releases: https://www.mccaskill.senate.gov/media-center/news-releases/highlighting-impact-on-missouri-mccaskill-targets-sex-trafficking-and-demands-answers-from-backpagecom-in-bipartisan-investigative-hearing
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
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| url | title | date | year | month | party | chamber | state | member_name | bioguide_id | domain | scraper | source | date_source | text | has_text | collected_at | updated_at |
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| https://www.mccaskill.senate.gov/media-center/news-releases/highlighting-impact-on-missouri-mccaskill-targets-sex-trafficking-and-demands-answers-from-backpagecom-in-bipartisan-investigative-hearing | Highlighting Impact on Missouri, McCaskill Targets Sex Trafficking & Demands Answers from Backpage.com in Bipartisan Investigative Hearing | 2015-11-19 | 2015 | 2015-11 | Democrat | House | MO | Claire McCaskill | M001170 | www.mccaskill.senate.gov | legacy | Highlighting Impact on Missouri, McCaskill Targets Sex Trafficking & Demands Answers from Backpage.com in Bipartisan Investigative Hearing Top-ranking Democrat on Senates leading investigative panel, McCaskill uses hearing to examine how businesses facilitate criminal sex trafficking, including trafficking of children Thursday, November 19, 2015 WASHINGTON The story of a 15-year-old girl rescued from sex traffickers in St. Louis, Mo. was highlighted today by U.S. Senator Claire McCaskilla former sex crimes prosecutor who used a bipartisan Senate hearing to target sex trafficking, particularly trafficking of children, and demand answers from the website Backpage.com. Four months ago, a 15-year-old girl walked into Cardinal Glennon Childrens Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri, and asked for help, recounted McCaskill, the top-ranking Democrat on the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Along with four other girls between the ages of 12 and 18, she had been sold for sex at truck stops across Missouri, Florida, Texas, and New Mexico for almost two months. She was lucky to be alive. According to her police report, another girl traveling with her during those months had died in her arms. The 15-year-old girl who walked into Cardinal Glennon, like the majority of children who are sold for sex in the United States today, was trafficked using Backpage.com. McCaskill and her colleagues heard testimony from Darwin Roberts, Deputy Attorney General of the State of Washington, and Yiota Souras, General Counsel of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, who told the Senators: Every year, thousands of children from across the United States are trafficked, sold for sex [and] repeatedly raped. Carl Ferrer, Chief Executive Officer of Backpage.com, failed to obey a subpoena compelling his attendance at todays hearing, a failure which Republican Senator Rob Portmanthe panels Chairman who today said that sex trafficking of children was one of the great human rights causes of our centurycalled truly extraordinary. I know how dedicated the Chairman is to this issue, McCaskill said. I know how dedicated I am to this issue, I know how dedicated Senator [Heidi] Heitkamp [of North Dakota] is to this issueif Backpage thinks theyre going to go quietly into the night, they are sadly mistaken the laws in this country should apply to everyone under the law, the Senate is entitled to ask witnesses to appear before it, and for them to answer questions its important that we be steadfast in our resolve. Deputy Attorney General Roberts underscored the legitimacy of the panels investigation, saying that without understanding whats going on, we cant understand if theyre putting in sufficient effort to solve the problem Backpage consistently cites their own efforts while at the same time, they litigate vigorously against lawsuits to hold them accountable. Portman cited the option of pursuing contempt proceedings against Ferreran option the Senate has not invoked in more than 20 years. McCaskill also used the hearing to cite information showing that despite knowing that its website has hosted advertisements of children being sold for sex, Backpage.com has apparently signaled to its moderators that those ads should remain on the site. The employee responsible for moderation [on Backpage.com] issued clarifications regarding the banned words, said McCaskill. He instructed that moderators should no longer delete ads that use young or misspellings of young. Those deletions were capturing too much volume, he explained, because there are too many legitimate uses of the word to warrant a removal every time IF IN DOUBT ABOUT UNDERAGE: the process for now should be to accept the ad ONLY DELETE IF YOU REALLY VERY SURE PERSON IS UNDERAGE McCaskill is the top-ranking Democrat on the subcommitteewhich was formerly the Truman Committee. It is the Senates most powerful body for investigations and oversight and includes broad subpoena power. Relying on her experience as a courtroom prosecutor, McCaskill led the successful effort to reform the military justice system to curb sexual assaults in the U.S. military, and is helping lead a bipartisan effort to curb sexual violence on college and university campuses. Visit mccaskill.senate.gov/violence to see more about McCaskills work to curb domestic and sexual violence. ### Print Email Tweet | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |