[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1811-E1813]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER'S FAILURE TO CONFRONT BACKPAGE.COM

______

HON. FRANK R. WOLF

of virginia

in the house of representatives

Monday, December 9, 2013

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I submit a letter I sent last week to Attorney
General Eric Holder, my fourth this year on the topic (I also submit
the previous four), pressing him and the Department of Justice to
prioritize combatting sex trafficking on the Internet. I specifically
highlighted the Web site Backpage.com, which time and again has been
proven to be a conduit for the buying and selling of human beings,
including minors.
My letter was prompted by a Washington Post article, which I also
submit for the Record, which details the exploitation of a young local
girl on Backpage.com.
Attorney General Holder has failed to shut down or even publicly
shame Backpage.com, one of the major vehicles for trafficking in this
country. Enough is enough. I am not going to drop this issue until
every mother and father in this nation has the peace of mind that our
government is doing everything it can to confront this criminal
enterprise. Backpage.com is profiting from the sexual exploitation of
minors. This must not be permitted to continue.

December 6, 2013.
Hon. Eric H. Holder, Jr.,
Attorney General, Department of Justice,
Washington, DC.
Dear Attorney General Holder: The lead article in the Metro
section of today's Washington Post provided yet another sad
account of a young girl being sexually trafficked on the Web
site Backpage.com. What makes it even more tragic is that the
alleged pimp is a D.C. police officer. Enclosed is a copy of
the article. I marked the reference to Backpage.com.
For five years, I have been asking you and your department
to deal with this problem. You have given a lot of speeches,
but have you ever even publicly called out Backpage.com for
its critical role in facilitating sex trafficking?
When are you and your department going to get serious about
solving this problem? How many more young girls are going to
become victims before the department deals with this?
From now on, I'm going to hold you personally accountable
for each victim trafficked on that Web site--each someone's
daughter, sister, or mother. I'm asking you--not as attorney
general but as a father--to use your remaining time in office
to find a way to end Backpage.com's trafficking of young
girls and women.
Best wishes,
Sincerely,
Frank R. Wolf,
Member of Congress.
____

[From the Washington Post, Dec. 6, 2013]

Police Search Officer's Home

(By Peter Hermann, Ann Marimow and Clarence Williams)

Authorities are investigating whether a veteran D.C. police
officer was running a prostitution ring out of his Southeast
Washington apartment where they found a 16-year-old girl who
had been reported missing, according to documents unsealed in
federal court.
The officer, who has been on the force for 24 years, had
not been arrested as of Thursday evening, but he was put on
paid administrative leave as police continued their
investigation. The teenager told police that the officer took
nude photos of her and arranged for her to have sex for
money, the court papers say.
News of the allegation broke publicly as another D.C.
police officer was in U.S. District Court facing a federal
charge of producing child pornography: Marc L. Washington, 32
was arrested Monday on allegations that he took pictures of a
semi-nude 15-year-old who had run away from home.
Authorities said it does not appear that the cases are
related, but the specter of having two officers from the 7th
District station house in Southeast investigated on crimes
linked to sexual abuse of minors has shaken the 4,000-member
department. D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said the
department ``is very concerned about the recent allegations
of egregious conduct.''
Lanier acknowledged that the cases could make the force
look bad, but she said that ``misguided actions of a few in
no, way reflects on the professionalism, dedication and
integrity of the department.''
The Washington Post is not naming the 47-year-old officer
because he has not been charged with a crime and was not
identified in the search warrant application, filed in U.S.
District Court. Efforts to reach him were not successful.
It was unclear how investigators came to focus on the
officer and the apartment on Stanton Road. The court
documents state only that detectives investigating a family's
report of a missing 16-year-old girl learned that she might
be at the officer's residence.
Police went to the apartment Tuesday night and the officer
answered the door after repeated knocks, according to court
papers. He let them in, and they reported that they
immediately smelled marijuana. Detectives were told that two
females were in a bedroom; one was the missing teen, the
court documents stated, and the other was an 18-year-old.
Officers stayed at the apartment through the night and most
of Wednesday, and after getting a search warrant, they
confiscated nine pairs of shoes, one bra, two boxes of
condoms, computers and cellphones. The court documents stated
that they also took a mirror with names written on it and
that the 16-year-old told police that the names were of women
who had worked as prostitutes.
A high-ranking D.C. police official said authorities were
sorting through conflicting statements and trying to
determine precisely what was happening in the apartment. How
the officer met the girl was not described in documents made
public thus far.
According to court documents, the girl told police that she
had gone to the officer's apartment at least twice and that
the officer took nude photos of her wearing sparkly. high-
heeled shoes and showed them to a potential customer. The man
liked the photos and was scheduled to meet her and pay $80
for sex, the girl told police. Of that, she said, $20 was to
go to the officer. The girl said that the officer was to pay
for her hairstyle, shoes and new clothes and that her working
name would be ``Juicy.'' It was not clear whether the girl
met the customer.
The girl said that six other women worked out of the
apartment and that advertisements were posted on the Internet
site backpage.com, the documents said.
In U.S. District Court on Thursday, authorities were
dealing with the separate case involving Marc Washington.
Magistrate Judge John M. Facciola said he wanted to release
the officer to stay with his father in Waldorf, Md., and be
put on electronic monitoring. But Facciola issued a 24-hour
stay on the order to give prosecutors a chance to appeal.
``It is despicable for anyone to do this,'' Facciola said
of the alleged conduct. ``For a police officer to do this is
beyond anyone's imagination.''
But with Washington's gun and badge no longer in his
possession, the judge said it ``reduces substantially'' the
possibility of the officer being able to abuse his previous
position of authority. The arresting officer told the judge
that Washington's police powers had been revoked and that he
was in the process of being suspended without pay.
The officer's attorney, Michelle Peterson, told the judge
that her client ``understands the serious nature of the
charges, but they are just that--charges.''
Assistant U.S. Attorney Ari Redbord said that investigators
recovered dozens of photos from Washington's camera,
including images of two semi-nude females who appeared to be
minors, and that they think there may be other victims.
``He committed this crime on duty, in uniform and with a
firearm,'' Redbord said in arguing for Washington to remain
in custody. ``He picked the most vulnerable of victims in our
community.''
____

