Brian Richard Fitzgerald, a New Jersey deputy attorney general arrested Thursday on charges that he used artificial intelligence to create and distribute child sexual abuse material, has been fired from his state post, the New Jersey Globe has confirmed.
Fitzgerald was also removed Friday from his position on an ethics committee affiliated with the New Jersey Office of Attorney Ethics, pending the final disposition of the criminal charges against him.
His termination by the Department of Law and Public Safety was effective retroactively to Thursday, the day of his arrest. Fitzgerald was hired as a deputy attorney general during Gov. Chris Christie’s administration in 2016.
On October 13, two days before his arrest, Fitzgerald requested removal from attorney ethics cases in Mercer County to which he had been assigned.
Bucks County authorities charged Fitzgerald, 51, of Lower Makefield Township, Pennsylvania, with felony possession and dissemination of child sexual abuse material and criminal use of a communication facility.
Investigators allege that Fitzgerald used artificial intelligence to generate illicit images involving children and distributed them through Discord, a social media platform. He is also accused of obtaining and sharing sexual abuse material depicting actual children.
The investigation began after the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children reported an illicit image shared on Discord on July 10. Investigators traced the account and associated internet addresses to Fitzgerald’s Pennsylvania residence.
A search of his home Thursday allegedly uncovered prompts and scripts used to generate the images. Authorities also obtained Discord conversations in which Fitzgerald allegedly acknowledged creating and distributing the material.
Authorities arrested Fitzgerald Thursday morning and ordered him held at the Bucks County Correctional Facility. Bail was set at $2 million, with a 10% payment requirement.
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October 5, 2022 -
