Senate candidate Graham Platner has not deactivated his account on a private messaging app associated with casual sex and anonymous encounters — despite facing mounting questions over infidelity and the platform’s ties to sexual exploitation. 

Platner, the presumptive Democratic nominee in Maine’s 2026 Senate race, has an active profile on Kik, an anonymous chatting platform notorious for lax identification methods that have enabled the proliferation of child sexual abuse material. 

The profile, reviewed by Fox News Digital, contains a sexually suggestive picture of Platner showing the candidate’s naked torso with a towel draped around his waist. It is unclear when the image was taken, but Platner created the account in 2016. 

Platner’s presence on Kik was first reported by The Wall Street Journal, which reported that he sent sexually explicit messages to multiple women while married to his wife Amy Gertner, who wedded Platner in 2023. According to the outlet, Platner’s wife first discovered the adulterous messages in the spring of 2025 and later divulged them to a since-departed campaign official.

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Multiple child safety groups have criticized Kik due to its anonymous structure and public group chats that allow strangers to contact each other with little effort.

Users only need an email address to create an account, and there is no enforceable age-verification mechanism. 

Roughly 70% of the platform’s users are estimated to be between 13 and 24 years old, according to multiple industry reports.

The National Center on Sexual Exploitation designated Kik as a «predator’s paradise» in 2023 for being rampant with «predatory behavior and child sexual exploitation.» 

The watchdog also placed the platform on its «Dirty Dozen» list for facilitating and profiting from sexual exploitation.

In 2024, Kik was rated the worst app for severe sexual content, according to Bark, a parental control and online safety platform.

Between 2023 and 2025, at least four Maine men were sentenced for distributing child pornography or soliciting nude pictures from underage girls by posing as minors while using Kik.

Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner has had an active account on Kik since June 2016. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg)

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It is unclear who Platner messaged on the clandestine platform, but there is no evidence he communicated with minors. 

The Platner campaign said over the weekend that he deleted the app from his phone long before The Wall Street Journal’s reporting.

Gertner released a video slamming the media for reporting on Platner’s alleged cheating, which she labeled «gossip» while insisting she has a «great» marriage with the candidate. 

«It makes me really angry, disappointed,» Gertner said in the video posted Saturday evening. «And I find it really shameful that there’s a group of media outlets and people who are willing to spread gossip instead of talking about real issues that Graham is running on.» 

Gertner plays a visible role in Platner’s campaign and is financially compensated in a volunteer coordinator role.

Platner’s alleged infidelity is the latest incident in a string of controversies that has dogged his insurgent campaign. 

The far-left Senate hopeful has previously sparked backlash for posting vulgar messages on a since-deleted Reddit account in which he joked about masturbating in public portable toilets, discussed using satellite phones on an overseas deployment to «cyber f–k» his girlfriend and appeared to defend military personnel who cheat on their spouses.

«You don’t have much experience with Latin American hookers, do you?» Platner wrote in response to a user concerned about the exploitation of female prostitutes in Colombia.

«I’ve heard that idiotic sentiment made within the confines of the the [sic] military. ‘If you can’t remain faithful to your wife, how can you remain faithful to your comrades?’» he wrote in a separate post in response to an article reporting on Secret Service agents paying prostitutes. «Well, I have many good buddies who lied and cheated with women, and yet were straight shooting hard men when it came to their work.»

«I find it is a sentiment only held by moral relativists who need something to cry about, intelligent people realize they are not mutually exclusive,» he went on.

Platner also called himself a communist, denigrated rural White people as «racist» and «stupid» and singled out Black people for not tipping well, in since-deleted posts. 

He has also faced mounting scrutiny over a Nazi-linked chest tattoo that he has since covered up. Platner said last year he got the black skull-and-crossbones tattoo while out drinking with fellow Marines in 2007 during a period of leave in Croatia and denied knowing the symbol’s Nazi origins.

U.S. Senate candidate from Maine Graham Platner speaks during a campaign event on May 17, 2026, in Portland, Maine. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

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Platner’s hand placement notably shields the heavily scrutinized tattoo from view in his Kik account profile.

