Latest / The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson / Defending the Victims of Child Sex Abuse — Trey's Law Going National

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Defending the Victims of Child Sex Abuse — Trey's Law Going National · The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome in as Verdict with Center Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson
0:04
Speaker 1: with you and Senator You're in Washington, d C. With
0:07
Speaker 1: a very special guest on a very important piece of legislation.
0:11
Speaker 2: This is one of those shows.
0:12
Speaker 1: That we are promised we're going to get to the
0:15
Speaker 1: elections and we're going to get to what's going on
0:17
Speaker 1: around We will talk about that in future shows, but
0:20
Speaker 1: there is an extremely important piece of legislation that you
0:24
Speaker 1: are working on in Washington, d C. And there are
0:26
Speaker 1: countless people that listen to show that may know victims,
0:29
Speaker 1: and this is a show I hope you will hit pause,
0:32
Speaker 1: you will share it on social media because it is
0:35
Speaker 1: an important law that we're talking about right now.
0:38
Speaker 3: Well, that's exactly right.
0:39
Speaker 4: And this is a special show because we're talking today
0:43
Speaker 4: about child sexual abuse and it is an epidemic across
0:47
Speaker 4: this country. So many children are the victims of sexual abuse.
0:50
Speaker 4: And we're going to talk about legislation that I introduce
0:54
Speaker 4: today in the Senate to empower the victims of sexual abuse.
0:59
Speaker 4: And and a very special guest that is adjoining us
1:03
Speaker 4: today and you're going to get a chance to hear
1:06
Speaker 4: about her journey and tragically her brother's journey as a
1:11
Speaker 4: victim of sexual abuse.
1:13
Speaker 1: Before we get to that, I want to tell you
1:15
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1:20
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2:19
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2:23
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2:26
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2:31
Speaker 1: or give online at IFCJ dot org. That's IFCJ dot org. Senator,
2:39
Speaker 1: I want to be clear for everybody that's gonna hear
2:41
Speaker 1: the show, it's on YouTube, it's on Facebook. I hope
2:45
Speaker 1: you'll share it and just take the time because there
2:47
Speaker 1: are people that are out there that need to hear
2:49
Speaker 1: the show that are victims. And this is one of
2:52
Speaker 1: those important shows where you don't know whose life you're
2:55
Speaker 1: going to be able to help and affect in a
2:57
Speaker 1: positive way, whose life literally could be saved because of
3:01
Speaker 1: this show and the information that they're going to hear.
3:05
Speaker 1: And this legislation center that you introduced today in Washington,
3:08
Speaker 1: d C. Is incredible. And your guest who's with you
3:11
Speaker 1: in DC as well, it's amazing the story that she
3:17
Speaker 1: is telling, but also just how powerful it is to
3:20
Speaker 1: stand up for so many others that need help.
3:23
Speaker 3: Well, that's right.
3:24
Speaker 4: This week I introduced legislation in the Senate called Trey's Law,
3:27
Speaker 4: and it is designed to protect kids, kids who tragically
3:32
Speaker 4: are the victims of sexual assault. And Trey's Law prohibits
3:37
Speaker 4: non disclosure agreements binding children who have been victims of
3:41
Speaker 4: sexual assault and this is a problem we are seeing nationwide,
3:48
Speaker 4: a staggering statistic. A child in America is sexually abused
3:54
Speaker 4: every nine minutes. Yeah, one in four girls in America
4:01
Speaker 4: will be sexually abused before she turns eighteen. One in
4:05
Speaker 4: six boys in America will be sexually abused before he
4:08
Speaker 4: turns eighteen. And we have been seeing over and over
4:14
Speaker 4: again when their violators are held accountable, when they're prosecuted,
4:21
Speaker 4: and when there is civil litigation, that it is becoming
4:25
Speaker 4: a routine for the violators to insist upon a non
4:29
Speaker 4: disclosure agreement, a non disclosure agreement that binds the children
4:34
Speaker 4: and forces them to be silent. And Trey's Law is
4:38
Speaker 4: named for a Texan, Trey Carlock, who horrifically was abused
4:44
Speaker 4: at a summer camp in Missouri, abused over a number
4:48
Speaker 4: of years, and his abuser was prosecuted as a abuser
4:53
Speaker 4: is serving three consecutive life terms in prison. And in
4:58
Speaker 4: the course of civil litigation, Trey was convinced to sign
5:04
Speaker 4: a non disclosure agreement and that secret haunted him so
5:13
Speaker 4: much so that at twenty eight years old, he took
5:16
Speaker 4: his own life. And that is a tragedy in his
5:23
Speaker 4: life and his family's life, but it's a tragedy nationally.