October 23, 2013.
Hon. Eric H. Holder, Jr.,
Attorney General, Department of Justice,
Washington, DC.
Dear Attorney General Holder: I write to share with you a
letter I sent today to President Obama urging that either he
or you make a major policy address in the next 30 days
publicly calling out Web sites like Backpage.com, which time
and again feature prominently in court cases involving the
horrific sexual exploitation of American children. This issue
is as timely as it has ever been given a recent Washington
Post article which revealed that Northern Virginia gangs have
concluded that trafficking young girls is actually more
profitable than traditional criminal enterprises like drugs
or weapons sales--in part because prostituted minors can be
bought and sold multiple times. Not surprisingly the gangs
use the Web to advertise services.
As you know, this is an issue about which I have long been
deeply troubled. I had a productive meeting with several
Department of Justice employees today regarding the most
effective means by which to tackle this insidious criminal
activity.
I recognize there are no easy answers, but as I stated in
my letter to the president, I believe it is critical that we
embrace a holistic approach, which includes public education,
demand reduction and, importantly as it relates to
Backpage.com, public shame.
Best wishes,
Sincerely,
Frank R. Wolf,
Member of Congress.
____

July 30, 2013.
Hon. Eric H. Holder, Jr.,
Attorney General, Department of Justice,
Washington, DC.
Dear Attorney General Holder: Many Americans were
undoubtedly heartened to

[[Page E1812]]

