In 2023, Ballard quietly parted ways with OUR after investigating allegations of sexual misconduct made against him by employees. Lynch, who was not an employee, has a vague memory of the time but remembers telling friends of an OUR employee that inappropriate things had happened. They, she says, told their friend, who then reported it to human resources. (Her lawyer, Suzette Rasmussen, confirms this sequence of events.)

Borys became Ballard’s executive assistant in early 2023. She says she was shut out from other OUR staff. When the investigation began, she knew little about it and was told that its scope was limited to one woman’s report and that she would quit. It was only after she left OUR and attorney Suzette Rasmussen spoke on television about a lawsuit the women she represented had filed against Ballard under pseudonyms in Utah civil court that she really began to process her experiences.

“I was still trying to understand all the things I had been through while working for him,” she says. “When I saw Suzette, I felt like she was the safest place I could turn to for protection.”

It was only after she left Ballard’s circle, blocked his phone number and filed a lawsuit that she began to understand how traumatized she was, Borys says. “I was listening to a police officer who was doing a podcast or on the news, and he said you can’t -” here she pauses and starts to cry. “You can’t create a victim by saving victims. And that really hit me.”

The court case is ongoing. In addition to the lawsuits and criminal investigation, Borys and Lynch have filed for permanent protective orders against Ballard. They are currently waiting for evidentiary hearings to be scheduled.

The two are also still trying to come to terms with their experiences not only with Ballard, but also with OUR, which neither of them believes was ever a legitimate child rescue operation.

“Where is the evidence?” asks Borys. “There is simply no evidence, and if you try to talk to someone who still works there and believes in it, they are like Tim Ballard – red-faced, nervous and frustrated. Instead of answering questions, they fire back.”

WIRED provided a detailed list of questions to Chad Kolton, a spokesperson for Tim Ballard. In his response, Kolton wrote, in part, “I started to answer each of these questions, but then changed my mind because it seemed like a waste of time… There is absolutely nothing new about Tim’s work with Republicans, which he has been doing openly for years because they actually want to do something about the problem of human trafficking rather than denying its existence. The cases against him are starting to fall apart, one case has already been dismissed, and another is facing an evidentiary hearing on serious allegations of illegal and unethical conduct by the plaintiff and her attorneys.”

OUR did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment.

“I hope he goes to prison,” Lynch says. “It’s really hard to say, and it was hard to understand that that could happen. I have to realize that it’s not me that’s putting him in prison. It’s not us. It’s him and what he did.”

She also says she just wants the truth to come out.

“Nobody deserves to go through this, and someone like him doesn’t deserve to be running in a presidential campaign or giving speeches,” she said. “He doesn’t deserve that right now.”