Tim Ballard, the founder of Operation Underground Railroad and the real-life figure behind the 2023 film Sound of Freedom, has been excommunicated from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Ballard confirmed the excommunication in a November 5, 2025, press release issued with his wife, Katherine Ballard, and framed it as the product of a defamation campaign by “entities inside the Church” rather than a response to the sexual misconduct allegations that ended his career at OUR.1Yahoo News. Tim Ballard Claims Defamation Conspiracy The Church, which as a matter of policy does not publicly confirm membership actions against individuals, has not disclosed the date of the excommunication.
The Church’s Public Rebuke in September 2023
The LDS Church took the unusual step of publicly condemning Ballard on September 15, 2023, months before any reported disciplinary action. In its statement, the Church said Ballard had “betrayed” his friendship with President M. Russell Ballard, then the acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and no relation to Tim Ballard, by using the apostle’s name for “personal advantage.” The Church called the behavior “morally unacceptable” and said it had never “endorsed, supported or represented OUR, Tim Ballard or any projects associated with them.”2Deseret News. Tim Ballard Responds to Latter-Day Saint Church Statement Church Media Relations Director Doug Andersen added that the apostle “never authorized his name, or the name of the Church, to be used for Tim’s personal or financial interests.”3ABC4. Ballard Defamation Excommunication LDS
Ballard pushed back three days later. On September 18, 2023, he declared: “I am a faithful Member in good standing in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.”2Deseret News. Tim Ballard Responds to Latter-Day Saint Church Statement
The Disciplinary Process
Court filings later described the mechanics of what came next. Ballard’s local bishop, Les Eldredge, provided a letter on September 17, 2023, confirming Ballard’s good standing, then rescinded it after the Church’s official statement, texting Ballard that he was “not authorized to use the letter as an endorsement of good standing for Tim, to any organization.”4Fox 13 Now. New Court Filings Detail Tim Ballard’s Discipline With LDS Church
A Church disciplinary hearing was scheduled for September 25, 2023. According to court records, Celeste Borys, Ballard’s former executive assistant, said in filings that Ballard’s former bishop asked her to testify at the hearing that she had “pre-loaded” sexual messages onto Ballard’s phone as part of an “undercover tactic or training.” Borys declined.4Fox 13 Now. New Court Filings Detail Tim Ballard’s Discipline With LDS Church Attorneys for plaintiffs in a related civil case filed 37 pages of messages between Ballard and an undercover operator using the pseudonym “JJ” as court exhibits.
Ballard’s Claim of a Defamation Conspiracy
In the November 5, 2025, press release confirming the excommunication, the Ballards alleged that “entities inside the Church” used “tabloid defamation” to influence his ecclesiastical leader to excommunicate him. Ballard said his leader denied him a “spiritually-guaranteed law of due process” by refusing to identify the individuals making accusations against him.3ABC4. Ballard Defamation Excommunication LDS He tied the Church discipline to what he described as a broader conspiracy that also derailed his 2024 U.S. Senate campaign.
The Ballards also disclosed a letter they sent to Church authorities on March 24, 2025, claiming that Katherine Ballard had spoken with President M. Russell Ballard after the Church’s September 2023 statement. They asserted the apostle told her he had no knowledge of the statement and “never felt betrayed by Tim.”1Yahoo News. Tim Ballard Claims Defamation Conspiracy President M. Russell Ballard died in November 2023, so the claim cannot be independently verified.
The same March 2025 letter warned Church officials that the family was “resolute” that they had “few options” other than filing suit unless the Church retracted what Ballard called a “defamatory statement.”5Salt Lake Tribune. Tim Ballard Accuses LDS Church As of November 2025, no such lawsuit had been filed. The November 2025 release also announced an upcoming docuseries titled BackFire: The Excommunication of Tim Ballard, with no production details or release date reported.3ABC4. Ballard Defamation Excommunication LDS
The Misconduct Allegations Behind the Discipline
The accusations that preceded the Church’s rebuke came from women connected to Operation Underground Railroad. Ballard resigned from OUR on June 22, 2023, after an internal investigation triggered by a sexual harassment complaint from an employee who had accompanied him on an undercover operation abroad.6VICE News. Tim Ballard’s Departure From Operation Underground Railroad Followed Sexual Misconduct Investigation
At least seven women alleged that during overseas operations Ballard called the “Couples Ruse,” he asked female employees, volunteers, and contractors to pose as his wife or girlfriend and then pressured them to share his bed or shower with him, ostensibly to maintain cover with traffickers.6VICE News. Tim Ballard’s Departure From Operation Underground Railroad Followed Sexual Misconduct Investigation Attorney Suzette Rasmussen, who represented several of the women, described the conduct as “sexual harassment, spiritual manipulation, grooming and sexual misconduct.”7Axios. Tim Ballard Sexual Misconduct Trafficking OUR Sound of Freedom
Ballard has denied all of the allegations. He called them “baseless” and “false” in a September 2023 statement issued through his new organization, The Spear Fund, and said sexual contact was prohibited during OUR operations and that he “led by example.”6VICE News. Tim Ballard’s Departure From Operation Underground Railroad Followed Sexual Misconduct Investigation
Where the Related Legal Cases Stand
The civil and criminal landscape around the allegations has moved in different directions. On October 3, 2024, a judge issued a Sexual Violence Protective Order against Ballard after finding sufficient evidence that he committed a “sexually violent act” against Celeste Borys. In that proceeding, Ballard’s own counsel acknowledged in open court that DNA evidence linked to Ballard was found on a garment belonging to Borys; his legal team attributed the DNA to an encounter with an escort during an undercover operation.8Salt Lake County Court. Sexual Violence Protective Order
Borys’s own civil lawsuit alleging rape and assault was dismissed with prejudice by Third District Judge Todd Shaughnessy, who ruled that her attorneys improperly used documents obtained from Ballard’s email account; an appeal was being pursued as of mid-2025.9Fox 13 Now. Lawsuit Dismissed After Judge Says Evidence From Tim Ballard’s Email Cannot Be Used A separate suit by her husband, Mike Borys, was allowed to proceed. In October 2023, five women identified by their initials sued Ballard, OUR, The Spear Fund, and board members in Utah’s Third Judicial District Court alleging sexual assault, battery, fraud, conspiracy, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.10Deseret News. Lawsuit Filed by 5 Women Against Tim Ballard Operation Underground Railroad and Others In late October 2024, six women filed a federal lawsuit alleging violations of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act.11MinistryWatch. OUR Rescue to Move Headquarters Another Lawsuit Filed Against Ballard Ballard, in turn, has filed defamation lawsuits against seven of his female accusers.
On the criminal side, Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill announced on November 14, 2025, that his office declined to file charges against Ballard. Gill said a “thorough investigation” found “insufficient admissible evidence to meet the legal burden of proof,” noting that “critical corroborating evidence is unavailable” and that prosecutors could not “remove every reasonable doubt for a jury.”12Salt Lake County District Attorney. SLCO DA Declines to File Charges Against Tim Ballard Gill said the decision did not reflect on the validity of the survivors’ experiences and that his office would “revisit this matter if additional evidence becomes available.”13Salt Lake Tribune. Salt Lake DA Declines to Charge Tim Ballard An earlier Davis County Attorney and FBI investigation into allegations that OUR inflated rescue numbers and engaged in witness tampering closed in 2023 without charges.14VICE News. Operation Underground Railroad Investigation Misled Donors Lied