SALT LAKE CITY — Tim Ballard, the founder and former CEO of Operation Underground Railroad, says he has been defamed and excommunicated as part of a "conspiracy" involving members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
He made the statements in a video posted to Instagram late Wednesday night.
The video shows Ballard at a desk with soft piano music playing in the background.
He begins the video by announcing that he and his wife, Katherine Ballard, are not getting divorced.
Ballard then proceeds to hold up a piece of paper, announcing that "Tim and Katherine Ballard vs. the Deep Church" will be "going to every outlet, every podcast around the world."
"Deep State? Deep Church? You get it," Ballard said. "Children are literally being beaten and bloodied by ISIS and traffickers because of the lies."
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Ballard refers to his excommunication as a "false excommunication" in which he did not receive due process.
He also said the Church put out statement condemning him in September 2023 so that he would not become the next US Senator representing Utah.
The Church statement in question stated Ballard cited the "betrayal" of a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. It also referred to Ballard's behavior as "morally unacceptable."
Ballard is asking for a retraction.
"Authorities inside the Church have refused to retract the obvious defamation, which is now being used by groups like ISIS, and traffickers and pedophiles in general, to obstruct Ballard’s work."
By the time the Church statement was released, Ballard had already "permanently separated" from Operation Underground Railroad amidst sexual misconduct complaints from coworkers. Ballard was later named as a defendant by six women in a series of sexual misconduct lawsuits. Five of the six women still have active lawsuits. The sixth was dismissed but is being appealed.
Plaintiffs said Ballard would sometimes use President M. Russell Ballard’s name to justify sexual conduct, so long as it is used as part of an undercover technique to save “God’s children.”
Court filings showed 37 pages of messages sent between Ballard and a woman. The messages are sometimes explicit. Sometimes they philosophize about nontraditional views and criticisms of the LDS Church.
Documents show Ballard was also under criminal investigation for fraud. At least a portion of that investigation has concluded without the filing of criminal charges.
"Tim is fully convinced that he is supposed to be the 'Mormon Messiah' and lead people back to the church," prosecutors wrote.
The documents also outlined how prosecutors believed Ballard communicated with a psychic to speak to the prophet Nephi "to get intel" on how to rescue children.
Ballard said the conspiracy serves to prevent people from watching his latest film. He urged people to call Cinemark so that the film could be seen in theatres.
At one point during the video, Ballard stated he would be issuing subpoenas to expose people who are part of the conspiracy.
FOX 13 News asked if that means he plans to file a lawsuit against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
So far, we have not received a response.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has not commented.