In the Fisher declaration, there is the following about M. Russell Ballard, who was a senior member of the Q12:
- Russell "reached out to" Tim and "asked for his help locating Mardy Gardy, an LDS boy in Haiti who was kidnapped." Paragraph 10.
- Russell was "enamored by Tim Ballard's book, The American Covenant." Paragraph 15
- Tim "received counsel" from Thom Harrison and Russell, "both of whom [Tim] considered to be prophets." Paragraph 21.
- Russell "would have regular meetings with [Tim] and discuss how to bring Mormonism into American Evangelical homes without Evangelicals realizing such." Paragraph 22
- Fisher "was in meeting with general authorities of the LDS church, including Elder Ballard" and "had many discussions with [Tim] in which he relayed various plans Elder Ballard and the church formulated to use [Tim] and his message to infiltrate Evangelical American culture in an effort for influence their perception of the Mormon church." Paragraph 23
- Russell "and the Mormon Church also created a plan to make Tim a celebrity and American hero by helping him launch a non-profit called Operation Underground Railroad (OUR)." Paragraph 25.
- Russell "issued requests to various wealthy and influential Mormon individuals and organizations asking them to fund and help launch OUR." Paragraph 25.
- Russell "issued requests to various wealthy and influential Mormon individuals and organizations asking them to fund and help launch OUR." Paragraph 26.
- Russell "and the Mormon Church were primarily interested in building [Tim] into an American Hero so they could take advantage of the fact that later, it would reflect well on the Mormon Church and help their long term goal of being assimilated into the family of American evangelical churches." Paragraph 28.
- "The Mormon Church however has stated consistently that [Russell's] interest in helping Tim was a shared interest in helping vulnerable children and people around the world who have been trafficked, which was not the primary focus of [Tim's] career or the Mormon Church's involvement from my perspective." Paragraph 29.
- Russell "also made arrangements so that Deseret Book would market and sell Tim['s] book The Lincoln Hypothesis, and raised [Tim's] royalties beyond the normal royalties paid to first time Deseret Book authors." Paragraph 35.
- Russell "also planned for Tim Ballard to be be featured in other Mormon media forums, including BYUTY and others." Paragraph 37.
- "Once [Russell] had made all the arrangements for OUR to be organized and funded, Tim [] left his job at DHS and moved to Utah." Paragraph 38.
- Russell "brought in Mormon Glenn Beck to help plan how to get Tim [] into Evangelical homes." Paragraph 39.
- "It was apparent to me that while it was [Russell]'s wish to get [Tim] into Evangelicals homes, [Tim]'s interest in making "The Abolitionists," was primarily to make money and gain fame, not to save kids or combat human trafficking." Paragraph 47.
- Russell's "association and support was frequently discussed by [Tim] to potential supporters or donors and gave him credibility whenever he was seeking support or money for his endeavors." Paragraph 49.
- "Without [Russell's] support, [Tim] likely would not have accomplished celebrity status, and OUR likely would not have been launched or become successful." Paragraph 50.
- Russell "helped Tim [] in obtaining donors for this documentary TV series and OUR under the pretext that they were helping to rescue child sex slaves in Colombia." Paragraph 51.
- "Given the failure of 'The Abolitionists,' [Russell] brought in others to help get Tim Ballard into evangelical homes across the United States." Paragraph 55.
- "In 2016, [Tim] invited me to a private meeting with [Russell]. Tim [], and President of OUR, John Moreland, in [Russell's] private office where [Tim] and I were given an assignment or an unofficial calling to make a different TV show that would reach a national audience and accomplish these goals for the church." Paragraph 56.
- Russell "issued assignments or callings to others to help in the effort to get [Tim] celebrity status in the wider evangelical culture." Paragraph 58.
- "This included Ken Krogue, who was another friend of [Russell's] and who was in charge of the Mormon Church's social media campaign." Paragraph 59.
- Tim "met with [Russell] on a very regular basis." Paragraph 60.
- "As [Tim's] business adviser and religious leaver, [Tim] went to [Russell] about his" "feelings of guilt, questioning whether his work in child sex slavery, at DHS and at OUR made him morally 'unclean'." Paragraphs 61 and 62.
- Tim "told me that [Russell] had given him special blessings, which took away any concerns he had about whether he was 'morally clean' and assured him that he would not be sinning or be held accountable before the Mormon Church and God for immoral things he engaged in while in the effort to save children from sex slavery." Paragraph 63.
- "It is my belief that [Tim] likely received a secret temple ordinance from [Russell] called 'The Second Anointing.'" Paragraph 65.
- Russel "taught that 'The Second Anointing' served to ensure and guarantee salvation, guaranteed exaltation, and conferred godhood and that one could not fall from these blessings even if one sinned." Paragraph 65.
- Russell "is known to have been fond of extending this ordinance to his friends, including Tom Phillips and Elder Hans Mattsson, who like Tim [], are no longer part of the Mormon Church." Paragraph 67.
- "During the summer of 2019, [Russell] accompanied [Tim] and his family on the American Covenant Tour." Paragraph 74.
- "In December 2019, [Russell] mentioned [Tim] in his commencement address to BYUI and proclaimed Ballard to be an expert on Nephi's vision and the Pilgrims, right before Tim [] released his new book in May of 2020, The Pilgrim Hypothesis, with a forward by Glenn Beck." Paragraph 75
- "These actions by [Russell] were very upsetting to me because [Tim] had stolen my company from me and an Apostle of the Church was giving [Tim] credibility, of which he was undeserving." Paragraph 76.
- "[T]he raid on Cartagena was a well-staged cosplay fraud, fictional situation, performed by actors, funded by wealthy members of the Mormon Church enlisted by [Russell] with the primary intention to provide Tim [] "a sizzle reel" or the perception of saving children so he could gain money and fame so that a movie could be made and Tim [] would be presented into evangelical homes across the country as an American hero as envisioned by" Russell. Paragraph 84.
- " While that plan came to fruition with the release of The Sound of Freedom, it is my understanding that it has come at the expense of innocent bystanders like Kely Suarez, the children who were lured to the island party and who were scared to death, not understanding what was occurring given that they had not been previously sex trafficked, and the donors across the world who thought they were trying to deter childhood sex slavery, were in fact funding [Tim]'s personal ambitions seeking wealth, fame and future political office along with delusions of grandeur as God's chosen prophet, in conjunction with a sophisticated, multifaceted, extensive public relations campaign for the Mormon Church." Paragraph 85.
