate speech and bigotry” should be met with “no mercy,” and that violators should be met with a punishment that “exceeds the crime.”
His activism did not solely take place online, however. In 2022, Brandon joined heavily armed members of the anti-White terror militia, the Resurgens John Brown Gun Club, outside The Bird & The Book cafe in Maryville, Tennessee.
Together, they would form a so-called “defense” of a local drag show masquerading as a children’s “charity” event. Video obtained from the event shows Brandon flanked by multiple armed ‘Antifa’ as he shouts down concerned citizens and accuses them of being pedophiles and “groomers.”
In 2023, Brandon, alongside other ‘Antifa’ activists, led an armed counter-protest of the now-infamous all-ages drag event “Drag Me to Brunch” in Cookeville, Tennessee. The event was protested by a unified front of several nationalist groups, including Patriot Front, Proud Boys, and the now-defunct National Justice Party, all of which were met warmly by concerned locals.
While Brandon and the event goers stood outside and heckled organizers, the protest was widely successful. The venue was forced to forbid minors from attending, and the resulting outrage led to Hix Farm Brewery permanently shutting down some weeks later.
Sean Kauffman, a Tennessee-based organizer with ties to the area’s pro-White community, did not mince words about Brandon’s alleged ties to CSAM possession. Himself a regular target of Brandon’s, Kauffman alleged to the Justice Report that the suspected pedophile’s role in the anti-White hate movement is being downplayed to save face.
“I’ve engaged (Brandon) at five different protests. The most notable two were (at) Maryville and Cookeville,” he said. “Antifa and drag queens are all pedophiles. We told everyone they were pedophiles, and they didn’t believe us. Now, the main antifascist organizer in all of Tennessee has been busted for sexual exploitation of a minor.”
Kauffman also sounded the alarm over mainstream journalists’ willingness to source Brandon’s video clips, including Phil Williams, in their ongoing campaign to intimidate nationalists in the region.
“It says something that Phil Williams, Antifa, and all the liberal journalists who went to bat against us were openly working with this child molester. Blatantly,” he added. “We are vindicated.”
When asked what should happen to Brandon if he is convicted of this heinous crime, Kauffman merely replied, “He should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Carson Ford Brooks, co-leader of the National Organization of Vital Action (NOVA), was also cutting in his commentary. Brooks had personally squared off against Brandon at the Hix Farm Brewery event, which he lauded as a success.
In an exclusive request for comment, Brooks reminisced about the protest and questioned whether Brandon could have been stopped had Brooks not focused his attention on larger, more pressing political issues.
“The Cookville protest was a total victory, so I moved on to other events and actions around the country that seemed more important at the time,” Brooks said. “Meanwhile, Joseph Brandon was still preying on children and organizing like-minded freaks. Part of me wonders if things would be different had I practiced laser focus on this man rather than the broader depravity he represents.”
“I can remember the smug attitude of him and his crew in response to our claims, that the purpose of this drag event was to groom children, and that the way they reproduce is through abuse.”
-Carson Ford Brooks, National Organization for Vital Action (NOVA)
“I believe that every known associate of Joseph Brandon should be investigated for similar or worse crimes, and there are a lot of completely lawful methods that civilians can use to procure legitimate evidence of such crimes. I’m going to learn my lesson that one victory over a villain like this isn’t adequate. We have to be thorough,” he continued.
Brandon’s federal CSAM arrest is yet another instance linking antifascist activists to horrific acts of sexual predation and abuse. In April, 43-year-old Noah Whitefield Madrano—an ‘Antifa’ radio host from Portland, Oregon—was sentenced to 50 years in prison for his documented role in the violent kidnapping and rape of a Canadian child for over a year.
Madrano strangled his victim while threatening to rape her dead body and sell her organs afterwards. A self-described “anti-fascist,” he was a host/producer at Portland’s KBOO-FM and used social media accounts to air sadistic fantasies involving children.
In January, counter-extremism researchers with the Justice Report unmasked 44-year-old Benjamin Cole Rosenthal, of Lafayette, Louisiana, as the tier 2 sex offender behind “SpaghettiJesus,” an X/Twitter account that regularly called for the death of White people, cops and so-called “nazis.”
Like Brandon, Rosenthal—a self-professed antifascist—would accuse others of pedophilic tendencies, despite himself holding a 2015 conviction for owning a “massive trove” of child rape videos. When confronted by authorities, Rosenthal, who is Jewish, argued with officers over America’s age of consent laws and would try to use his irritable bowel condition to skirt pre-trial confinement.
Despite a growing list of ‘Antifa’ sex crimes on record, it is right-wingers and pro-White advocates who are continually accused of harboring a secret attraction to minors by their myriad political opponents on the extremist left. No better example of this can be found than the case of “764,” an online pedophile cult whose members are often revealed to be non-White misanthropes engaging in satanism.
However, because this group takes cues from the FBI run neo-nazi organization, The Order of Nine Angles, journalists and antifascists both have capitalized on this fringe affiliation to amplify false narratives that suggest currents of pedophilia are inherent throughout the greater right-wing and pro-White activist community.
The case of Joseph “Josh” Brandon and his child sex abuse charges is ongoing, and the Justice Report will provide updates as they become available.
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