Timothy T. Duax U.S. Attorney | U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa
A man from Tripoli, Iowa, has admitted to charges of distributing and possessing child pornography. Austin Kingsbury, 23, entered a guilty plea on Friday, June 20, 2025, in federal court located in Cedar Rapids.
During the plea hearing, Kingsbury acknowledged that he distributed visual depictions of child pornography between August 2022 and June 2023. Additionally, he confessed to possessing such material on his cellular phone from December 2022 to June 2023. This included images involving prepubescent children.
The case is part of Project Safe Childhood, an initiative started by the Department of Justice in May 2006. The project aims to combat the increasing issue of child sexual exploitation and abuse. It is managed by United States Attorneys’ Offices alongside the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section. The initiative combines resources at federal, state, and local levels to find and prosecute individuals who exploit children sexually while also identifying and rescuing victims.
Further information about Project Safe Childhood can be found at www.usdoj.gov/psc. For details regarding Internet safety education, visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on "resources."
