Portman to push to hold sex-ad website in contempt
WASHINGTON — A Senate investigation into child sex trafficking could result in civil contempt charges against a major sex advertising website and its CEO, two lawmakers said Tuesday.
Sens. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., announced plans to advance a resolution holding Backpage.com, the advertising website, in contempt of Congress. The two lawmakers said the company has refused to comply with a subpoena seeking documents about how it screens ads for warning signings of sex trafficking.
Portman and McCaskill said their Senate probe, launched last year, revealed that hundreds of cases of sex-trafficking — some involving children — were linked to Backpage.com. Portman said the website sits at the center of an “online black market” for traffickers.
“We have given Backpage.com every opportunity to comply with a lawful subpoena, but they have continued to stonewall,” Portman and McCaskill said in a joint statement Tuesday. “Backpage.com’s ongoing obstruction of this investigation will not be tolerated. It is vital that Congress learns how human trafficking occurs on the Internet and what can be done to stop it.”
A company official declined to comment on the contempt resolution.
"Unfortunately we can’t and don’t comment on existing litigation, so if they are moving forward with contempt charges, that’s not something the company will provide comment on," said Liz McDougall, general counsel for Backpage.com.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will vote on the resolution Wednesday, Portman and McCaskill said. If the measure is approved by the full Senate, the chamber's legal counsel would file a civil action against Backpage.com in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The Senate lawsuit would request a judge's order to enforce the subcommittee's subpoena.
Gregory M. Gilchrist, an associate professor at the University of Toledo College of Law, said Portman and McCaskill are essentially using the Senate’s civil contempt powers to sue Backpage.com. He said it’s an unusual but clever move.
If a judge sides with the Senate panel and the company still defies the subpoena, Gilchrist said, the court could impose stiff financial penalties against Backpage.com aimed at inducing cooperation.
More than 400 cases of child sex trafficking across 47 states have been linked to the website — including at least 13 in Ohio the past four years, according to Portman, who is chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs' investigatory subcommittee.
Portman and McCaskill said they had also uncovered evidence the website’s employees might be editing ads before they go online, possibly to hide evidence of an illegal service or transaction. The edits could include, for example, deleting a photograph or a word that indicated someone offering escort services was under 18.
In November, the lawmakers subpoenaed the firm's CEO, Carl Ferrer, to testify before the panel. He did not attend the hearing.
Portman and McCaskill have used the committee's investigatory powers to examine the growing problem of human trafficking. Human trafficking — selling labor or sexual services of minors or coerced adults — has flourished with the advent of the Internet, which provides anonymity to traffickers and customers alike. And child sex trafficking is particularly horrific, with reports of children as young as 11 being sold into virtual slavery.