TAG / TONY ORTEGA

Amid the collapse of careers over even distant ties to Jeffrey Epstein, Tony Ortega’s public contempt for efforts to expose predators set the stage for a lifetime of defending the sexual exploitation of kids. 

As the UN champions global efforts against modern-day slavery, scrutiny is mounting over whether its attorney’s financial support of her husband—who long defended the world’s largest child sex trafficking marketplace—undermines the institution’s human rights mandate.

A nationwide FBI operation targets child sexual exploitation, yet the man who defended the world’s largest sex trafficking site escapes accountability.

When conflicts of interest in major news coverage were exposed, CJR refused to respond, eroding public trust in media oversight.

The federal lawsuit targets Backpage and hotels that ignored warning signs—even as Tony Ortega defended the site, masking the serial sexual exploitation of girls like Isabelle Hughes.

With Backpage and its imitators shut down, DOJ is offering restitution using recovered funds—but paperwork and deadlines pose hurdles for survivors.

UK authorities are probing “pimping websites”—online platforms that increasingly fuel sex trafficking and leave victims harder to reach and regulators scrambling to catch up.

While Backpage’s owners are serving prison sentences, former Village Voice editor Tony Ortega—who defended the site and mocked victims—hasn’t faced charges, prompting calls for broader accountability.

Expelled from the Church of Scientology after stalking a young woman, Barnes-Ross has spent the last dozen years working to convert his discharge into a livestreamed vendetta for cash.

How a reporter’s reliance on a discredited hate blogger cast a shadow over a story—and a website—masquerading as journalism.