F.B.I. Investigating Explicit Messages Ryan Adams Allegedly Sent to a 14-Year-Old  

In the article, published on February 13, a 20-year-old woman identified as Ava said that she and Adams communicated online from the time she was 14 until she was 16. The Times reported that they reviewed over 3,000 messages between the two, some of which contained sexually explicit pictures of the teenager and also screenshots of a Skype call where Adams was fully nude. Now, according to the Times, the F.B.I. has initiated a criminal investigation:

“The agents, from the Crimes Against Children Squad, will seek to interview the woman, [an] official said, and try to obtain the text messages and any other evidence she may have in her possession. If they find her account credible, they will take other investigative steps, which could include subpoenaing both her cellphone records and those of Adams from their service providers.”

Federal law prohibits the sexual exploitation of children under 18. But Adams’s lawyers have already pulled the old “she looked older” card in a statement to the Times while also maintaining that Adams doesn’t remember any sexting between himself and a child. At different times during their communication, Adams reportedly asked Ava to say she was 18, but she never showed any identification that proved it.

In the original article, seven women, including Adams’s ex-wife Mandy Moore, came forward to accuse Adams of using career advancement as a tool to manipulate them into sex. On February 14, model and musician Karen Elson posted to Instagram that she had a similar experience with Adams:

Adams defended himself via Twitter, posting an apology to “anyone I have ever hurt, however unintentionally” but denied intentionally sending thousands of sexts to a 14-year-old.