Fox News Digital reached out to the Platner campaign for comment but did not hear back.

Mientras se encontraba en una zona de playa de la provincia de Coclé, a unas 2 horas de la ciudad de Panamá, el exdirector de la Autoridad Nacional para la Innovación Gubernamental (AIG), Luis Oliva, fue detenido por los supuestos delitos de peculado, corrupción de servidores públicos y asociación ilícita para delinquir.

La detención de Oliva, quien fungió como director de la AIG de 2019-2024, bajo la administración del expresidente Laurentino Cortizo, fue ordenada por un juez de garantía y volvió a poner el foco sobre un organismo estatal clave en la estructura tecnológica del país.

La AIG tuvo a su cargo áreas sensibles de modernización administrativa y gestión pública.

El caso de Oliva quedó ligado a presuntos hechos de corrupción dentro de una dependencia con peso en la operación institucional panameña.

La Contraloría General de la República determinó un presunto incremento patrimonial de Oliva por más de $937,000.

Fuentes judiciales indicaron que la acusación incluyó peculado, corrupción de servidores públicos y asociación ilícita para delinquir.

Esa combinación colocó el expediente en un plano mayor que el de una irregularidad administrativa aislada, porque apuntó a un posible esquema delictivo articulado desde el Estado.

Oliva ya cumplía una medida cautelar de reporte periódico los 14 y 28 de cada mes, así como un impedimento de salida del país, luego de que en septiembre del 2025 se le formularan cargos por peculado, corrupción de servidores públicos y asociación ilícita para delinquir.

Los cargos están relacionados con presuntas irregularidades en la gestión de la plataforma Vale Digital, que luego pasó a llamarse Listo Wallet, implementada por el gobierno durante la cuarentena total por el Covid-19 para entregar subsidios a trabajadores, según el diario Critica.

En 2020 el gobierno, a través del Ministerio de Comercio e Industrias y la AIG anunció el inicio del plan piloto en la primera abarrotería de la ciudad capital para cambiar el Vale Digital, apoyo económico entregado a los panameños suspendidos de sus plazas laborales y afectados por la pandemia ocasionada por el Coronavirus o Covid-19.

En esa oportunidad, Oliva señaló que “el inicio de este plan piloto para canjear el Vale Digital en las abarroterías le permite al ciudadano estar más cerca de sus hogares sin necesidad de tener que trasladarse en transporte público o tener que asistir a grandes concentraciones en supermercados. De igual manera, les permite a los negocios pequeños ingresar a nuevos medios de pagos digitales”.

Pero, ante los constantes tropiezos de esta plataforma, se creó Listo Wallet en 2022 para que los usuarios del Vale Digital y el PASE-U recibieran sus pagos.

Al año siguiente, en octubre, Luis Oliva presentó su renuncia irrevocable a la entidad, para aspirar a una fallida candidatura a diputado.

A finales del 2023 el exadministrador de la AIG, Luis Carlos Stoute, presentó una denuncia por la cesión indebida de los derechos exclusivos a dos empresas para beneficiarse y lucrar de la plataforma Vale Digital, de acuerdo con medios de prensa.

La denuncia de Stoute, presentada ante el Ministerio Público, fue ignorada por la Presidencia de la República y por el entonces contralor, Gerardo Solís.

Stoute fue separado del cargo que ocupaba en febrero del 2024.

La Autoridad Nacional para la Innovación Gubernamental, establecida mediante la Ley 65 de 30 de octubre de 2009, es la entidad que lidera la transformación digital del Estado panameño, con el objetivo de mejorar la calidad de vida de los ciudadanos, disminuir la brecha de desigualdad e incrementar la competitividad del país, se lee en su página web.

President Donald Trump is turning foreign-influence laws that once ensnared figures in his own orbit toward left-wing activist networks accused of benefiting from overseas money and support.

Once seldom enforced criminally, FARA became a more prominent tool at the DOJ after 2016, including in cases involving several figures in Trump’s orbit as well as some prominent Democrats. Now, legal experts say that FARA and other laws dealing with foreign influence are emerging as a potential weapon in Trump’s campaign against left-wing activist networks.

