No Senate Confirmation Until House Ethics Committee Report Clears AG Nominee Matt Gaetz of Sex Trafficking Allegations

Washington, D.C. – The recent nomination of former Congressman Matt Gaetz for the position of Attorney General has sparked concern among those working to combat sex trafficking in the U.S. Gaetz has been dogged by allegations of sex trafficking and has resigned under the cloud of a House Ethics Committee investigation just days before a report was to issue.

“The office of Attorney General requires the highest ethical conduct and public trust,” said Linda Smith, founder and CEO of the leading anti-sex trafficking nonprofit Shared Hope International. “We urge Congressman Gaetz to put the allegations of sex trafficking to rest before appearing before the Senate Confirmation Committee.”

The U.S. Senate has been a champion of legislation to prevent sex trafficking, protect the victims, and prosecute sex trafficking offenders. U.S. law defines sex trafficking in the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 and its subsequent reauthorizations as the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, obtaining, patronizing, or soliciting of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such an act has not attained 18 years of age (22 U.S.C. § 7102(11)(A)). The U.S. Senate has doggedly pursued legislation that has reached into areas from the banking sector to the Internet.

Linda Smith warns, “Congressman Gaetz should welcome the release of the House Ethics Committee Report as he will face a serious and knowledgeable committee of Senators in the confirmation hearing who will surely pursue honest answers.” This nomination occurs at a time when numerous high-profile cases of sex trafficking are about to start, most notably the criminal case against Sean “P Diddy” Combs.

The U.S. Department of Justice is the leading agency combatting sex trafficking through the enforcement of federal laws as well as programs across the nation strengthening law enforcement and civil society responses to victims and survivors of sex trafficking.