5:28
Speaker 4: And we have a guest on the podcast tonight who's
5:31
Speaker 4: another text in Elizabeth Phillips. Elizabeth is Trey's sister, and
5:37
Speaker 4: she has taken the grief and agony of losing her
5:42
Speaker 4: brother and of knowing what happened to him losing her brother.
5:46
Speaker 4: It's one thing to lose a sibling in a car accident.
5:52
Speaker 4: My sister died of a drug overdose. It is always
5:56
Speaker 4: difficult to lose a family member that you love, but
6:02
Speaker 4: it is particularly gut wrenching, yeah, to lose a family
6:10
Speaker 4: member who you know was the victim of abuse and
6:14
Speaker 4: was haunted by that. And I will tell you Elizabeth.
6:17
Speaker 4: She lives in Dallas and she has devoted thousands of
6:23
Speaker 4: hours to fighting for Tray's Law. Tray's Law has been
6:25
Speaker 4: adopted number of states, including Texas. Texas has adopted Tred's
6:29
Speaker 4: Law and at the state level.
6:33
Speaker 3: But today, with with a group of.
6:37
Speaker 4: Seven bipartisan co sponsors, I've introduced at the federal level
6:42
Speaker 4: and we're going to get passed at the federal level.
6:44
Speaker 4: But I want to start Elizabeth, Welcome to VERDIC. We're
6:46
Speaker 4: glad to have you.
6:47
Speaker 5: Thank you so much for not just the introduction of
6:51
Speaker 5: trades law to US Congress this morning, but for offering
6:53
Speaker 5: this platform as well. And I agree, I hope it
6:57
Speaker 5: goes viral. Every parent needs to understand how this system works,
7:00
Speaker 5: because I think there are a lot of assumptions that
7:03
Speaker 5: if your child is sexually abused, whether it be at
7:05
Speaker 5: a summer camp which was Tree's story, or a school
7:08
Speaker 5: or a faith based setting or sports setting, they're going
7:11
Speaker 5: to come forward immediately. But there's something called delayed disclosure.
7:15
Speaker 5: Children that are victimized in this way don't come forward
7:17
Speaker 5: oftentimes for decades, if ever at all, and we need
7:22
Speaker 5: to be sure that we are protecting children and their
7:25
Speaker 5: voices so that when they do come forward, survivors are heard, believed,
7:29
Speaker 5: and that we can respond with action to hold the
7:32
Speaker 5: bad actors accountable.
7:33
Speaker 6: Yeah, so thank you for the conversation.
7:35
Speaker 4: Well, thank you for being here. Let me ask you,
7:37
Speaker 4: could you just tell your brother's story to just share
7:41
Speaker 4: with our listeners and viewers. Tell folks who your brother
7:45
Speaker 4: was and what happened to them.
7:47
Speaker 5: Yeah, and thank you for going into some of that
7:49
Speaker 5: in your introduction, because it's honestly the hardest part for
7:52
Speaker 5: me to talk about. I can go over stats and
7:54
Speaker 5: data about child sexual abuse and ways to prevent it
7:58
Speaker 5: all day long, but it's really hard for me to
8:01
Speaker 5: talk about Trey. And I didn't know that you also
8:04
Speaker 5: lost a sibling. So I'm sorry for your loss and
8:07
Speaker 5: I'm sorry We can.
8:08
Speaker 3: Relate on that. That's not not a club anyone wants.
8:12
Speaker 6: To be a member exactly.
8:14
Speaker 5: But I think also we understand that you can grieve
8:19
Speaker 5: it and move on, or you can grieve it and
8:23
Speaker 5: turn that pain into purpose. And I think what we
8:27
Speaker 5: saw at the press conference this morning was pain turned
8:29
Speaker 5: into power. When there was a nineteen year old young
8:32
Speaker 5: woman who came forward, it named her abuser for the
8:34
Speaker 5: first time because her voice was protected under Trey's Law,
8:37
Speaker 5: since that was passed and put into effect in Missouri
8:39
Speaker 5: last August. And so that's what we're wanting to expand nationally.
8:43
Speaker 5: This journey for me began because my brother died by
8:46
Speaker 5: suicide when he was twenty eight, not only due to
8:50
Speaker 5: the child sexual abuse and what we now believe to
8:52
Speaker 5: be trafficking at the hand of Cannonicut Camps based in
8:55
Speaker 5: southwest Missouri. They had international mission trips. They were moving
8:58
Speaker 5: kids across state lines. It was never fully investigated. The
9:03
Speaker 5: criminal case landed in Taney County, Missouri and the sheriff's department,
9:06
Speaker 5: and at the time of my brother's perpetrator sentencing, there
9:10
Speaker 5: were fifty seven known victims, but we now have had
9:14
Speaker 5: many victims come forward since I started a website called
9:18
Speaker 5: facts about Cannicut dot com with other survivor families to
9:21
Speaker 5: get the facts out there to parents and warn the
9:23
Speaker 5: public that this is much more widespread than what had
9:26
Speaker 5: been reported upon massive cover up, which is not unusual
9:31
Speaker 5: in a lot of these situations because of NDAs. So
9:34
Speaker 5: that's what we're addressing with Trey's Law that's now been
9:36
Speaker 5: introduced to Congress, very bipartisan. You said, you know, no
9:40
Speaker 5: one you've brought this to has said no to it.
9:43
Speaker 5: I mean it's something everyone should get behind and hopefully
9:46
Speaker 5: can get behind. You know, in Trey's story, he was
9:49
Speaker 5: groomed and then abused by a camp director. So seven
9:53
Speaker 5: to seventeen this was going on, and.
9:55
Speaker 3: So he was seven when he started going to the camp.
9:57
Speaker 5: When he started going to the camp, and that's when
9:59
Speaker 5: the grooming began, and then the sexual abuse began, and
10:04
Speaker 5: then his perpetrator, who, like you said, is now in
10:08
Speaker 5: prison for three life terms, confessed to his crimes and
10:11
Speaker 5: was sentenced in twenty ten, but under the civil statute
10:15
Speaker 5: limitations in Texas, Trade was forced to file his civil
10:17
Speaker 5: lawsuit by the age of twenty three. And just imagine,
10:21
Speaker 5: you know, go back to when you were twenty three,
10:23
Speaker 5: were you ready to go up against a system and
10:27
Speaker 5: quote unquote ministry like Cannacouc that has between thirty five
10:30
Speaker 5: and forty five million in annual revenue. I mean, at
10:33
Speaker 5: twenty three, you're still a kid. We call them college kids, right,
10:35
Speaker 5: You're just trying to get through college and start a job,
10:38
Speaker 5: build a life. And if someone puts a settlement agreement
10:41
Speaker 5: in front of you and says sign on the dotted
10:43
Speaker 5: line and this can all go away and you can
10:46
Speaker 5: have restitution and some you know, some money for your healing,
10:52
Speaker 5: for therapy or be for lost income, You're probably going
10:56
Speaker 5: to do it. And for closure and for healing enclosure.
11:01
Speaker 6: Thank you.
11:02
Speaker 1: And I say that because I have friends that worked
11:05
Speaker 1: at Cannicock during the time period you're talking about. I
11:07
Speaker 1: also know people that were abused at Kennacock. And this
11:12
Speaker 1: story when I saw we were doing it. It's it's
11:15
Speaker 1: I've lost friends who've committed suicide because of sexual abuse.
11:18
Speaker 1: But Cannicuck is a place where I went to Ole,
11:21
Speaker 1: miss A lot of people I grew up with from Memphis,
11:24
Speaker 1: from Houston, they went to Cannacock And the cover up
11:27
Speaker 1: word that you use there is I think one of
11:30
Speaker 1: the most sad parts about all this is there was
11:33
Speaker 1: so many of these ndia's center. I didn't realize it,
11:36
Speaker 1: like how much this was going to just bring up
11:39
Speaker 1: in me. But when you know people that were abused
11:41
Speaker 1: there and you've set with them and you hear how
11:45
Speaker 1: the system did not protect them, but I actually think
11:47
Speaker 1: made them a victim a second time over by the
11:50
Speaker 1: way that they use these NDA's, It is infuriating because
11:53
Speaker 1: you realize that, like everything in this situation worked against
11:57
Speaker 1: them for years.
11:59
Speaker 5: And that's what in the Texas hearings, I was calling
12:02
Speaker 5: this institutional abuse on top of child sexual abuse. So
12:06
Speaker 5: you're exactly right. And yes, Memphis is a huge market
12:10
Speaker 5: for cannonic Cook and Kids of Court America, which is
12:14
Speaker 5: another ministry and outside of Branson that Joe White still
12:18
Speaker 5: runs to this day, There's been no change in leadership.
