As the nation concludes the observance of National Human Trafficking Prevention Month this week, it is appropriate to remind Congress that the legislation it passed to end this crime applies to everyone, including its own members.
Recently, the House Ethics Committee found that former Rep. Matt Gaetz’s appetite for drugs and paid sex violated House rules, state and federal laws, and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, and illicit drug use. The real shocker was the Ethics Committee’s conclusion that Gaetz did not violate federal sex trafficking laws.
The Ethics Committee found “substantial evidence” that Gaetz “engaged in sexual activity with a 17-year-old girl,” a high school student identified as “Victim A.” The Committee also cited testimony supporting that Victim A had received $400 in cash from Gaetz “which she understood to be payment for sex.” Despite these findings, the Ethics Committee’s analysis mangles the laws and safeguards that Congress itself had crafted to protect trafficking victims, particularly children.
The Ethics Committee first determined that Gaetz had not taken a child “across state lines” for prostitution, harkening back to the 1910 Mann Act. An early attempt to end “white slavery” of both girls and women, the Mann Act is still deployed by federal prosecutors when interstate transport of any individual occurs during trafficking operations.
While the Ethics Committee did not find that Gaetz took a child across state lines for prostitution, it remained silent on why the Mann Act’s criminal penalties didn’t apply to the women Gaetz was alleged to have transported.
The Ethics Committee next explained that Gaetz did not violate another, more contemporary and ultimately more powerful law, the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA). The Committee repeated its finding that Gaetz did not transport a child, this time Victim A, across state lines.
Unlike the Mann Act, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act does not require transport. Other actions also trigger criminal trafficking charges, including “enticing”, “obtaining” and — thanks to a 2015 Congressional amendment — “soliciting” and “patronizing.” That language was specifically added “to clarify the range of conduct punished as sex trafficking.” Reducing the demand by sex buyers is a cornerstone of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, so why did the Ethics Committee ignore it?
The third prong of the Ethics Committee’s flawed analysis — that Gaetz did not violate the federal trafficking laws because he did not use “force, fraud or coercion” on Victim A — is equally inexplicable. Federal law never required force, fraud or coercion on children under the age of 18 to punish criminal sex trafficking. Since the Committee found that the 35-year old Gaetz paid for sex with a 17-year-old, their finding that no “force, fraud or coercion” was used on the child is irrelevant.
Equally disturbing is the Committee’s reluctance to find child sex trafficking because it “did not receive any evidence indicating that Gaetz was aware that Victim A was a minor when he had sex with her.” In 2008, Congress eliminated the requirement to prove that a defendant knew a sex trafficking victim was a child in cases where the defendant had a “reasonable opportunity” to observe the minor. Federal courts interpreted that language to impose “strict liability” on child sex traffickers. Simply put, ignorance of the victim’s age is no defense.
Oddly, the Ethics Committee found that Gaetz violated Florida’s statutory rape law because of “strict liability.” Why, then, did it not conclude likewise for violations of the very laws that Congress has passed and reauthorized since 2000? Is it simply a misunderstanding? Or is it because members of Congress are fearful that the laws they passed penalizing sex buyers for their role in facilitating child trafficking can — and should — be deployed against them?
Congressional reluctance to take a clear stand on the prevention of human trafficking has been underscored by its failure to reauthorize the latest iteration of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which has been languishing for more than three years despite bipartisan claims of support for it. Passage is necessary to support prevention education and services for survivors.
To properly honor National Human Trafficking Prevention Month, Congress should do two things: 1) reintroduce and pass a 2025 Trafficking Victims Protection Act and 2) stop shielding men, including their own members, who purchase children for sex.
Cohen is CEO of Protect All Children from Trafficking (PACT), the nation’s first organization to raise awareness about child sex trafficking and exploitation, and an attorney with two decades of experience representing human trafficking survivors.