MD Republican Senate candidate charged with making a false report after allegedly claiming adult bookstore trafficked children

BALTIMORE --  Ryan Dark White, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Maryland under the name Jon McGreevey, has been arrested and charged with filing a false report after he allegedly told law enforcement an adult bookstore in Edgewood was forcing a young girl to perform sex acts on men, the Harford County Sheriff's Office said.

The sheriff's office now says the story was made up.

"It is shameful that a candidate for public office would make up such a story and use it to further his own political agenda," said Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey R. Gahler. 

In April, a tipster provided information to detectives with the Harford County Sheriff's Office that a man and a young girl between, 10-12 years old, entered an adult bookstore in the 3000 block of Pulaski Highway and the child was forced to perform sex acts on male customers, police said.

The source of the information was 54-year-old employee at the store, White, also known as Dr. Jon McGreevey, authorities said. White is a Baltimore resident.

Detectives with the Harford County Child Advocacy Center began investigating. After conducting interviews and gathering digital evidence, investigators "identified the adult male and juvenile female mentioned in the initial complaint," police said.

At no point was a formal report filed by any purported witnesses, according to the sheriff's office.

On July 7, investigators spoke with White.

"The investigation revealed at no time were any sex acts performed or offered by any of the individuals in the establishment as reported by White," police said.

Police arrested White on Friday and transported him to the Harford County Detention Center. He awaits an appearance before a a District Court Commissioner, police said.

An email to an account listed on White's campaign site, where he goes by the name Jon McGreevey, was not immediately returned.

White has appeared in a couple videos with Andy Kuhl, a Republican candidate for Baltimore County Sheriff, to detail how he exposed the alleged abuse.

(Content Warning: some of the descriptions by White are graphic.)

He claims he got the job at the bookstore as part of law enforcement sting operation on the drug trade into Baltimore City.

There were between 100-200 pounds of drugs in part of the building, he claimed.

"They started exploiting children," he claimed in a video on Kuhl's campaign site dated June 9. "There's a child trafficking ring being run through there as well."

Without referencing Kuhl by name, Gahler said, "It is even more appalling, that another individual, who is running for a law enforcement position, would embrace such an obviously false narrative in an effort to gain political traction - nothing more."

Gahler said the girl investigators identified is safe but expressed disappointment the work of the Harford County Child Advocacy Center would be discredited.

"Fearmongering and antagonism caused wasted time and energy by our personnel, whose time would have been better served protecting the citizens of Harford County, instead of investigating lies," he said.

The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information is asked to call the Harford County Sheriff's Office's Child Advocacy Center at 410-879-2000.

Facebook and Twitter accounts purportedly for McGreevey's campaign have only a handful of posts. But White appears to maintain an active presence on Truth Social, the platform founded by former President Donald Trump.

In a June 9 post on the platform, he posted an image showing a SUV in a vehicle side-view mirror, saying the photo was from two days prior.

"We were followed by a silver Jeep that belongs to someone involved in the trafficking and poisoning," he alleged.

In recent years some far-right groups have embraced conspiracy theories about the exploitation of children, including QAnon, which alleges Trump was trying to expose an international cabal of traffickers.

A Yahoo/YouGov poll from 2020 found 50% of Trump's supporters believed "Democrats are involved in elite child sex-trafficking rings" and 52% said Trump was trying to break them up.