«Unfortunately, it seems clear that the Biden administration went overboard and tried to use FARA as a political weapon against allies and supporters of President Trump instead of concentrating on real national security threats and those acting on behalf of foreign governments and principals without disclosing it as required by the law,» Hans von Spakovsky, senior legal fellow at Advancing American Freedom, a think tank founded by former Vice President Mike Pence, told Fox News Digital. 

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FARA requires people acting in the United States on behalf of foreign governments or political parties to disclose their relationships, activities and funding to the Justice Department. While the law has been on the books for decades, criminal prosecutions related to it have become more common from 2016 onwards, engendering resentment among conservatives who feel they were unfairly targeted by the Justice Department.

«Prior to the Mueller gang and the deep state using it against Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn, FARA was rarely, if ever used for criminal purposes,» Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton told Fox News Digital. «It was seen as a paperwork issue … anti-Trump fanaticism turned it into a weapon to put people in jail.»

FARA prosecutions were relatively rare prior to the first Trump administration, with only seven criminal cases being prosecuted between 1966 and 2015. In 2018 alone, however, the Department of Justice charged more than 20 individuals and entities with FARA violations.

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Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche speaks as Attorney General Pam Bondi and President Donald Trump listen during a press conference with FBI Director Kash Patel in the Oval Office of the White House on Oct. 15, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

During the first Trump administration and the Biden administration, many of those targeted by the Department of Justice for undisclosed links to foreign governments were viewed as close allies of Trump.

Paul Manafort, Trump’s 2016 campaign chair and a long-time GOP consultant, for instance, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States in 2018 in connection with his activity as an unregistered foreign agent for Ukraine. 

Michael Flynn separately came under scrutiny for his firm’s work tied to Turkish interests, while his criminal plea involved false statements to the FBI about conversations with Russia’s ambassador. Flynn’s business partner was convicted of acting as an undisclosed agent of Turkey, though the conviction was eventually overturned and the investigation was dropped by the Justice Department.

Conservatives were not exclusively targeted during the last two administrations, however.

Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Texas Democrat, Sen. Bob Menendez, a Democrat from New Jersey, and Linda Sun, a former Democratic staffer, all faced foreign influence investigations under the Biden administration. 

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President Donald Trump holds a note handed to him by Secretary of State Marco Rubio during a roundtable on antifa at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 8, 2025. (Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)

The pattern of right-wing politicos getting caught up in alleged foreign influence schemes continued into the Biden administration, with Rudy Giuliani, GOP megadonor Stephen Wynn and Trump associate Tom Barrack all being investigated for foreign ties.

Former Attorney General Pam Bondi wound down FARA enforcement upon taking office in 2025, narrowing prosecutions to activities resembling traditional espionage, citing the law’s purported weaponization under President Joe Biden. Fitton characterized this as a «reversion to the norm.»

In a departure from the prior two administrations, Spakovsky told Fox News Digital that the Trump administration is working to «implement a comprehensive national security strategy that integrates FARA as a tool,» citing a national security memo issued by the president in 2025.

NSPM-7, the memo referenced by Spakovsky, is a Trump administration directive ordering federal agencies to investigate and disrupt alleged networks behind domestic terrorism and organized political violence. It specifically directs the Department of Justice to scrutinize foreign ties and investigate possible FARA violations in order to investigate advocacy groups, nonprofits, donors and activists linked to alleged political violence.

Some groups on the right and left have criticized the memo for potentially targeting constitutionally protected expression. The ACLU, for instance, argued that it could chill free speech since the document explicitly calls out «anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism and anti-Christianity» as dangers to the United States.

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Former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn looked on before President Donald Trump delivered remarks at the Department of Justice on March 14, 2025, in Washington, D.C. Trump was expected to outline steps his administration would take to address what he described as the «weaponization» of the department. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Spakovsky, however, argued that the memo simply implements changes that were recommended by career civil servants during the Obama administration.