learn yesterday that authorities rescued 105 children from 76
different cities across this nation who had been forced into
prostitution, and arrested 150 pimps who were intimately
involved in the exploitation of these minors--children
ranging in age from 13 to 17. But I suspect that just as many
Americans were shocked to learn of the scope and reach of
human trafficking in our own back yard. For under the
Trafficking Victims Protection Act any minor used in a
commercial sex act is a victim of human trafficking.
I applaud the impressive work of the FBI; its local, state,
and federal law enforcement partners, including the Fairfax
County Police Department and the Loudoun County Sheriff's
Office, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited
Children (NCMEC). As you know, I have long supported efforts
locally and in the annual Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS)
appropriations bill to elevate this issue as a law
enforcement priority. In fact the CJS bill which recently
passed the House Appropriations Committee included language
instructing U.S. Attorneys to maintain their human
trafficking task forces and undertake proactive
investigations of persons or entities facilitating
trafficking in persons through the use of classified
advertising on the Internet. The bill also directs the U.S.
Attorney General to submit a comprehensive report on all DOJ
anti-trafficking activities, including legislative proposals
that may advance any efforts, no later than 60 days after the
bill is signed into law.
While the details of this campaign, Operation Cross
Country, are still emerging, not unsurprising, Backpage.com
featured prominently in the announcement of the crackdown. In
fact, a CNN story this morning cited the assistant director
of the FBI's criminal investigative division, as saying,
``This seventh iteration of Operation Cross Country also was
the most successful, with a 30% to 40% increase in
`identifying both victims and pimps' compared with previous
operations.'' The story continued, ``He credited the success
in part to an expansion of the probe to websites such as
<a href='http://www.backpage
.com'>www.backpage
.com</a>, which he called a forum `where pimps and exploiters
gather.' ''
An NBC news story following the raid reported, ``Search for
`Backpage.com' on the FBI's main website and up pops eight
whole pages of press releases and public announcements naming
the classified advertising site as a tool for sex criminals,
particularly those selling children, sex and prostitution.''
Case after case shows that as long as web sites like
Backpage.com operate with impunity, impervious to public
shame, law enforcement will simply be playing catch up.
In that vein, just last week, an overwhelming majority of
state and territorial attorneys general sent a letter to the
chair and ranking members of the U.S. Senate Committee on
Commerce, Science, and Transportation and House Committee on
Energy and Commerce. The letter indicated that ``Federal
enforcement alone has proven insufficient to stem the growth
of internet-facilitated child sex trafficking,'' and pleaded
that, ``Those on the front lines of the battle against the
sexual exploitation of children---state and local law
enforcement---must be granted the authority to investigate
and prosecute those who facilitate these horrible crimes.''
I couldn't agree more, which is why in April 2012, well
over a year ago, I wrote you a letter making clear that
classified Internet advertising was the latest front in the
battle against sexual exploitation and trafficking of minors,
Specifically I wrote, ``. . . if DOJ is of the mind that
there are insufficient laws on the books to prosecute this
activity, I respectfully request a broader, legal analysis
and recommendations to Congress of legislative initiatives
that may be undertaken to fully equip law enforcement to
tackle this problem.'' This was the first of several letters
I've written on the topic.
On June 8 2012, I wrote, ``. . . I continue to believe that
unless there is the very real prospect of criminal liability
that Backpage.com will fail to change . . . I recognize that
these are complex legal questions but surely we can agree
that this is not a complex issue. Children ought not to be
bought and sold online. Those who facilitate and enable this
practice should have to face consequences. I welcome the best
legal analysis the Department can provide in how to ensure
that this happens.''
And again, on March 27, 2013 I wrote you, this time
including a series of recommendations provided by NCMEC that
Backpage
.com and similar Web sites used for trafficking could
voluntarily adopt to reduce the sexual exploitation of
children online. I urged you, as the nation's chief law
enforcement officer, to press Backpage.com to immediately
adopt these practices and said that if they fail to do so you
should ``. . . take legal action against Backpage.com.''
These last two letters have gone unanswered. The legal
analysis has never been provided and the exploitation of
innocents continues.
Human trafficking has rightly been deemed the slavery issue
of our time. It isn't simply an international tragedy, it's a
national and local outrage. For years, the back of my office
door featured a giant picture of William Wilberforce--the
remarkable abolitionist, and man of faith, who labored
tirelessly for decades to ban the slave trade in the British
Empire. Wilberforce was part of a broader transatlantic
abolition movement dating back to the 1700s. He served as an
inspiration for the abolitionist cause on our own shores,
laying the foundation for the likes of Frederick Douglas,
Harriet Beecher Stowe and even Abraham Lincoln, who 150 years
ago this year issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
Wilberforce, famously said, ``Having heard all this, you
may choose to look the other way, but you can never again say
that you do not know.'' We know that our nation's children
are at risk of horrific exploitation that almost defies
imagination. We know how pimps and johns use specific Web
sites to profit from and prey on their vulnerability. Will
you continue to look the other way?
Best wishes.
Sincerely,
Frank R. Wolf,
Member of Congress.
____

