Moms for Liberty, a national conservative group championing parental rights, partnered with a registered sex offender for outreach in the Philadelphia area.
Phillip Fisher Jr., a pastor and Republican ward leader who coordinated faith-based outreach for a local Moms for Liberty chapter, is a registered sex offender in Illinois, where he lived before he returned to his hometown of Philadelphia.
Fisher's 2012 felony conviction is a result of his guilty plea to aggravated sexual abuse of a 14-year-old boy when Fisher was 25. The charge was one of 12 against Fisher after a Chicago Police Department investigation. Fisher has denied any wrongdoing, alleging that he was the subject of "a railroad job" from a political action committee for Lyndon LaRouche, who was retaliating against Fisher for trying to leave the group. Newsweek reached out to the PAC via email for comment.
Moms for Liberty founders Tina Descovich and Tiffany Justice told Newsweek in a statement, "We do not condone the actions of anyone who hurts children—ever."
Fisher told The Philadelphia Inquirer that because he is a "known and respected pastor throughout the city," he helped connect Moms for Liberty's Philadelphia chapter with religious organizations in the area, including other pastors, a rabbi and an imam. He also volunteered at the Moms for Liberty summit during the summer in Philadelphia, where former President Donald Trump, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley delivered speeches.
Newsweek reached out to the local Philadelphia chapter of Moms for Liberty via email for comment.
Moms for Liberty is a Florida-based group that was formed in early 2021 over frustrations with school COVID-19 policies, like mask mandates, and has since turned parental rights into a rallying cry. The group has become known for its opposition to critical race theory in public schools, efforts to ban books with LGBTQ+ themes from school libraries and a series of viral moments at various school board meetings across the nation.
This election cycle, Moms for Liberty sought to win 270 school board elections but suffered crushing defeats in Virginia, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Kansas. The group nonetheless defended its endorsement record to Newsweek after this year's November 7 elections, saying, "We helped to get 50 more school board members elected that respect parental rights and who will fight to get back to the basics in America's public schools."
Sheila Armstrong, who chairs the local Moms for Liberty chapter, confirmed that Fisher had been active in community outreach efforts and expressed concerns to The Inquirer that children were involved in those events. She said she was particularly surprised by his conviction because she had just received a "child abuse history certification" in Fisher's name from the state Department of Human Services (DHS) last week so that he could volunteer at an upcoming Christmas party for a nonprofit.
The DHS noted that not all criminal convictions involving minors are considered child abuse under state law and thus would not come up in the state's database for perpetrators of child abuse.
Fisher confirmed the details of his criminal conviction to The Inquirer, saying he "never went out of my way to hide anything" and calling it "an easy search" to locate him in law enforcement databases. He is listed on the National Sex Offender Website run by the Justice Department as well as the list kept by Illinois State Police and the one maintained by the Pennsylvania State Police.
Fisher was indicted on 12 felony counts of sexual assault and aggravated criminal sexual abuse in January 2011, and adjudicated guilty on one count after he waived his right to a jury trial. Charging documents from the Cook County Clerk of Circuit Court allege that he had oral and anal sex with a 12-year-old boy. Fisher was sentenced to three years in prison but said he took the plea deal to escape violence from other prisoners.
But Fisher claimed that the allegations were made by members of the LaRouche organization who were angered by his efforts to leave.
"It was a political situation that happened between me and Lyndon LaRouche," Fisher said. "It was a member of his camp, his party, that made the accusation. They pushed it through. It was really a railroad job."
Update 11/20/23 11:33 a.m.: ET This story was updated with comments from Descovich and Justice.
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Katherine Fung is a Newsweek reporter based in New York City. Her focus is reporting on U.S. and world politics. ... Read more
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