Trump’s Hamilton attack leaves out the church’s later police reports

Adam Hamilton’s church failed to report boys’ sexual-abuse allegations promptly and let the volunteer involved return to camp the following year. But separate court-record investigations by Kansas Reflector and The Kansas City Star do not establish Donald Trump’s accusation that Hamilton personally shielded the man. The church later reported both years’ incidents to police and barred him from working with children and vulnerable adults. [4] [5]

In a Truth Social post on 19 October 2026, Trump accused the Democratic challenger to Republican Senator Roger Marshall of having “shielded a child sexual predator”. He said Hamilton had “just admitted” not contacting law enforcement when the abuse was discovered, and had let the man return as a camp counsellor. Trump urged Kansas voters to re-elect Marshall on 3 November. [2] [3]

The post followed a CNN report broadcast on 18 October in which Hamilton said: “We should have called the police immediately.” He rejected earlier attacks by Trump as a misrepresentation and said immediate reporting had not been church policy 21 years earlier. [3]

Both the acknowledgement and the accusation were already public. Hamilton’s then-rival for the Democratic nomination, Patrick Schmidt, promoted the allegations in May. On 22 July, Kansas Reflector reported Hamilton saying he would have gone directly to police in 2005. “There was no attempt at a cover-up,” he told the outlet. Marshall’s campaign released its own attack advert on 2 October. [4] [6] [7]

The failure in 2005 and the later police reports

The two news organisations’ reviews describe teenage boys reporting that they had been touched in their sleeping bags at a 2005 retreat organised by the Church of the Resurrection in Linn County, Kansas. Hamilton co-founded the church and is its lead pastor. An appellate decision described camp leaders as “dismissive of their claims”. Church leaders investigated internally but initially alerted neither police nor social services. [4] [5]

The inquiry was inconclusive because the boys could not positively identify the man. However, testimony examined by Reflector showed that at least one church official knew some boys suspected volunteer Scott Preston Moore. [4]

Hamilton later confirmed meeting one family in 2005, although he said he did not remember the conversation’s details. He defended the two people he relied on for the inquiry after a former assistant questioned their qualifications to investigate. His campaign says he was not present at either camp. [6] [4]

Moore returned as a cabin leader in 2006. Following fresh allegations that he had entered boys’ rooms at night, the church reported both years’ incidents to police, handed over its internal investigation records and barred him from working with children, young people and vulnerable adults. The county prosecutor declined to bring charges. [4] [5]

The newspapers’ May reports did not identify sexual touching at the 2006 camp. Marshall’s campaign later published what it described as trial testimony in which a witness said Moore “reached down” before a boy moved and Moore began to leave. [4] [5] [7]

In 2010, another man reported childhood abuse by Moore after speaking with the church’s pastor, whom Hamilton’s campaign identified as Hamilton. Moore was convicted in 2013 of one misdemeanour count of sexual battery over a separate 2010 incident involving a 16-year-old at Moore’s home—not either church camp. [5]

Trump’s defence of Marshall’s debt collection

CNN’s 18 October report also showed Marshall responding to a question about the Iran war by turning to the allegations against Hamilton. The report went on to question his medical-debt collection record, which Trump defended in his post. [3]

The president said Marshall was legally obliged to request payment and otherwise risked “criminal liability and arrest”. He blamed judges’ orders over missed court appearances, rather than Marshall, for patients’ arrests. [2]

But The Kansas City Star’s 11 October investigation, republished by AOL, found that lawyers representing Marshall repeatedly asked judges for arrest warrants against former patients who failed to appear in court. It reported 81 arrests and said bond money was handed to the doctor by court order. Marshall has said that once accounts went to collections, he “had nothing to do with the process”. [9]

The newspaper found that suing patients was not uncommon, but Marshall’s practice charged 18% annual interest—the highest rate among roughly 150 medical practices it reviewed. Lawyers consulted by the Star disagreed about the rate’s legality. Trump’s post cites no statute supporting his assertion that Marshall risked prosecution. Even a duty to request payment would not establish that charging that interest rate or requesting arrest warrants was compulsory. [9] [2]

In Hamilton’s case, the later police reports do not excuse the church’s initial failure. Exactly what Hamilton knew, and whether he authorised Moore’s return, remain unresolved. His acknowledgement that police should have been called does not establish Trump’s accusation that he personally protected Moore. [3] [5] [6]