“Wheel of Fortune” announcer Jim Thornton’s attorney claims her client accidentally visited a pedophilia support site while on an airplane.
In a letter obtained by Page Six Thursday, Thornton’s attorney, Allison Hart, claims he accidentally clicked on the site by mistake. Thornton has not been arrested or charged in connection with the incident.
“My client has become active in suicide-prevention advocacy since losing a close family member to suicide two years ago, and he has spent time visiting chat rooms offering support to individuals suffering from suicidal ideation,” she writes.
“One of the sites my client has visited is 988lifeline.org, and its chat forum chat.988lifeline.org. ….. Through an acquaintance in the suicide prevention space, my client was misdirected to a forum with a similar url, the forum lifeline.chat, which my client understood to be a forum offering suicide prevention support similar to 988lifeline.org and chat.988lifeline.org,” she continues.
Hart claims Thornton, 61, did not know that the website lifeline.chat claims to offer mental health support to individuals with pedophilic thoughts.
“When my client understood what the website was about, he left the page and has not visited since,” she says. “The website lifeline.chat itself is not unlawful, there is no unlawful child pornography or other pedophilic content, and my client has never viewed, downloaded or consumed any child pornography whether on that commercial flight in May or at any other time.”
She stresses, “It is for that reason that my client was never arrested or charged with a crime. Law enforcement immediately confirmed that no crime had occurred and immediately told my client he was free to go. In short, my client did nothing wrong.”
Thornton was suspended from “Wheel of Fortune” Tuesday following the airplane incident, which occurred on May 14.
“We have recently been made aware of allegations concerning Jim Thornton,” a spokesperson for Sony told Page Six. “He has been suspended from ‘Wheel of Fortune,’ and we are recasting while we conduct a thorough investigation.”
Insiders told TMZ that Thornton was on a flight when a fellow passenger allegedly complained about him to a flight attendant.
Law enforcement officers were notified about the alleged incident and met Thornton at the gate upon arrival at his destination.
The TV personality was questioned by officers and then released.
American Airlines later confirmed to Page Six that an alleged incident was reported and officers were notified.
Thornton will reportedly be edited out of the upcoming 44th season of “Wheel of Fortune” as producers scramble to replace him.
He first joined the iconic game show in 2011 after the death of former announcer Charlie O’Donnell.
He also worked alongside former host Pat Sajak up until the latter retired from the show after more than four decades in 2024.
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