[dcexaminer]- A former high-level aide to California Sen. Barbara Boxer [pictured] is expected to plead guilty to possessing child pornography, according to court records filed Friday in Alexandria’s U.S. District Court.
Jeff P. Rosato, 32, of Arlington, worked for the three-term Democrat from February 2005 through August 2007, rising though the ranks from legislative assistant to senior policy advisor, Senate records show.
In October 2007, he was moved to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, for which Boxer is the chairwoman.
He was fired from that committee post as senior policy adviser and counsel in November after Boxer learned of the child pornography charges pending against him.
On Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Ivan D. Davis extended the time for a formal indictment by 30 days following a request from prosecutors who wrote, “The parties are currently engaged in plea negotiations and believe that these negotiations will be concluded within 30 days.”
Rosato was charged with child pornography possession on Nov. 7 after FBI agents found 200 pictures and several movies of prepubescent boys having sex, a sworn statement by FBI agent Chad Gallagher said. One of the images shows two boys, about 10 years old, engaged in sexual activity, the statement said.
Investigators were led to Rosato after linking his Internet protocol address to a Google Hello user name that had received hundreds of child pornographic images from a known porn distributor in February 2007, the statement said.
Google Hello, an Internet photo-sharing service, was shut down in June so the Internet giant could further develop its more popular photo-sharing product, Picasa.
The unnamed distributor’s computer was seized in January, and Rosato’s user name was among several that had be receiving the pornographic files, the statement said.
In May, investigators subpoenaed Google for the user identification number for Rosato’s user name. Google provided access logs that linked the identification number to an IP address, the statement said.
A second subpoena sent to Comcast enabled investigators to link Rosato as the account holder assigned to the IP address, the statement said.