In July 2022, federal agents executed an arrest warrant against Kiernan Major, a California-based business owner, following the filing of a criminal complaint later presented to a grand jury in Los Angeles. Though a criminal complaint is merely an initial document outlining unproven allegations, it quickly became the deceptive basis for a wave of sensationalized media coverage. Several outlets published what appeared to be coordinated “hit pieces,” falsely portraying Major as someone already convicted of crimes he was never formally charged with or accused of — most notably fraud and financial misconduct.
Court records show that Major was officially charged with and indicted on two counts of “Cyberstalking” under Title 18 U.S.C. § 2261A(2), and five counts of “Threat by Interstate Communication” under Title 18 U.S.C. § 875(c). Nowhere in the arrest or conviction record is there any formal mention of fraud or financial wrongdoing. Nevertheless, a number of journalists — many of whom appeared to echo one another’s reporting — claimed that Major had “swindled” or “duped” victims out of “hundreds of thousands of dollars,” attributing these accusations to federal authorities. Yet no such allegations were ever substantiated or even acknowledged by prosecutors or law enforcement officials involved in the case.
Several of these same articles misleadingly claimed that the presiding judge had ordered Major to pay restitution to “victims,” implying that the payments were connected...
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