To the World, He Is an Anti-Trafficking Hero. Women Tell a Different Story.

Tim Ballard had fashioned himself into a made-for-Hollywood hero.

For years, he led a nonprofit that proclaimed daring undercover missions to rescue children from the horrors of international sex trafficking. Politicians embraced his call for more barriers on the southern border to block smuggling. President Donald J. Trump brought him on as an adviser. Last year, the hit movie “Sound of Freedom” showcased his life and work, making more than $250 million and becoming one of the most successful independent films of all time.

But while the world knew him as a champion of the vulnerable, many of the women he worked with now tell a much darker story: that Mr. Ballard himself was grooming, manipulating, harassing and sexually assaulting women. In lawsuits beginning last year, the women said that Mr. Ballard preyed on their desire to help trafficking victims, coercing or forcing them into sexual encounters as part of their undercover work in brothels, strip clubs and massage parlors.

A former Homeland Security agent, Mr. Ballard had built his nonprofit, Operation Underground Railroad, at a time when the issue of child sex trafficking was already on the rise. High-profile cases — some of them appallingly real, some of them inventions of conspiracy theorists — drove outrage about minors being forced into sexual servitude and exploited by U.S. elites.

Mr. Ballard won credibility across the varied worlds of religion, law enforcement, media, politics and entertainment. By 2020, Operation Underground Railroad was raising nearly $50 million a year in donations, with a roster of supporters that included the conservative media mogul Glenn Beck, the motivational speaker Tony Robbins and the Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin.

In Utah, where the organization’s leadership is based, Mr. Ballard talked up his close connections to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, at times appearing alongside one of the church’s 12 powerful apostles.

As concerns about his conduct began percolating last year, the empire he created appeared to be crumbling. In June 2023, he stepped down from Operation Underground Railroad. The Latter-day Saints church last September denounced Mr. Ballard’s “morally unacceptable” activities in a statement to VICE News, which had published a series of stories raising questions about the nonprofit’s operations.

And yet, in many conservative circles, Mr. Ballard’s star keeps rising.

At the Conservative Political Action Conference in February, Mr. Ballard was onstage, arguing that failure to manage the southern U.S. border has turned federal agencies into “a child-sex-trafficking delivery service.” He received a “Heroic Patriot” award at a Catholic Prayer for Trump event at Mar-a-Lago in March. And in July, Mr. Trump’s former lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, hosted Mr. Ballard on his broadcast from the Republican National Convention, encouraging him not to be “discouraged” and assuring him that he had many allies and a promising future.

But questions about Mr. Ballard’s conduct at Operation Underground Railroad have continued, and more women have come forward. The New York Times interviewed 10 who worked with Mr. Ballard at the organization and now describe their time there as a nightmare of sexual harassment, coerced sexual contact and sexual assault.

*This shares a true story based on real events that are categorized by the date around which they happened. It covers traumatic topics such as ‘loverboy’ grooming, sex trafficking, and exploitation; severe and long-term mental abuse; public and private defamation; public exposure with edited and fabricated evidence; and sexual violence. It may trigger strong emotions and flashbacks in those with similar trauma; please prioritize your well-being before proceeding. Some details have been altered for privacy, clarity, and brevity, but the essential context remains intact. Reader discretion is advised.