Right. Even if this was a targeted sting, he would still have to have been like “16? Sounds right up my alley!”

I understand your concern. The linked article in The Statesman clears this up:

However, I get uncomfortable whenever someone who is antagonizing the government is accused of child pornography or soliciting sex with a minor.

Dude, you’re somehow saying the gubment got this girls parents to have a kid say 15 years ago, then got the owners of that site to build it and the entire web operation, then made that girl go on there, and somehow lured Cody into using it and propisitioning her with the forthought he would be some kind of “threat”…

If there’s video surveillance and logs of him chatting and knowing the girl was underage, then it’s unlikely to be some conspiracy. Can you imagine how difficult it would be to pull of a conspiracy like this in the gun-loving state of Texas? All the people involved? Something as “simple” as planting child porn on a…

Dude, rein in the conspiracy theory think. Dude is just a scummy guy who met an underage girl on a website and was stupid enough to go to a hotel with surveillance cameras everywhere.

I also tend to distrust “the government”, or any sufficiently large and powerful organization. However, you have to understand how truly foul and rotten it gets at the roots of Anarcho-Libertarian/Ayn Randian Objectivist ideology. The further down that path you go, the more likely you are to be standing next to…

Or he could ask the girl almost half his age how old she is. Don’t know how old you are but I’m about this dude’s age (actually younger) and teenagers (and even early 20s) look like children to me. If you’re implying entrapment, well, that’s illegal and why we have a term for it. But I’m sure the white guy that pays…

To be fair, the government didn’t sign him up for a site called “sugardaddymeet.com”.  

Good ol Gizmodo Media; the police are horrible and corrupt except for when they go after your enemy in which case they do absolutely everything by the book,

We get it dud, you don’t understand context.

If she’s under age in Texas, even if she consented, it’s still rape.  That’s what ‘statutory’ means- by statute, that is, if the act is done, it violates a statute, and is therefore a criminal activity.

Yeah, I don’t think the cops were following him.  I think there was ‘normal’ security footage from businesses.

well her age isn’t stated but I bet I Texas whatever her age is she can’t legally consent so yes it is rape (statutory, but still rape.).

Statutory rape is actually rape.

whew, or maybe he shouldn’t have raped an underage girl 

As a 30 year old, it was weird enough when my buddy dated a 22 year old and I hung out with her 21 year old friends. It would be fucking weird to date an 18 year old, and at that point, you’re playing with fire.

Maybe, idk, take her to a bar, and if she can’t be ID’d then take that as a sign that you’re doing something…

“I think the article should clear that up”

I don’t doubt that he was being watched by various agencies looking for some reason to take him down. Doesn’t mean that he didn’t commit the crime though.  

Then again, people like this that I know will say things like “old enough to bleed, old enough to breed”