QAnon Leader Accidentally Outs Self As Statutory Rapist in Lawsuit Against Local Paper

According to the far-right cult of QAnon, an elite cabal of pedophiles runs the world and the Democratic Party, specifically. And yet, time and again, it turns out to be far-right politicians like Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fl.), who’s under federal investigation for human trafficking and statutory rape, and now QAnon leaders themselves who face allegations of grooming and child sexual abuse.

Phil Godlewski, a Pennsylvania-based QAnon leader with hundreds of thousands of followers on right-wing social platforms like Telegram and Rumble, sued a local newspaper in 2021 for defamation after the Scranton Times-Tribune mentioned a 2010 indictment against Godlewski for “corruption of a minor” in a profile about him. Now, per a new report from the Daily Beast, Godlewski’s defamation lawsuit has inadvertently exposed the full extent of his disturbing history of grooming and raping a teenage girl, who’s called “B.D.” in court records, over a period of time. More recently, text messages show he pressured a now-adult B.D. to lie about the situation in court.

According to police reports from the time and an affidavit filed this month by B.D. as part of the ongoing defamation suit, Godlewski met B.D. in 2008 when she was 15 and he was a 25-year-old baseball coach at her high school. Godlewski comforted the teen when her boyfriend at the time died by suicide, and they began having sex (again: statutory rape) shortly after, when she was still 15.

B.D.’s parents claim that the adult Godlewski frequently gave B.D. expensive gifts, including $2,800 diamond earrings, and essentially texted her 24/7. He once texted her that the two of them would only “ever be sexually satisfied if we did it like 4-5 times a day.” He also wrote to her as a teenager that she “looked so good and [was] giving incredible head.” Another text from Godlewski at the time reads, “Realized that you’re only 15, but quickly stopped caring.”

A March 2021 text from Godlewski to B.D. says, “I had no idea your Popa died. I’m so sorry. I think we had sex in their bed though.” B.D. replied, “We’ve probably had sex in like 40% of the homes in northeastern Pennsylvania.” This was a direct reference to how Godlewski would use his job as a real estate agent while she was a teenager to get access to for-sale houses for the two to have sex in.

In 2010, Godlewski was indicted for several charges related to the relationship. But when he reached out to B.D. and begged her to recant her claims, threatening to take his own life if she didn’t, B.D. wrote in her affidavit this month that she then stopped working with law enforcement on the case. As a result, Godlewski was able to plead guilty to a significantly lesser charge of “corruption of a minor” and sentenced to just three months under house arrest.

For over a decade, the story disappeared, and over the course of that decade, Godlewski pursued a highly lucrative career as a professional QAnon conspiracy theorist, peddling multi-level marketing schemes to his nearly one million followers. Earlier this year, he purchased a $1.7 million house.

In February 2021, after the local paper published its profile on Godlewski. Outraged by its allusion to his past, Godlewski sued the paper, managing to crowdfund $26,000 for his lawsuit against the Times-Tribune. But the lawsuit has since ignited a chain of events that’s exposed Godlewski.

In a livestream responding to the newspaper’s coverage of him, Godlewski has previously called B.D. a “conniving” liar and blamed the criminal case against him on her mother’s scheming. A lawyer for the conspiracy theorist told the Daily Beast that “any sexual relationship occurred when the couple were of age,” despite all the text messages B.D. has provided to the contrary.

Court filings from the Times-Tribune allege that as recently as May of this year, Godlewski contacted B.D. and offered her “a very, very large, and very, very unique financial opportunity,” adding, apparently in reference to the paper, “I don’t trust those motherfuckers and I am literally foaming at the mouth to take them down once and for all.” The Times-Tribune’s lawyers argue that Godlewski was implying he would pay B.D. to perjure herself by lying about their relationship in court.

It’s a gutting, abhorrent story, and one that certainly flies in the face of recent months of right-wing lies about liberal, predatory, LGBTQ child “groomers.” But between the aforementioned federal investigation of Gaetz and similar allegations against other far-right, QAnon-adjacent politicians (ahem, Google search “Lauren Boebart husband bowling alley,” please), I wish this story were more surprising.