Network Connections

Documented Associations

• Josh Duggar and Bill Gothard — Religious network: Josh Duggar's family (the Duggars) participated in Bill Gothard's IBLP training programs; Gothard's organization shaped the Duggar family's values and homeschooling practices.
• Jim Bakker and Jerry Falwell Jr. — Religious-political alliance: Jim Bakker and Jerry Falwell Jr. were both prominent televangelists who publicly supported Donald Trump and mobilized evangelical voters for the 2016 and 2020 elections.
• Jerry Falwell Jr. and Roy Moore — Trump coalition: Jerry Falwell Jr. and Roy Moore were both high-profile evangelical Trump supporters; Falwell endorsed Trump at Liberty University, while Moore was Trump's Senate pick in Alabama.
• Roy Moore and Dennis Hastert — Republican establishment: Roy Moore and Dennis Hastert were both embedded in the Republican Party's religious-conservative wing; both faced allegations while holding or seeking public office.
• Matt Gaetz and Scott Lloyd — Trump administration: Matt Gaetz and Scott Lloyd were both Trump-connected figures; Lloyd as a Trump appointee and Gaetz as a Trump Congressional ally who was later nominated for Attorney General.
• Tony Alamo and Bill Gothard — Religious authority abuse: Tony Alamo and Bill Gothard both leveraged religious authority structures to isolate and abuse victims; both operated ministries that shielded perpetrators through cult-like control.
• Josh Duggar and Roy Moore — Conservative Christian network: Josh Duggar and Roy Moore both moved in overlapping conservative Christian political circles; Duggar worked with Family Research Council, which also supported Moore.
• Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein — Personal friendship: Trump and Epstein were longtime friends; Trump called Epstein a "terrific guy who likes beautiful women" in a 2002 New York magazine profile. They socialized together at Mar-a-Lago and in New York. Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre alleged Trump was present at Epstein events.
• Donald Trump and George Nader — Trump administration envoy: George Nader, later convicted of child sex trafficking, served as an informal Trump administration envoy on Middle East matters. He attended the Trump Tower meeting with UAE and Saudi officials during the transition period.
• Donald Trump and Ralph Shortey — Campaign leadership: Ralph Shortey was chairman of Trump's 2016 Oklahoma presidential campaign. He was arrested and later convicted of child sex trafficking while holding that role.
• Donald Trump and Elliott Broidy — RNC fundraising: Elliott Broidy served as Deputy Finance Chair of the Republican National Committee under Trump. He was one of Trump's top fundraisers. Michael Cohen, Trump's lawyer, arranged hush-money for Broidy using the same LLC structure used for Trump's own hush-money payments.
• Donald Trump and Matt Gaetz — Congressional ally: Matt Gaetz was one of Trump's most aggressive congressional defenders and received Trump's endorsement throughout his tenure. Trump nominated Gaetz as Attorney General in November 2024 despite the ongoing sex trafficking investigation.
• Donald Trump and Jim Jordan — Presidential Medal of Freedom: Trump awarded Jim Jordan the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, in January 2021. Jordan remained Trump's closest ally in Congress throughout both Trump administrations.
• Donald Trump and Brett Kavanaugh — Supreme Court appointment: Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court in July 2018. Trump repeatedly and publicly defended Kavanaugh against Christine Blasey Ford's allegations, calling the accusations a "con job" and mocking Ford at a campaign rally.
• Donald Trump and Jerry Falwell Jr. — Evangelical political alliance: Jerry Falwell Jr. was one of Trump's earliest and most prominent evangelical endorsers, providing critical credibility with the evangelical base. Falwell endorsed Trump at Liberty University in 2016 and remained a staunch defender through his own resignation.
• Donald Trump and Roy Moore — Senate endorsement: Trump endorsed Roy Moore for the U.S. Senate in Alabama in 2017, even after multiple women accused Moore of pursuing sexual relationships with them as teenagers. Trump held a rally for Moore and made robocalls urging voters to support him.
• Jeffrey Epstein and Elliott Broidy — Social network / financial connection: Jeffrey Epstein and Elliott Broidy both operated in overlapping wealthy donor and social circles. Both had dealings arranged through figures connected to the Trump and Republican donor network.
• Donald Trump and Clarence Thomas — Conservative judicial movement: Trump's nomination of Clarence Thomas's ideological heirs (Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, Barrett) continued the conservative judicial project Thomas had championed. Thomas's wife Ginni actively participated in Trump's 2020 election denial efforts.
• Jerry Falwell Jr. and Carl Lentz — Hillsong celebrity evangelical network: Jerry Falwell Jr. and Carl Lentz both operated in overlapping elite evangelical circles that included political access and celebrity connections. Both ultimately resigned over sexual misconduct allegations.
• Frank Houston and Brian Houston — Father-son / institutional coverup: Brian Houston concealed his father Frank Houston's child sexual abuse for years, prioritizing the institution of Hillsong over the welfare of victims — a pattern documented across multiple religious institutions in this database.
• Paul Pressler and Paige Patterson — Southern Baptist Convention conservative coalition: Paul Pressler and Paige Patterson were co-architects of the conservative takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention in the 1980s. Their movement created the institutional religious culture that later became the core of the Trump evangelical coalition.
• Bill Gothard and Paul Pressler — Fundamentalist Baptist institutional networks: Bill Gothard and Paul Pressler both built institutional power within fundamentalist Baptist networks, using their religious authority to shield themselves from accountability for decades of misconduct.
• Jack Schaap and Bill Gothard — Independent Fundamental Baptist network: Jack Schaap's First Baptist Church of Hammond was a flagship institution of the Independent Fundamental Baptist movement that overlapped with Bill Gothard's IBLP. Both institutions created cultures of unquestioned pastoral authority that enabled abuse.