December 10, 2018
By Oresti Avlonitis
While serving as a U.S. attorney, (click here) Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta arranged an extremely lenient plea deal in conjunction with lawyers for Jeffrey Epstein, a hedge fund managed accused of abusing dozens of underaged girls, that resulted in the billionaire serving a part time 13 month sentence, according to a Miami Herald investigation.
The Herald’s report revealed that Acosta worked with Epstein’s lawyers to get the billionaire an extremely favorable plea deal in a case where dozens of victims accused him of coercing them into performing sexual acts or aiding him in grooming other girls for that purpose.
Despite the mountain of evidence brought against Epstein by the victims and the FBI, Acosta took nearly every measure available to him to lessen the charges against the accused, and sought to shroud the case in secrecy to prevent public outcry.
In 2007, a year before Epstein’s plea, Acosta met with one of Epstein’s lawyers to secretly discuss a deal that would give the accused and “any potential co-conspirators” full immunity from federal charges, The Herald reported....
Both the US House and US Senate has passed laws to regulate sex trafficking under this president. The president did sign the bill. The bill remains controversial, but, online accounts that allow sex trafficking know they are doing it. They very quickly shutdown there activities as soon as the bill was signed into law.
The point is, passing a bill does not mean Acosta should remain as a Labor Secretary. He broke the law and allowed Epstein a great deal of comfort in his predatory sexual activities. Acosta must go.
July 2, 2018
By Aja Romano
...The bill (click here) also conflates consensual sex work with nonconsensual sex work by doing nothing to differentiate between various kinds of sex work and related content — even if the workers and content are all legally protected by local law. In Nevada, where prostitution is legal in some areas of the state, sex workers have been bracing for FOSTA-SESTA. And one Nevada sex worker recently blamed the bill’s passage for a new local referendum that is attempting to shut down legal adult brothels.
It’s important to note that not differentiating between consensual and non-consensual sex work is part of an international legal standard codified in a 2000 United Nations protocol. This protocol was later expounded upon in a 2014 follow-up that examined issues of consent and asserted that “consent is always irrelevant to determining whether the crime of human trafficking has occurred.”
However, sex workers have argued vociferously that regardless of legal precedent, this conflation makes both consensual and nonconsensual sex workers less safe. Melissa Mariposa, who responded to the bill by creating an offshore-hosted, sex worker-friendly ISP, described the risks to the Daily Dot:
“If sex workers lose their storefront and safety tools, two things are going to happen,” Mariposa explained. “Number one, the predators will come out to play. Number two, prostitution is going to be pushed right back on the street and in hotel bars by women who will no longer want to see internet clientele and would rather take the risks freelancing. This will create more victims than it helps.”
There’s also plenty of research indicating that online avenues help officials do their work more effectively. A 2018 State Department report found that over a seven-year period, the number of identified victims of sex trafficking worldwide increased from fewer than 42,000 in 2011 to over 100,000 in 2017....
Both the US House and US Senate has passed laws to regulate sex trafficking under this president. The president did sign the bill. The bill remains controversial, but, online accounts that allow sex trafficking know they are doing it. They very quickly shutdown there activities as soon as the bill was signed into law.
The point is, passing a bill does not mean Acosta should remain as a Labor Secretary. He broke the law and allowed Epstein a great deal of comfort in his predatory sexual activities. Acosta must go.
July 2, 2018
By Aja Romano
...The bill (click here) also conflates consensual sex work with nonconsensual sex work by doing nothing to differentiate between various kinds of sex work and related content — even if the workers and content are all legally protected by local law. In Nevada, where prostitution is legal in some areas of the state, sex workers have been bracing for FOSTA-SESTA. And one Nevada sex worker recently blamed the bill’s passage for a new local referendum that is attempting to shut down legal adult brothels.
It’s important to note that not differentiating between consensual and non-consensual sex work is part of an international legal standard codified in a 2000 United Nations protocol. This protocol was later expounded upon in a 2014 follow-up that examined issues of consent and asserted that “consent is always irrelevant to determining whether the crime of human trafficking has occurred.”
However, sex workers have argued vociferously that regardless of legal precedent, this conflation makes both consensual and nonconsensual sex workers less safe. Melissa Mariposa, who responded to the bill by creating an offshore-hosted, sex worker-friendly ISP, described the risks to the Daily Dot:
“If sex workers lose their storefront and safety tools, two things are going to happen,” Mariposa explained. “Number one, the predators will come out to play. Number two, prostitution is going to be pushed right back on the street and in hotel bars by women who will no longer want to see internet clientele and would rather take the risks freelancing. This will create more victims than it helps.”
There’s also plenty of research indicating that online avenues help officials do their work more effectively. A 2018 State Department report found that over a seven-year period, the number of identified victims of sex trafficking worldwide increased from fewer than 42,000 in 2011 to over 100,000 in 2017....
