A former FBI contractor has been indicted for allegedly grooming dozens of young boys and
soliciting child porn.
Brett William Janes, from Arlington, Virginia, began working for the FBI in May and had worked for another unspecified intelligence agency.
Janes reportedly engaged with “roughly a dozen” young boys over messaging platforms, Discord and Snapchat.
The former FBI contractor was grooming his victims by flashing his badge and “telling them he worked for a U.S. intelligence agency before repeatedly threatening suicide if the minors did not continue to communicate with him,” according to the Department of Justice
The former FBI contractor also successfully enticed a young boy he had met on the video game “Valorant,” getting him to “strip and masturbate over a live video Discord call” by paying him hundreds of dollars over CashApp and threatening to kill himself, said the DOJ.
Janes also had a 12-year-old boy create and send him child pornography via Discord “through flattery and repeated begging.”
According to the DOJ, Janes also purchased hundreds of videos and images of child sex abuse material over Telegram and also attempted to meet up with children.
When Janes learned one victim was only 14, he tried to have him come to his house, charging documents indicate.
A special agent with the FBI Washington field office’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force, Paul Fisher, indicated in his affidavit supporting Janes’ arrest that the investigation kicked off in February after a concerned father notified police in New Jersey after discovering his son had been communicating with an adult on Discord.
Washington-based FBI agents began pursuing the case after receiving a lead on April 21, 2023.
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The former FBI contractor was easy to track down due to pictures of the badges he used to access federal buildings to his victims.
Janes’ IP address, email address, and phone number corresponded to the offending Discord account.
On Wednesday, a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia indicted Janes on two counts of sexual exploitation of children and production of child pornography, one count of attempting coercion and enticement, and one count of receipt of child pornography.
Janes will serve at least 15 years in prison and could face life in prison if convicted.
Anyone who believes Janes may have victimized them or someone they know should contact the FBI at 202-278-2000.
Court documents indicated Jane’s username on Discord was “revision#3409.”
READ: FBI Locates 200 Victims of Sex Trafficking, 59 Missing Children in Nationwide Operation
