The South Carolina House Ethics Committee released its findings on Tuesday about former Representative Robert John May III, determining that he broke several ethical laws, including not paying taxes for many years and abusing his legislative position.

May, previously known as a Lexington County Republican and the founder of the extremely conservative Freedom Caucus in South Carolina, faced a federal indictment in June 2025 involving 10 charges tied to distributing and possessing child sexual abuse content. The charges revealed May utilized the app Kik with the usernames “joebidennnn69” and “Eric Rentling” to share and receive numerous explicit videos.

Despite these allegations, May continued to serve as a House member during the 2025 legislative meetings. He stepped down in August and agreed to a federal plea agreement in September. His sentencing is scheduled for January 2026.

The probe into May’s actions started in late June after House Majority Leader Rep. Davey Hiott (R – Pickens) made an official request, accusing May of “conduct unbecoming of a member” and inappropriate use of his connections with fellow lawmakers.

The House Ethics Committee voted unanimously to proceed and hired outside counsel.

Under House rules, the identity of the member under investigation was not publicly disclosed until the findings were presented on October 14.

Mark Moore with Maynard Nexsen was the outside counsel along with his team.

Moore reported that their investigation concluded with evidence showing, “Mr. May engaged in distributing child sex abuse materials, a grave offense. He committed this violation while a member of the legislature. This occurred during legislative sessions. During the Easter recess [April 2024], he handled responsibilities of the House and his political consulting enterprise, while simultaneously distributing such material. We possess proof.”

Moore mentioned that May breached Title 18, U.S. Code § 1001, which outlaws false statements to the government, in addition to potentially other federal statutes.

While May claimed in court that his only asset was his Chevrolet truck, qualifying him for a public defender, Moore’s investigation found that May did not share his full income. Moore said, according to May, he has outstanding accounts receivable, including payments allegedly owed by current and former lawmakers.

Hiott’s letter also referenced May’s political consulting firm, Ivory Tusk Consulting. May worked on several campaigns for current and former lawmakers including those who lost in elections. Moore subpoenaed records from the South Carolina Department of Revenue and discovered that neither May nor his company filed any state income tax returns in 2022, 2023, or 2024.

“There is no evidence of state payment or filings of any state income taxes by Mr. May for those three years and no evidence of any tax filings,” Moore said.

Investigators interviewed former and current members of the House, many members of the Freedom Caucus, who had worked with Ivory Tusk Consulting. While some lawmakers cooperated, others did not.

Rep. Donald McCabe (R–Lexington) and Rep. Joe White (R–Lexington) were fully cooperative and voluntarily handed over requested materials.

However, Rep. Jay Kilmartin (R–Lexington), Rep. Stephen Frank (R–Greenville), and Rep. Jordan Pace (R–Berkeley), the current leader of the Freedom Caucus, either ignored multiple requests for interviews or refused to respond to communication with the investigative team, Moore said.

“We ultimately worked out an arrangement, where records would be produced to us by September 12, the records that were agreed to be produced to us were not fully produced by those three Representatives, and we had multiple communications about those failed productions,” Moore said. “We sent them another subpoena for bank records. We sent them subpoenas for testimony.”

“October the 6th, the three gentlemen appeared for a deposition through lawyers,” Moore added. “Their lawyers advised them not to answer questions because the questions were being put to them by outside counsel and not being put to them by members of this body.”

Moore noted that South Carolina law requires elected officials to retain financial records, including bank statements, invoices, and donation and expenditure reports, for four years. These were the types of documents his team was seeking from May and his associates.

May did not responded to any requests or communication with the South Carolina House Ethics Committee or Moore’s team.

The hearing concluded with the committee closing the investigation and issuing referrals for ethics violations to two current lawmakers, along with an additional referral for tax-related concerns involving another.