Melania Trump hails first conviction in US under Take It Down Act; what is the federal revenge porn law? Explained

James Strahler is the first in the US to be convicted under the Take It Down Act for using AI-generated, sexually explicit images of women to intimidate them.

Melania Trump has taken to X to mark the first conviction under the Take It Down Act. An Upper Arlington man became the first in the nation to be convicted under a 2025 federal law for using AI-generated, sexually explicit images of women to intimidate and harass them, the US Attorney's Office in Columbus said, according to The Columbus Dispatch.

Melania Trump hails first conviction under Take It Down Act (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf) (AP)

What is the suspect accused of?

On April 7, 37-year-old James Strahler pleaded guilty in the US District Court in Columbus to cyberstalking, producing obscene visual representations of child sexual abuse and publication of digital forgeries. He will be sentenced at a later date.

Court records showed that Strahler had more than 24 AI platforms and 100 AI web-based models installed or downloaded on his phone. He has been accused of using phone calls, messages and online postings to harass the women.

Strahler sent messages to at least six adult females, including three former romantic partners, between December 2024 and June 2025. The messages included both real and AI-generated nude images, per court records.

Strahler created one video using AI to show one of the victims engaged in sexual acts with her father. He then sent the content to the victim's coworkers. He also messaged his victims’ mothers and demanded nude photographs in exchange for not circulating explicit images that he would create.

Strahler even left voicemails for the victims, including threats of sexual assault. He would post AI-generated images of the faces of boys from his community, morphing them into the bodies of other children or adults. He would create videos showing the boys engaged in sexual activity with older female relatives.

Strahler created over 700 images of real people and animated people, and posted them to a website dedicated to child sexual abuse material. An additional 2,400 images and videos were discovered on his phone and were flagged as having nudity, violence and/or morphed child sexual abuse material.

Back in January 2025, he was charged in Franklin County Municipal Court for similar alleged conduct. When federal charges were filed in June 2025, he was on pre-trial release for the earlier charges.

Dominick Gerace, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, said his office believes Strahler is the first individual to be convicted under a provision of the Take It Down Act. "We will not tolerate the abhorrent practice of posting and publicizing AI-generated intimate images of real individuals without consent," Gerace said. "We are committed to using every tool at our disposal to hold accountable offenders like Strahler."

Melania Trump speaks out

Melania marked the first conviction under the act with an X post.

“Today marks the first conviction under the Take It Down Act - protecting victims from non-consensual AI-generated sexually explicit images, cyberstalking, and threats of violence,” she wrote.

Melania added, “Thank you U.S. Attorney Dominick S. Gerace II for protecting Americans from cybercrimes in this new digital age.”

What is the Take It Down Act?

‘Take It Down Act’ is short for ‘Tools to Address Known Exploitation by Immobilizing Technological Deepfakes on Websites and Networks Act’. The bill prohibits the nonconsensual online publication of intimate visual depictions of people, regardless or whether they are authentic or computer-generated. It requires online platforms to quickly take down such depictions upon receiving notice of their existence.

The act was enacted in 2025 by federal lawmakers. It was then signed into law by President Donald Trump.

According to Congress.gov, the bill prohibits the online publication of intimate visual depictions of “an adult subject where publication is intended to cause or does cause harm to the subject, and where the depiction was published without the subject’s consent or, in the case of an authentic depiction, was created or obtained under circumstances where the adult had a reasonable expectation of privacy; or a minor subject where publication is intended to abuse or harass the minor or to arouse or gratify the sexual desire of any person.”

Violators face mandatory restitution and criminal penalties, including prison, a fine, or both, per the website. The bill also prohibits individuals from threatening to publish intimate visual depictions of a person. This, too, is subject to criminal penalties.

The website says, “Separately, covered platforms must establish a process through which subjects of intimate visual depictions may notify the platform of the existence of, and request removal of, an intimate visual depiction including the subject that was published without the subject’s consent. Covered platforms must remove such depictions within 48 hours of notification. Under the bill, covered platforms are defined as public websites, online services, or applications that primarily provide a forum for user-generated content.”