Bellingham, Washington, man arrested and charged federally for crimes related to sexual …

Seattle – A 27-year-old Bellingham, Washington, man appeared in U.S. District Court in Seattle today charged with two federal felonies related to his attempts to sexually assault a child, announced U.S. Attorney Nick Brown.  Clayton Harker was arrested yesterday when he arrived at a Bellingham hotel believing he was going to sexually assault an 8-year-old girl.  The ‘girl’ in this case was fictitious and Harker had been communicating with undercover Homeland Security Investigation agents.  Harker is being held at the Federal Detention Center at SeaTac pending further hearings. According to the criminal complaint, Harker came to the attention of law enforcement as they were investigating a different snapchat user who was pressuring young people for explicit images, claiming he wanted to pay them as “models.”  Based on the communication between that subject and the person later identified as Harker, law enforcement began investigating his online activity.  In November 2022, Harker began communicating with an undercover agent who claimed to have an 8-year-old niece Harker could molest. Harker not only communicated with that undercover agent, he also communicated with another agent who posed as the 8-year-old girl.  Harker arrived at the hotel yesterday afternoon allegedly with materials to molest the child
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