Republican judge took his own life when agents came to arrest him for illicit child pictures: report

On Friday, The Baltimore Sunreported that a Republican judge in Caroline County, Maryland, is dead in an apparent suicide — discovered when law enforcement officials came to arrest him for possession of illegal child sexual pictures.

"Judge Jonathan G. Newell, 50, was pronounced dead at 6:43 a.m. from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced. A judge since 2016 and before that Caroline County's top prosecutor for more than a decade, he was to be taken into custody on federal charges of sexual exploitation of a child, prosecutors said," reported Justin Fenton. "A boy that Newell took on a hunting trip on Hoopers Island discovered a hidden camera in the bathroom on July 23, and his parents reported it to police, which The Sun reported last week."

"The FBI interviewed several young males, who said they had been to the hunting lodge with Newell and that while in the bathroom, Newell checked their bodies for ticks, according to a criminal complaint filed Thursday in federal court and unsealed Friday following his death," continued the report. "Authorities searched Newell's home, truck and judicial office, and located a hard drive in his den that they said contained numerous videos of young men showering. Newell can be seen on the footage setting the camera up, the FBI said. In one video clip, he can be seen searching a young man's naked body for ticks."

According to the report, when Newell was confronted by authorities, he went into another room, where he is believed to have "chewed up and swallowed" a camera memory card that may have held more incriminating pictures.

This report comes amid numerous other underage sex allegations against prominent Republican figures.

A top Minnesota GOP strategist was disowned by the party after his arrest for allegedly paying hush money to an underage girl involved in his sex trafficking scheme. And longtime Trump ally Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) is under federal investigation for possibly transporting an underage girl over state lines for sex, allegations he vehemently denies and claims are fabricated as part of an extortion plot against him.