First lady Melania Trump on Tuesday hailed the first criminal conviction under legislation she championed to outlaw artificial intelligence-generated images of child sexual abuse and revenge porn.
James Strahler, 37, pleaded guilty in a US District Court in Ohio to cyberstalking, producing obscene visual representations of child sexual abuse and publication of digital forgeries – criminal activity covered by the Take It Down Act, which the first lady and President Trump signed into law last year.
“Today marks the first conviction under the Take It Down Act – protecting victims from non-consensual AI-generated sexually explicit images, cyberstalking, and threats of violence,” Melania wrote on X.
“Thank you US Attorney Dominick S. Gerace II for protecting Americans from cybercrimes in this new digital age,” the first lady added.
Melania made a rare trip to Capitol Hill last year to lobby congressional lawmakers to pass the bill criminalizing the distribution of non-consensual sexual imagery — including revenge porn and AI-generated material depicting child sexual abuse.
The Take It Down Act cleared the House in a 409-2 vote and was passed by the Senate via unanimous consent.
Perpetrators face up to two years in federal prison if the images feature an adult or three years if they depict a minor. Websites must also remove content within 48 hours of notification that the images violate the law, with enforcement delegated to the Federal Trade Commission.
Strahler used more than 24 AI platforms and more than 100 AI web-based models installed on his phone to engage in a “campaign of harassment” between December 2024 and June 2025, according to federal prosecutors.
He sent harassing messages to at least six adult female victims, which included nude images of the victims, both real and AI-generated, the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio said.
The depraved man allegedly used AI to create videos depicting at least one adult victim engaged in sex acts with her father, which he then distributed to the victim’s co-workers.
Strahler also threatened the mothers of adult female victims that he would circulate explicit images of their daughters if they did not send him nude photos, according to prosecutors, and would repeatedly call his victims to leave voicemails of himself masturbating or threatening to rape them.
The sicko allegedly created more than 700 images of both real victims and animated persons and posted them to a website dedicated to child sexual abuse. Authorities found an additional 2,400 images and videos on his phone depicting nudity, morphed child sexual abuse material or violence.
Prosecutors say Strahler used AI to morph the faces of minor boys from his community onto the bodies of adults and create videos of them engaged in sex acts “with their mothers and/or grandmothers.”
“We believe Strahler is the first person in the United States to be convicted under the Take It Down Act,” US Attorney Dominick Gerace II said in a statement. “We will not tolerate the abhorrent practice of posting and publicizing AI-generated intimate images of real individuals without consent.
“And we are committed to using every tool at our disposal to hold accountable offenders like Strahler, who seek to intimidate and harass others by creating and circulating this disturbing content.”
Strahler will be sentenced at a later date.
