The Elizabeth Smart Foundation Severed All Ties with O.U.R.

For additional articles covering OUR, please go to ACJ Investigates- Derailed: Operation Underground Railroad

Ed Smart “Left in disgust”

In August 2014, Tim Ballard and Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes announced that Operation Underground Railroad (O.U.R.) and The Elizabeth Smart Foundation were merging. The merger was highly publicized in the Utah press, lending O.U.R. legitimacy. Ballard and Reyes wasted no time peddling the merger for donations.

As part of the then upcoming merger, Elizabeth Smart was put on the Board of Governors. Her father, Ed Smart was named O.U.R.’s Director of Prevention and Rehabilitation (aftercare).

Shortly after, Ed Smart left O.U.R. “in disgust”. He was dissatisfied with how O.U.R. actually handled the aftercare of purported rescued sex slaves. Elizabeth and Ed Smart severed all ties with O.U.R., terminating the merger.

Ballard & Reyes then perpetuated that O.U.R. and The Elizabeth Smart Foundation had merged. In a May 2015, press release; O.U.R. announced that their merger with The Elizabeth Smart Foundation was “now official”. That is the final update on O.U.R.’s website to this very day.

The only problem is… it’s just simply not true.