A former Maryland government official will spend eight years in federal prison for distributing child pornography. Forty-four-year-old Matthew Palmer was arrested after an instant messenger application advised authorities about an account that uploaded child pornography in 2019. The IP address linked to the account was registered to Palmer who was also accessing material from state government Internet services. Investigators seized electronic devices from Palmer’s home, and they found more than one-thousand child porn images and videos. Palmer worked as Deputy Legislative Officer for the Governor’s Office and Chief Operating Officer with the Maryland Department of Commerce.