Denny Sanford's Dirty Pictures Won't Go Away

One of San Diego's Biggest Donors Faces More Scrutiny

Philanthropist Denny Sanford is facing another round of media reports concerning allegations that he possessed child pornography. 

Court documents dated from November, 2021 said the banker and philanthropist was the ‘implicated individual’ in a child pornography investigation.

Affidavits for five search warrants,  signed and executed in December 2019 and March of 2020 have been unsealed following a court fight by attorneys representing Sanford trying to keep ProPublica and the Argus Leader from examining the documents. 

A unanimous South Dakota Supreme Court ruling on April 6 ended that battle, and –with a few redactions of personal information– the documents are now on the internet for all to see.

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They reveal an investigation following a cyber tip submitted to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in July 2019.

Investigators wanted cell phone records from Verizon, internet and IP information from Midcontinent, AOL and Hotmail email addresses, and digital information from Oath Inc. (the remnants of Yahoo! & AOL), based in Virginia.

Three out of 36 images recovered in the initial investigation were described in the affidavits as depicting full frontal nudity of females estimated to be 8 to 15 years old. 

The bottom line, at this point anyway, is that Sanford was never charged by the State of South Dakota. From what I can surmise by reading available court documents, the investigation never reached the stage where the evidence was strong enough to convince a jury to convict. 

Although pornographic images were found on devices/accounts belonging to Sandford, there was not sufficient evidence to establish that he was the individual in possession of those instruments at the times when files were downloaded.

• According to the affidavit, investigators believed the AOL account was being used by Sanford and the IP addresses maintained by Midcontinent Communications showed a possible geolocation of Sioux Falls. However, investigators cited “inconsistent possible subscriber geolocation information” associated with the Verizon Wireless IP addresses used to access the email account as a reason for being unable to make an accurate determination regarding the location of the person who was accessing the account on the particular dates.

• Investigators said those various IP addresses have possible subscriber geolocations that include locations in Arizona, Oregon, and California. At the time, Sanford owned homes in Sioux Falls, Scottsdale, Arizona, and La Jolla, California. Court documents say the possible subscriber geolocation information regarding the IP address used to access the account include all three of those cities, however investigators also pointed out that it’s possible that a user could remotely access computers in those locations from anywhere in the world.

When a wealthy individual walks away from a major criminal investigation with no indictments, there is always the thought that they bought law enforcement or judicial official(s).

Via The Argus Leader:

• Sanford is the richest person in the state, the founder of First Premier Bank and a nationally recognized philanthropist, along as the namesake behind Sanford Health, a regional nonprofit healthcare system based in Sioux Falls.

This quote from 11/17/2021 on Dakota News Now - a broadcast effort by Fox, ABC, and NBC -  makes me wonder:

• South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg determined that there was enough evidence to charge Sanford in the case, but opted to defer to federal prosecutors because the case spanned across many states.

You might have heard of Ravnsborg in the recent past, because he was impeached and removed from office by South Dakota lawmakers following an incident where he killed a pedestrian while driving and using a phone at the same time. The former attorney general compounded his situation by lying to investigators and having a meeting with a Division of Criminal Investigation and a digital forensics expert.

Following Ravnsborg’s removal, Deputy Attorney General Brent Kempema submitted a notice of completed investigation that "determined that there are no prosecutable offenses within the jurisdiction of the State of South Dakota."

From the Argus News Leader: (Emphasis mine)

• Sanford's lawyers, in court documents filed in January 2022, also argued that Sanford's email accounts were hacked, which led to the child pornography investigation into the billionaire. At the time, Sanford was represented by Marty Jackley.

• “A forensic examination of the very email account and relevant timeframe that is the subject of the search warrant in this case has uncovered the specific name of an individual other than the Implicated Individual having gained access to that very account,” Jackley wrote at the time. “Further exonerating evidence includes corroborating evidence of hacking into the Implicated Individual’s various accounts, unknown to the Implicated Individual until a forensic examination was performed that sought to uncover the truth in this matter.”

• Jackley, who is currently the South Dakota Attorney General, no longer represents Sanford. Jackley was elected in November 2022.