«When looking at the directive, another important point on FARA is to go back to a very revealing report issued by DOJ’s Inspector General in 2016 in which it criticized DOJ’s lack of enforcement of FARA, including during the Obama administration,» he said. «It recommended that DOJ develop a comprehensive enforcement strategy that was integrated with DOJ’s overall national security efforts … This relatively new directive seems to be an effort to do exactly what the DOJ IG recommended ten years ago – implement a comprehensive national security strategy that integrates FARA as a tool.»

Though FARA is seen by many as the obvious mechanism to address foreign influence, if it is indeed being exerted on American activists, some legal experts are skeptical about relying on it alone.

«FARA is a powerful tool. It’s just a difficult tool to use,» Jason Torchinsky, a partner at the law firm Holtzman Vogel, told Fox News Digital. «It is a powerful tool, but there are other tools they can use too.»

Torchinsky pointed to the recent investigation into Twitch streamer Hasan Piker and Code PINK co-founder Medea Benjamin, initiated by the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, as an example of this.

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Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, was accused of accepting more than $500,000 in bribes from an Azerbaijan-owned energy company and a Mexican bank. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc)

«If these guys literally are shipping things to Cuba in violation of sanctions, that’s pretty easy,» he said. «You don’t have to prove any intent … OFAC sanctions are just such an easy crime to prosecute, because it’s like, you did X, I have evidence you did X, and it was prohibited …  it’s a really nice sort of cut and dry criminal case.»

Trying to bring FARA charges into the mix, according to Torchinsky, could lead to unnecessary complications.

Torchinsky, who specializes in government ethics laws, noted that prosecuting violations of FARA often proves problematic as defendants can sometimes credibly claim their actions are protected by the First Amendment. Other options, he said, may be more attractive to prosecutors attempting to address foreign political influence.

Heritage Foundation senior legal fellow Zack Smith, added that prosecutors need to prove that those accused of violating FARA knew they were breaking the law at the time of their conduct, which he called «a very high standard.»

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U.S. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and former Attorney General Pam Bondi spoke with the media in the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on March 18, 2026. Bondi and Blanche briefed the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform privately about the Epstein files. (Heather Diehl/Getty Images)

«The IRS has tools that allow them to revoke the nonprofit status of nonprofits that are acting illegally,» Torchinsky continued. «There’s a concept in internal revenue law called the illegality doctrine. The idea is that you can’t set up and operate as a nonprofit, something that’s illegal.»

Nonprofit organizations accused of providing material aid to foreign terrorist organizations, for instance, could be prosecuted by the administration without the Justice Department having to prove that they acted as unregistered foreign agents.

«Criminal statutes like wire fraud, bank fraud, those types of statutes could come into play, particularly if those carrying out these foreign influence operations are receiving cash or payments or some other type of compensation for taking part in these operations,» Smith added.

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President Donald Trump attends an event in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., on May 21, 2026. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)

Some, however, see FARA as an indispensable tool in fighting foreign influence.

«I look forward to a quiet life outside of politics. With a fire-pit and beehives,» Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, a Republican from Florida, posted to X on Wednesday. «Until then I am going to make it my mission to get the FARA office back up and running. The political divide in this country is a foreign op from multiple countries and it’s sad.»

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President Donald Trump delivers remarks during a Memorial Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., on May 25, 2026. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Torchinsky noted that the presidential national security memo laid out some laws other than FARA that the administration could use to target foreign-backed political agitators. 

«You can go after these folks, particularly these entities that are engaged in violence,» he said. «They’ve got conspiracy against rights, solicitation of a crime or violence, money laundering, funding terrorist acts or facilitating terrorism, arson offenses, RICO, and fraud against the United States.»

«For example, organizing protests and violence at companies that are in the F-35 supply chain, like Palestinian groups are doing, is potentially a solicitation of acts of violence,» Torchinsky added.

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«Now, I suspect this is the beginning of a larger conversation over FARA, whether it needs to be revised, how it needs to be revised, what this regime will look like going forward to combat foreign influence in the United States,» Smith, the Heritage fellow, said. «But fundamentally, there should be broad agreement that foreign influence, particularly foreign influence directed at influencing our elections, our political discourse, is very problematic. Appropriate action should be taken to combat it.»

The Department of Justice, Treasury Department, and Code PINK did not respond to requests for comment when reached by Fox News Digital.