Alaska legislator's staffer was indicted on child sex trafficking charges. Here's what happened

In March 2026, a claim (archived) circulated online that Craig Scott Valdez, who served as chief of staff for a Republican state legislator in Alaska, was indicted on child sex trafficking charges.

The Facebook page Occupy Democrats shared the claim on March 24, 2026, writing: "BREAKING: The CHIEF OF STAFF for a top Republican official in Alaska is indicted for sex trafficking children, and HOW he was caught is incredible."

The claim also spread on X (archived), Threads (archived), Bluesky (archived) and Reddit (archived) in late March 2026. Snopes readers wrote into the newsroom, asking if the claim about Valdez's alleged indictment were true.

The underlying claim was true. According to court documents, a grand jury indicted Valdez on Feb. 17, 2026. At that time, he worked (archived) as chief of staff for Republican Alaska state Sen. George Rauscher. The indictment listed four charges including sex trafficking, sexual exploitation of a minor (for allegedly producing and receiving child sexual abuse material) and coercion and enticement of a minor.

Given the above, we rate this claim true. 

That said, March 2026 social media posts about Valdez (including the one above by Occupy Democrats) were relaying outdated information. The FBI arrested Valdez in Juneau, Alaska, three days after the indictment, on Feb. 20. According to Alaska-based news outlets, Rauscher terminated Valdez's employment on that day.

Carmela Warfield, the chairman of the Alaska Republican Party, wrote in a statement (archived) on Facebook that the party removed Valdez from "any and all positions he previously held within the Alaska Republican Party and the Young Republicans" after his arrest.

According to minutes from Valdez's first court appearance on Feb. 23, he pleaded not guilty to all four counts. At the time of this writing, he remained in custody while awaiting trial. 

We contacted Valdez's attorney for comment on the case and await a reply.

Valdez worked for Rauscher in various roles in the Alaska House and Senate since 2023, according to LegiStorm, a database of information about politicians and their staff. He previously worked for former Alaska Republican state Sen. Roger Holland as a researcher.

Snopes also reached out to Rauscher's office for its comment on Valdez's indictment and arrest, and we will update this story if we receive a response. 

Indictment: Valdez allegedly targeted young victims on social media

In a Feb. 20 memo by federal prosecutors to argue for Valdez's pre-trial detention, prosecutors argued that he was "a compulsive child exploitation offender engaging in high-volume conduct targeting children as young as 13 in Alaska."

According to that memo, which summarized the prosecution's findings, the FBI identified at least 12 children who investigators suspected were victims of Valdez.

The memo detailed how Valdez allegedly used Snapchat to meet a 15-year-old girl who he took to his home in fall 2025 allegedly "for the purpose of sexually exploiting the child to celebrate his birthday."

According to the memo, the 15-year-old girl's mother allegedly tracked her to Valdez's address and heard her daughter "say words to the effect that she wanted to go home." The mother allegedly entered Valdez's home, hit him in the face and took her daughter home. According to the memo, the girl appeared intoxicated.

Valdez reportedly fled his residence when police arrived. 

The memo claimed that incident was not the first time Valdez met the 15-year-old girl, and that a preliminary review of his Snapchat and CashApp profiles found:

... a compulsive pattern of child exploitation conduct targeting juvenile females in Alaska using an anonymized or "burner" Snapchat account to geolocate, identify, and target juvenile victims in Anchorage and Juneau, and CashApp to pay, or attempt to pay children to engage in prostitution and produce, at his direction, child exploitation images.

According to trial records (archived), federal prosecutors and Valdez's legal team are scheduled to meet on April 6, 2026, to set trial dates.