Tim Ballard poses with family and friends throughout the premiere of “Sound of Freedom” on June 28, 2023 in Winery, Utah. (Picture by Fred Hayes/Getty Pictures for Angel Studios)
Tim Ballard, the superstar anti-trafficking activist whose closely fictionalized exploits served because the inspiration for the shock box-office hit Sound of Freedom, is not CEO of the Nazarene Fund, the Glenn Beck-backed anti-trafficking group. The group confirmed Ballard’s departure as CEO solely to Motherboard in a press release on Wednesday afternoon.
“Tim Ballard is not the CEO of the Nazarene Fund,” stated the assertion. “The Nazarene Fund continues to be centered on our mission to Rescue, Rebuild and Restore. There are such a lot of folks world wide who’re in want of our distinctive providers and we’re grateful for the assist we obtain to assist us accomplish our mission.”
The Nazarene Fund didn’t reply follow-up questions concerning the circumstances or timing of Ballard’s departure. or his present relationship to the group. A consultant for Ballard didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark; he additionally didn’t instantly reply to a message despatched by the contact kind on his private web site.
Ballard’s not being CEO of the Nazarene Fund—which, as Motherboard has beforehand reported, seems to have at instances exaggerated its position in exfiltrating the Afghan ladies’ nationwide soccer workforce from the nation, in accordance with individuals who have been instantly concerned—ties in with a bigger sample of abrupt and shocking change for him. Final week, Operation Underground Railroad, the anti-trafficking group the place he was the founder and most recognizable face, confirmed to Motherboard that Ballard had “stepped away” from the group. OUR declined to reply follow-up questions concerning the timing and motive for Ballard’s departure, and a consultant for Ballard has not responded to a number of requests for remark.
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A supply conveyed to Motherboard this week {that a} letter is circulating in Utah’s philanthropic group, which claims that Ballard left OUR following an inside investigation. The letter additional states that an worker filed an HR grievance after getting back from a mission with Ballard, which sparked the investigation and his subsequent departure.
That is at the least the second time Ballard has departed from the Nazarene Fund. In 2021, as Motherboard beforehand reported, Ballard was deposed as CEO by the group’s board, which consisted of Ballard, Glenn Beck, and David Barton, who has been described as a “faux historian” who’s “obtained little formal historic coaching” and is devoted to selling the concept America was based on Christian beliefs.
It is a breaking information story and shall be up to date.
