The United States v. John Stagliano

The government's obscene prosecution of a pornographer

August 20, 2008

Attachments:

podcasts/reasontv_video_517.mp3 (7.3 MB) — Stagliano

In April, the government indicted pornographer John Stagliano in a federal court in Washington, D.C. on multiple charges of obscenity for producing and distributing two fetish movies, Milk Nymphos and Storm Squirters 2: Target Practice, and a trailer for another porn collection. All appeared on his company's adult-only website, evilangel.com.

If convicted and sentenced to maximum jail time on each charge, Stagliano, one of the most popular, innovative, and award-winning XXX-rated movie kings in history, effectively faces a lifetime sentence. His next court date is scheduled for November, shortly after Election Day.

In April, reason.tv's Nick Gillespie talked with Stagliano in a candid, wide-ranging 20-minute conversation about the government's case against him and his defense strategy, the role that porn plays in the average viewer's life, how he came to his libertarian beliefs, how contracting HIV was the best thing that ever happened to him, his record of innovation in the adult-film world, and much, much more.

To read a partial transcript of the interview, go here.

To watch the video of this interview, go here.