Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel announced Wednesday the arrest of 205 alleged child sex predators who targeted children online in the past week.
These arrests are a part of the Justice Department and FBI’s new joint initiative called “Operation Restore Justice,” during which 115 children across the nation were rescued, according to Bondi and Patel.
Describing the operation as “historic” and “unprecedented,” Bondi urged parents to stay alert to sex predators masquerading as children online. The operation covered 55 field offices.
Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks to reporters outside the White House, Wednesday, May 7, 2025, in Washington. ((AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein))
“These depraved human beings, if convicted, will face the maximum penalty in prison, some [for] life,” Bondi said at a press briefing.
“We will find you. We will arrest you, and we will charge you. If you are online targeting a child, you will not escape us. The FBI and the Department of Justice will come after you. And we will prosecute you.”
Patel said that Jeremy Francis Klonskyv, a Minneapolis state trooper and former Army reservist, was arrested for producing child sexual abuse material while in uniform.
Bondi implored parents monitor what their kids are doing online and said that children have no right to privacy online.
‘An online predator can find them, I always say it’s from instant message to instant nightmare parents,” Bondi said. “They’re talking to your kids like they’re other children and they’re not. They’re predators. They pose as children. They get them sometimes to post explicit pictures of themselves after they talk to them and then in some cases, they even try to blackmail the children.”
Bondi said that the suicide rate among teens aged 14 to 17 has increased as a result of these types of sex predators targeting children.
As well, because teens are taken advantage of and are manipulated online by child predators. So all of you being here today and covering this is so important because parents need to know you’ve got to talk to your kids. They think they’re talking to other children, but most of the time they’re not.
