MAGA Influencer Pleads No Contest After Fan Says Hotel Sex Proposal Turned Coercive, Blames 'Antifa-Laced' Joint

A prominent pro-Trump livestreamer has pleaded no contest to coercing a young fan during last autumn's Portland immigration protests.

Matt Tardio, a former Green Beret who built an online following documenting nightly clashes outside Portland's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility, entered his plea in Portland on 26 August 2026 to one felony coercion charge and one misdemeanour harassment charge.

The case, first reported by The Bulwark's Will Sommer using police and court records obtained through open-records requests, offers a documented account of an allegation involving a right-wing media figure operating at the centre of one of 2025's most closely watched protest movements.

Accusation Emerges From the Frontlines

Tardio rose to prominence livestreaming the protests outside Portland's ICE facility in October 2025, often alongside fellow MAGA activist Nick Sortor, whose own arrest at the demonstrations drew national attention.

Both men were cited in coverage by the New York Times and NPR as the protests became a flashpoint in the debate over federal immigration enforcement and a possible National Guard deployment to Portland.

According to the police account cited by The Bulwark, a 21-year-old woman named Natalie Bermudez travelled to the protest after watching Tardio's livestreams and believing she could trust him.

She told investigators that Tardio steered their conversation towards sex, floating the idea, as recorded in the police account, that the two of them could become the movement's 'king and queen'.

When she tried to redirect the discussion back to Donald Trump and immigration policy, she said, Tardio began forcing her to walk towards a secluded alley. She told police his eyes looked 'crazy' and his skin was pale, and that he appeared impaired.

Surveillance Footage Said To Corroborate Her Account

Investigators said the allegation was not left to rest on the woman's word alone. Surveillance cameras mounted at the ICE facility and at a nearby Tesla dealership captured the encounter, according to the police summary reviewed by The Bulwark.

That summary states that the footage showed Tardio blocking the woman's path, physically picking her up and carrying her back down the trail as she attempted to leave. She eventually broke free and left the area, reporting the incident to Portland police several days later.

Public interest in the case had already been building before the plea became known, with social media users circulating clips from the protest and flagging an alleged encounter between Tardio and a young woman near the railway tracks by the ICE facility on 6 October 2025.

Bermudez publicly appealed for witness footage under a police case number to support her report.

The Antifa-Laced Joint Defence

Confronted by a Portland detective, Tardio did not deny his impairment but offered an unusual explanation for it. He told investigators he became 'deathly ill' after accepting what he described as a 'peace offer' joint from Antifa activists, suggesting it may have been laced with an unknown substance, according to The Bulwark's reporting.

No evidence corroborating Tardio's claim that the joint was laced, or that Antifa activists were responsible, has been made public in connection with the case. Tardio has not issued a detailed public statement addressing the specific allegations or his police interview.

Under the negotiated plea agreement, Tardio's felony coercion charge can be dismissed if he successfully completes a term of probation. He is also required to pay Bermudez £7,900 ($10,000) in restitution as part of the deal.

Tardio's YouTube channel, SpeakTheTruthActual, has continued to grow since the protests, standing at roughly 375,000 subscribers, alongside 113,700 followers on X, where he posts under the handle @angertab. Neither Tardio nor a representative for him responded to the specific findings of the police report in public statements reviewed for this article.

The Streamer Economy That Built the Portland Story

The ICE facility protests drew an unusual cluster of independent, pro-Trump streamers who livestreamed nightly to build audiences well beyond Portland, at times overstating the scale of unrest, according to NPR's contemporaneous reporting.

Tardio himself told NPR at the time that he did not believe the National Guard needed to be deployed, even as some fellow influencers pushed a narrative of a city under siege that was later amplified by Trump administration officials.

For Bermudez, the resolution of the criminal case does not erase the encounter she described to police nearly a year ago, when she says a livestreamer she trusted turned confrontational within earshot of the same cameras documenting a national protest movement.

Tardio's channel has continued to grow since the plea, standing at roughly 375,000 subscribers, while Bermudez's name remains attached to a case that was resolved without a trial and without a finding of guilt, a distinction that matters both legally and to the person at the centre of it.