Trump administration cuts legal funding for victims of human trafficking

[EleanorR]

Because of course they did. I wonder if this was ordered before or after the article about Epstein came out in the Miami Herald, and if there's any connection.

President Trump’s administration has mandated that federal funds used to help human trafficking victims clear their criminal records, often accrued while forced into prostitution or sex slavery, no longer be spent for that purpose. After a burst of protests last year did not change the Justice Department’s decision, four top Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee sent a letter to Attorney General William P. Barr this week asking why his department made changes that “fly in the face of the spirit and plain language” of laws passed to help trafficking victims.

Bruggeman said, “From speaking with people within the [Justice] Department, this was not a recommendation from the staff [of the Office for Victims of Crime]. This was something that came from the top, from the political side.”

On Tuesday, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee — along with Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.), the vice chair; Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.), who chairs the crime and homeland security subcommittee; and Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.) — sent a letter to the attorney general noting that support for trafficking victims had long been bicameral and bipartisan. But “the Department of Justice moved in the opposite direction,” the representatives wrote, “by adopting policies that prohibit the use of grant funding for survivors of human trafficking to access critical legal representation.” The letter seeks internal Justice Department documentation justifying the prohibition of funds for trafficking victims’ vacatur and expungement cases by Aug. 15.

“Congress had made it clear that victims of human trafficking deserve the opportunity to reclaim their lives,” Nadler told The Washington Post on Friday. "The administration’s move to restrict the use of funding for expungement is not only regressive but cruel. The administration must provide us with answers regarding this decision.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/crime-law/2019/08/02/trump-administration-cuts-funding-victims-human-trafficking/

[shraby]

1. Where is all the "savings" trump is making, going???

Betcha can guess.

[bucolic_frolic]

6. Skimming the cash and tariffs like an Atlantic City casino

or saving it up for a massive tax cut to try to win reelection

[JesterCS]

2. Making it easier to get you some little girls Trump? N/t

[ananda]

3. Cruelty, thy name is MF45!

He lives to be cruel.

[bronxiteforever]

4. Kick and recommend for visibility of this evil

[bucolic_frolic]

5. It is policies like this one that cause me the greatest concern

because they can't possibly think they'll get away with it, can't not know that it will be repealed on a new administration, and therefore they have no intent or idea that they will every relinquish power or leave office.

Chilling.

[Botany]

7. Please see "Trump International Modeling Agency"

The one that Epstein patterned some of his businesses after.

At this point what crimes is and are the Trumps not involved with?

[KY_EnviroGuy]

8. Victims of human trafficking have no power or voice.

The GOP always defunds things provided for the most vulnerable that typically have no political power or public voice.

Thank goodness our Democratic reps are assuming that role for them......

[EleanorR]

10. Exactly, and trump and his cabal would like to keep it that way

No voice, no power....no testifying against their traffickers.

Hey trump fanboys and girls, why is that?

[sakabatou]

9. WTF?!

[Leghorn21]

11. Acosta wanted to slash funding for trafficked victims from $68m a year to $18m

From July:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jul/09/labor-secretary-alexander-acosta-sex-trafficking-budget-cut

disgusting pack of sleazebucket motherfuckers
all of em

[scarletwoman]

12. "...not only regressive but cruel." The cruelty is the point.

The Cruelty is the Point

Trump’s only true skill is the con; his only fundamental belief is that the United States is the birthright of straight, white, Christian men, and his only real, authentic pleasure is in cruelty. It is that cruelty, and the delight it brings them, that binds his most ardent supporters to him, in shared scorn for those they hate and fear: immigrants, black voters, feminists, and treasonous white men who empathize with any of those who would steal their birthright. The president’s ability to execute that cruelty through word and deed makes them euphoric. It makes them feel good, it makes them feel proud, it makes them feel happy, it makes them feel united. And as long as he makes them feel that way, they will let him get away with anything, no matter what it costs them.

The above excerpt is the final paragraph of a stunningly excellent article from October 2018. I highly recommend reading the entire piece.