March 27, 2013.
Hon. Eric H. Holder, Jr.,
Attorney General, Department of Justice,
Washington, DC
Dear Mr. Attorney General: As you know I have long been
outraged that Web sites like Backpage.com, which in case
after case have been found to be a conduit for the buying and
selling of human beings, including children, to the tune of
millions of dollars in profits a year, appear to do so with
impunity from federal prosecutors.
Just recently, Joshua Jacquis Dumas, plead guilty to
``running a commercial sex business that prostituted multiple
juvenile girls in Herndon, Virginia, and other locations
throughout Virginia, Maryland, North and South Carolina,
Georgia and Florida.'' To his great credit, the office of
U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Neil
MacBride, brought the case against Dumas. The ``statement of
facts'' that Dumas agreed to before entering his guilty plea
is a grotesque account of abuse, manipulation and
exploitation and much of it took place in and around my
congressional district. These crimes were made possible with
Backpage.com. The FBI press release announcing the guilty
plea specifically mentioned the website: ``Daily, the
enterprise posted multiple advertisements on Backpage.com,
and sometimes within minutes customers would call.''
I have repeatedly requested that the Department of Justice
provide an analysis of whether there are sufficient laws on
the books to prosecute the type of activity that Backpage.com
engages in, and, if not, that the department provide a
broader legal analysis and recommendations to Congress of
legislative initiatives that may be undertaken to fully equip
law enforcement to tackle this problem. To date this request
has gone unanswered. Meanwhile, as the National Center for
Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) pointed out in a
recent letter to me, ``children are still being sold for sex
on this site [Backpage].''
I recognize that complex legal questions are involved in
this discussion, but surely the safety and security of
America's most vulnerable, our children, warrants such a
discussion. I have enclosed the letter I received from NCMEC
as I believe it provides invaluable information about
critical next steps that the department could take to
challenge Backpage.com.
Specifically NCMEC provides four recommendations for
practices that Backpage.com and similar Web sites used for
trafficking could immediately and voluntarily adopt to reduce
the sexual exploitation of children online, including:
``Prohibiting payment sources that mask the customer's
identity--such as gift cards, prepaid credit cards and using
another's credit card. These payment sources hamper law
enforcement's ability to investigate these ads.
``Verifying and knowing its customers. Verifying the
identity and age of the person submitting the ad as well as
the person depicted in any images in the ad. These are ways
to verify this information either in person or online when
the ad is purchased. Other classified ad sites have
implemented verification processes including database checks
and review of government issued identification.
``Consistently blocking or removing postings believed to
involve minors being sold for sex.
``Preventing ads with previously flagged images from being
posted and refusing to post ads from customers who are
believed to have posted suspicious ads in the past.''
I urge you, as the nation's chief law enforcement
authority, to press Backpage.com to immediately adopt these
recommendations. And if they fail to voluntarily adopt these
recommendations, I implore you to take legal action against
Backpage.com.
Despite mounting public pressure, Backpage.com seems
impervious to criticism and even shame. I am increasingly
convinced that they will only respond to the very real
prospect of criminal or civil liability. Sites like
Backpage.com have historically hid behind the Communications
Decency Act (CDA) which, as NCMEC points out, ``Provides
immunity to Internet communication service providers, such as
website operators, for publishing content by third parties.''
But importantly, the CDA does not prevent federal
prosecutions of sexual crimes against children.
On January 10, the Kansas City Star reported that the
Eighth Circuit Court of appeals ``decided for the first time
that a federal anti-slavery law applies to both the consumers
as well as the sellers of sex with children.'' Specifically
the court found, ``The unambiguous text . . . makes no
distinction

[[Page E1813]]

between suppliers and purchasers of commercial sex acts with
children, and the defendants have failed to persuade us
Congress intended a supplier-only limitation or a purchaser
exception.''
The anti-trafficking movement has recognized this as a
landmark ruling which closes an important loophole in the
fight against trafficking through criminal deterrence, and
raises the priority of prosecution of demand. However, this
victory will be short-lived if Backpage.com and related
online classified sites operate without fear of repercussion,
fostering an atmosphere of demand which results in the
continued trafficking of women and children for sex.
This is a grave injustice--a blot on our collective
national conscience which demands action. Will you allow this
exploitation to continue on your watch?
Sincerely,
Frank R. Wolf,
Member of Congress.

____________________