Following release of the affidavits, Tony Mangan, communications director for the South Dakota Attorney General’s Office said:

•  “In 2019, the Division of Criminal Investigation began investigating whether T. Denny Sanford had possessed child pornography. Search warrants were issued. That investigative file was then forwarded to the United States Attorney office in South Dakota, which forwarded it to the Department of Justice. The file was also forwarded to the authorities in Arizona and California. To date, none of those authorities have lodged charges against Sanford.”

Sanford’s legal team believes the matter is settled:

• “Mr. Sanford appreciates that after a thorough investigation the authorities concluded there exists no prosecutable offense. Here, because there is no prosecutable case or further action to be taken, the court records being released contain only allegations. These preliminary allegations were provided to law enforcement prior to law enforcement’s exhaustive investigation and its realization that various individuals had documented access to the electronic devices at issue, including signs of hacking. While some claim releasing affidavits that reiterate these allegations constitute transparency, releasing preliminary allegations made prior to completing the full investigation only misinforms people and obscures the investigation’s conclusions that no prosecutable offense occurred.”

The National Center on Sexual Exploitation would beg to disagree:

• Senior Legal Counsel, Dani Pinter of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation believes the federal government should proceed.

• “Anyone having a child pose in the nude is a form of sexual abuse,” said Pinter. “It’s not something we should just sweep under the rug and of course prosecutors have discretion, and I can’t say why the state’s not proceeding, but I hope maybe they aren’t proceeding because they know that the federal government is proceeding.”

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Denny Sanford made his fortune by owning one of those high interest, easy to get & hard to pay off credit card companies thru First Premier Bank in . He pledged to give away his entire fortune to charity without a formal foundation or permanent staff.

You can’t go far in San Diego without bumping into an institution he has funded, including;. 

• The Sanford Burnham Prebys medical research institute ($70 million)

• UC San Diego ($450 million)

• National University ($500 million) - A plan to rename the entire institution in his honor is on hold.

• San Diego Children’s Zoo ($30 million)

Estimates on his charitable donations in South Dakota, Minnesota, Arizona and California total more than $2 billion.

Then there are his political donations; the $1 million he gave to Americans for Prosperity Action in 2021 should tell you everything you need to know. Here’s a list of other donations, which are almost exclusively to Republican causes or candidates. 

I can’t pretend to know whether Denny Sanford is… what do the GOP propagandists call it?… a pedo. 

But what I can say is that for a political party that’s so uptight about everything sex-related except the missionary position and forcing birth on unwilling women, they sure do seem to have a problem with their candidates, officials, and funders getting busted for various sex crimes. Here’s the current list (updated every five minutes)  of more than 900 instances involving Gross Old Perverts. 

While illegal and unethical conduct is not limited to one party, when higher profile Democrats are named and/or shamed, it’s usually the case that their tenure is over. 

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How A Really Bad Individual Got Access to Top Secret Docs

Guardsman accused of leaking classified documents spoke of ‘violence and murder,’ prosecutors say Via the Los Angeles Times.

• Court papers urging the judge to keep Teixeira in custody detailed a troubling history since high school, where he was suspended when a classmate overheard him discussing Molotov cocktails and other weapons as well as racial threats. More recently, prosecutors said, he used his government computer to research past mass shootings and standoffs with federal agents.

Denied a Gun License Over School Threat, Accused Leaker Jack Teixeira Later Got Top-Secret Clearance,” Via The Wall Street Journal. I wonder how we got to this point, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene says he’s a hero?

Jack Teixeira and Me Via Jeff Stein at SpyTalk.

• In America today, radicalism manifests mostly as rank racism, says extremism expert Kathleen Belew, author of Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America.

• “If anybody thinks this is just a kid playing around on Discord, please go look at the charging documents, which feature the ideological writings, and the weapons, of Teixeira,” she wrote Thursday on Twitter. 

• “Also, in case you haven't yet heard me say this, when it comes to the white power movement, THERE ARE NO LONE WOLVES,” she added (her caps). “Actors work WITHIN A MOVEMENT and we have to study both. DO NOT allow this to remain a narrative about one disaffected young man.”

• It’s not. The movement is here, and metastasizing, it seems. How the military, especially, deals with it, is one hell of a problem—for us all.

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Lead Image: South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem holds a picture thanking Denny Sanford for supporting Moms for Liberty, Tucker Carlson’s favorite ‘Parent’s Rights’ group