Dems Don't Care Where Their Money Comes From

Nancy Pelosi’s super PAC keeps money from child sex trafficking website

December 18, 2017

Shawn / CCL

With sexual misconduct scandals burning through Washington, one would think members of Congress would be walking on eggshells to avoid being caught up in the mess. But new information about former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) shows that she’s profiting, at least politically, from something arguably even worse.

Documents revealed on Sunday show that Nancy Pelosi’s SuperPAC received massive donations from a website dealing in child sex trafficking – and it’s refusing to return the money.

What gives?

Pelosi Profits from Child Victims

In 2016, Kamala Harris, then-attorney general of California, brought felony charges against the owners of Backpage.com, a classified ad clearinghouse similar to Craigslist. Its owners were under fire for allowing ads for sex trafficking and prostitution — including that of children — in their “adult services” section.

The result of a bipartisan Senate investigation was an acknowledgment that Backpage “knowingly sold ads to pimps who coerced minors into prostitution,” and site was subsequently forced to remove its “adult services” section. But that didn’t stop the rest of the site from remaining a “hub” for the sex trade.

The Washington Times reports that police in Detroit arrested two men who were using the site to run an underage prostitution ring last week, and a Chicago man was arrested in June after using Backpage to sell a 16-year-old girl, who was later killed by a “client.”

Allowing these crimes have proven very profitable for the site’s owners, however. According to the charges against the two owners and two additional shareholders, Backpage makes $2.5 million per month in California alone — and the site’s owners use that money to back big-time Dem politicians.

It seems that the Democrats aren’t concerned about where that money comes from, however. One of the men who runs Backpage, James Larkin, sent $10,000 to Nancy Pelosi’s SuperPAC, House Majority PAC, in October 2016, and the group says it doesn’t plan to return the money.

Little Response

The PAC’s executive director, Charlie Kelly, told the Times that they couldn’t return the money: it’s already been spent.

“The contribution from James Larkin was received and spent during the 2016 election cycle. The allegations against Larkin are reprehensible, and [House Majority PAC] will not accept any future contributions from Larkin or his associates at Backpage.com,” Kelley said.

Further, Pelosi’s aide claims that the congresswoman “had no role in [Larkin’s] contribution” and “did not solicit this donation.”

Still, Pelosi has also made no comment about whether she will ask her SuperPAC to return the money — which it unarguably should do.

 

Though Harris brought charges against Backpage’s owners, she herself was the recipient of the profits from child trafficking during her recent run for Senate. According to the Times, the site’s owners and their wives have contributed approximately $100,000 to specific Democrat candidates, and another $95,000 to the Democratic party itself since 2010.

Arizona and New Mexico’s Democratic Party organizations also received money from Backpage – but they also say the money has been spent.

Arizona Republican Party spokesperson Torunn Sinclair has said that this excuse is “absurd and disgusting.”

“They obviously have the cash to return this dirty money,” she told the Times. “They just don’t want to return it.”