Lawsuit compels the Biden White House and DoD to produce all documents related to the blockbuster anti-child trafficking film’s screenings after SOUTHCOM “abruptly” cancelled them.
The Biden administration and Department of Defense were sued for canceling screenings of anti-child trafficking film Sound of Freedom at military bases without explanation.
Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project filed a lawsuit Thursday compelling the Biden White House and DoD to produce all documents related to the blockbuster film’s screenings after the U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) “abruptly” cancelled them.
The legal action comes after the DoD refused to comply with the Oversight Project’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for the same documents.
Sound of Freedom depicts actor Jim Caviezel as former DHS agent Tim Ballard, who operated covertly to take down child sex traffickers in Central America.
“As SOUTHCOM routinely works with partners in Central and South America, as well as the Caribbean, it has a vested interest in ensuring that its personnel are well aware of issues surrounding human trafficking in the region,” the lawsuit states.
SOUTHCOM canceled two planned free screenings of Sound of Freedom at its headquarters in Doral, Florida, after two journalists from The Military Times contacted them.
Those journalists later characterized the film as “QAnon-embraced” and “Christian-faith-based” in a subsequent hit piece amid a bizarre media-driven demonization campaign against the film.
YouTube even began pulling Sound of Freedom interviews and reviews in response to the media’s smear campaign.
But SOUTHCOM cited “copy and intellectual property laws” as the reason behind its decision to cancel the screenings.
Sound of Freedom producer Eduardo Verástegui remarked that he told SOUTHCOM it had no reason to be concerned with copyright laws:
“I made ‘Sound of Freedom’ to raise awareness of the rampant sex trafficking in children happening throughout Latin America and the United States with the goal of ending this modern-day slave trade. Because SOUTHCOM’s brave soldiers work to break up the transnational criminal organizations responsible for drug and sex-trafficking into the U.S., we wanted to inspire and thank them for their service by offering a private screening on base.
“We made it 100% clear that there are no copyright concerns with SOUTHCOM hosting the movie while it was in theaters, and additionally offered to send the filmmakers to meet the troops at the screening. In fact, if needed, I am willing to get on a plane tomorrow with Tim Ballard, the real-life hero of the movie, to deliver a copy of the film to the troops so they can be re-energized in their efforts to combat child sex-trafficking in the Americas.
“To our bewilderment, SOUTHCOM leadership has rejected our offer for three different, shifting, and unconvincing reasons and we appreciate the Oversight Project’s efforts to get to the bottom of it. We are hopeful this matter will be resolved soon so that the troops can gather together and be touched like the tens of millions of other Americans and people around the world who have seen this film and are saying with one voice that God’s children are not for sale.”
Sound of Freedom has gone on to become a runaway hit, grossing $200 million domestically, and a became cultural flashpoint over the issue of child sex trafficking.
Former President Donald Trump showed a screening of the film at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey in July — and said he’d urge Congress to consider the death penalty for child traffickers if he becomes president in 2024.
Read the lawsuit: