HATE WATCH | FEBRUARY 26, 2026

Jeffrey Epstein Sexually Abused Children. Tony Ortega Enabled Thousands of Children to Be Sexually Abused.

For years, Jeffrey Epstein’s associates and co-conspirators have been hiding in plain sight, waiting for justice to catch up with them.

Now that process has finally begun.

Every day brings new revelations in the Epstein matter—revelations that aren’t really new at all.

But as deplorable as Epstein’s crimes were and as shameful as his associates’ complicity, there is another scandal that many argue eclipses both, and has likewise flown under the radar: Tony Ortega’s role in championing and apologizing for the most horrific large-scale sex trafficking enterprise in US history, Backpage.com.

“Shared Hope has documented more than 400 cases in 47 states of children being sex trafficked on Backpage.com.”

Backpage wasn’t just another online classifieds site—it was the world’s largest marketplace for the sex trafficking of women and children, facilitating the exploitation and murder of countless underage girls before it was seized by the FBI in 2018.

A Senate subcommittee found that a staggering 73% of all child trafficking reports involved the one site.

“Backpage has more stringent rules to post an ad to sell a pet, a motorcycle or a boat, than it does to sell a person,” said U.S. Senator Rob Portman. “A user is required to submit a verified phone number for selling a hamster, but not when placing ads that could involve the sale of a child for sexual abuse. Think about that.”

Minors trafficked on Backpage, which raked in over $150 million in annual revenues, include a teenager who described being gang-raped, choked and forced to perform sexual acts at gunpoint.

Others were strangled or stabbed to death.

“Backpage essentially sells human beings,” wrote Senator Portman. “It’s horrible.”

“Online classified ad sites such as Backpage.com,” he continued, “allow [sex traffickers] to remain anonymous, test out new markets, attempt to evade public or law enforcement detection, and easily locate customers to consummate their sale of children for sex.”

“According to a leading anti-trafficking organization called Shared Hope International, ‘service providers working with child sex trafficking victims have reported that between 80% and 100% of their clients have been bought and sold on Backpage.com.’ In fact, Shared Hope has documented more than 400 cases in 47 states of children being sex trafficked on Backpage.com.”

Tony Ortega was employed as Backpage.com’s chief public defender and propagandist. He consistently minimized the sale of women and children for sex, dismissing underage sex trafficking as a “mass panic,” a “national fantasy” and a “small problem.” He derided advocates warning of an epidemic of child sexual exploitation as exaggerating a “nonexistent” crisis, and insisted underage prostitution was “nothing like what is being trumpeted.”

As we know, Tony Ortega was dead wrong. And he supported a criminal enterprise.

“As the largest online sex trafficking marketplace in the world, Backpage facilitated the sex trafficking of innocent women and children through sites it ran for 943 locations in 97 countries and 17 languages,” wrote Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Ortega’s bosses—the men he boasted were “smart enough to start Backpage” while he mocked those concerned for the safety of children—have since been criminally charged and convicted of terrible crimes.

James Larkin committed suicide before trial to avoid accountability. Ortega’s other boss, Michael Lacey, was imprisoned, with Backpage executives Scott Spear and Jed Brunst receiving 10-year federal sentences.

But Lacey and Larkin relied on Tony Ortega to protect Backpage’s image, as the public face promoting and defending their sex trafficking enterprise—the largest of its kind in the world.

And Ortega delivered, not only pretending child sexual exploitation was a myth, but targeting those exposing it.

The New York Times called him what he was: the Backpage “attack dog.”

Now that the site is gone—and its owners with it—only one person remains hidden in plain sight, the same way that Epstein’s accomplices did… until they were brought to justice.

That man is Tony Ortega.

Epstein had his enablers; Backpage had its attack dog.

Epstein’s confederates are being charged with crimes as we write this.

When will the world hold Tony Ortega accountable?

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