First lady Melania Trump took to social media Tuesday to give a thumbs-up to the first criminal conviction under legislation she championed that outlaws AI-generated images of child sexual abuse and revenge porn.
James Strahler, 37, pleaded guilty in a United States District Court in Ohio on Tuesday to cybercrimes that included both real and “AI-generated sexually explicit images and threats of violence to numerous victims,” the U.S Attorney’s Office for Southern Ohio announced.
The first lady commented shortly afterward.
“Thank you U.S. Attorney Dominick S. Gerace for protecting Americans from cybercrimes in this new digital age,” the first lady wrote on X.
“Strahler had installed more than 24 AI platforms and more than 100 AI web-based models on his phone,” prosecutors said.
“The defendant used telephone calls, voicemails, text messages and web postings to engage in a campaign of harassment against his victims,” according to the Department of Justice release.
The details of the Columbus man’s criminal activity from December 2024 until June 2025 — which fell under the criminal statutes of the Trump-championed “Take It Down Act” — are beyond shocking.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office:
For example, Strahler used AI to create pornographic videos depicting at least one adult victim engaged in sex acts with her father. He then distributed those videos to the victim’s co-workers. He also messaged the mothers of the adult females and demanded nude photos of them, threatening to circulate explicit or obscene images he created of their daughters if they did not comply. He often called the victims and left voicemails of him masturbating or threatening rape. He referred to the victims’ specific home addresses in his threats.
Strahler also posted online AI-generated obscenities he created of children. He generated these files using the faces of minor boys from his community. He then morphed the face of the minor boys onto the bodies of other adults or children and created videos that depicted the boys engaged in sex acts. Strahler specifically created AI-generated obscenity of the minor boys having sex with their mothers and/or grandmothers.
The depravity did not stop there.
Prosecutors said Strahler created more than 700 images of both real victims and animated persons and posted them on a website dedicated to child sexual abuse.
“An additional 2,400 images and videos on his phone were flagged as depicting nudity, morphed child sexual abuse material and violence,” according to investigators.
Gerace said Strahler was the first person in the United States to be convicted under the Take It Down Act.
“We will not tolerate the abhorrent practice of posting and publicizing AI-generated intimate images of real individuals without consent,” he said. “And we are committed to using every tool at our disposal to hold accountable offenders like Strahler, who seek to intimidate and harass others by creating and circulating this disturbing content.”
The first lady lobbied last year for the passage of the Take It Down Act, which among other features makes it a felony to post AI-generated sexually explicit images of a person without their consent.
Last May, she put her signature next to that of President Donald Trump when he signed the bill in a Rose Garden ceremony surrounded by advocates and survivors.
The first lady, however, is not opposed to AI when properly used. As Breitbart News reported Monday, she wrote in an op-ed that AI had great potential for use in education while also advocating for “digital literacy.”
Strahler’s criminal conduct was first reported to the police department in the Columbus suburb of Hilliard, Ohio, and the area’s Delaware County Sheriff’s Department before being referred to the FBI. He was arrested on federal charges in June 2025.
Strahler’s sentence will be determined by the court at a future hearing, prosecutors said.
Veteran crime writer Lowell Cauffiel is the author of the New York Times true crime best seller House of Secrets , which documents one of the worst cases of child sex abuse in U.S. history, and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
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