12:21
Speaker 5: No one's been held accountable because of these crimes. And
12:24
Speaker 5: so you were asking about my story and how we
12:26
Speaker 5: got to this point, and really it was because I
12:31
Speaker 5: learned more about my brother's trauma and his death than
12:33
Speaker 5: I knew in his life because of the NBA. So
12:36
Speaker 5: until Treys Law went into effect in Texas September of
12:40
Speaker 5: twenty twenty five, I never saw what he signed. He
12:42
Speaker 5: wouldn't talk about it. He was so terrified, even in
12:45
Speaker 5: therapeutic settings, even trying to get sober in AA for example,
12:50
Speaker 5: he was worried Cannicok would come after him if he
12:53
Speaker 5: mentioned all of the people involved that knew about what
12:56
Speaker 5: Pete was doing and didn't report the crimes to the
12:59
Speaker 5: authorities or disciplined him internally, And that allowed this perpetrator
13:05
Speaker 5: to go on and abuse. What we now know is
13:09
Speaker 5: hundreds of more victims. And that's one perpetrator alone. So
13:12
Speaker 5: victims of Cannonicuk have asked for three things. Admit to
13:15
Speaker 5: known failures, release in DAS, and commission an independent investigation. Since,
13:21
Speaker 5: as I mentioned, the Taney County Sheriff's Department missed a
13:23
Speaker 5: few spots, we don't need a rabbit hole on that
13:27
Speaker 5: right now. But that's the three asks of survivors, very
13:29
Speaker 5: common since steps they could take. So we've done Canna
13:32
Speaker 5: Cook's job for them. And we've found out that we
13:35
Speaker 5: now know of over ninety perpetrators with allegations against them
13:39
Speaker 5: affiliated with cannoncuk and its associated ministries and programs across
13:43
Speaker 5: the country and world. Ninety over ninety. So the ninety
13:47
Speaker 5: how many have been held accountable.
13:50
Speaker 1: I've got to know that number because as I was
13:53
Speaker 1: told about this several months ago, they said that not
13:56
Speaker 1: only are there still people in the ninety as you're
13:59
Speaker 1: described that are affiliated, there are some that are still
14:02
Speaker 1: in major leadership roles and around children.
14:05
Speaker 5: Yes, so we're calling it out again, doing Cannoncuck's job
14:09
Speaker 5: for them. I think as parents we have an expectation
14:12
Speaker 5: that if a child molester or a sex offender is
14:16
Speaker 5: caught at an institution where your child was attending or enrolled,
14:21
Speaker 5: that you will be informed if they are ever charged
14:24
Speaker 5: with anything criminal. That is not what cannacuck has done.
14:28
Speaker 5: So we've done that job for them. So facts about
14:30
Speaker 5: cannicuck dot com. We have a known abuser's page where
14:33
Speaker 5: we name thirteen and might even be more now that
14:37
Speaker 5: have convictions that are yeah, they have criminal indictments, convictions
14:43
Speaker 5: or formal allegations in the media, coroborated by multiple victims.
14:47
Speaker 5: And then the rest of the perpetrators in our database
14:51
Speaker 5: are just still out there living their lives and a
14:54
Speaker 5: lot of them have never been held accountable.
14:58
Speaker 6: We know who they are.
14:59
Speaker 5: We've turned database over to the authorities and we are
15:02
Speaker 5: hoping that the FBI or some sort of law enforcement
15:05
Speaker 5: agency takes action. But the normal thing to do when
15:10
Speaker 5: you're not covering up for pedophiles as an institution, using
15:12
Speaker 5: in das and continuing to promote pedophiles within your organization
15:18
Speaker 5: or moving them around to associated ministries, which is another
15:21
Speaker 5: thing CANNICUK has done. They have a year round ministry
15:23
Speaker 5: called k Life similar to a Young Life, which I
15:25
Speaker 5: think is better known. They will move someone that has
15:28
Speaker 5: allegations at the camp to a chapter of k Life
15:31
Speaker 5: where they go on to continue harming children. So our
15:34
Speaker 5: known abuser's page is supposed to be a public facing
15:37
Speaker 5: database for when we know cannicock affiliate has been convicted
15:43
Speaker 5: and dieted or formally alleged of child sexual abuse, and
15:46
Speaker 5: the rest of it will come to light. Over time,
15:48
Speaker 5: as more and more victims come forward, the list continues
15:51
Speaker 5: to grow, and with exposure like this, we expect even more.
15:54
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17:30
Speaker 4: So one of the things you described, we did a
17:32
Speaker 4: press conference today announcing Trays Law in the Senate and
17:37
Speaker 4: you described the pressure that was on your brother, not
17:40
Speaker 4: just from the camp but also from his own lawyer.
17:45
Speaker 3: You share that story a little bit.
17:47
Speaker 5: Yeah, So, you know, one of the questions as we
17:49
Speaker 5: were going state by state, you know, starting in Texas
17:52
Speaker 5: because that's my home state and that's where Trey grew up.
17:55
Speaker 5: We spent a few years also in Atlanta, Georgia. Georgia's
17:58
Speaker 5: introduced trays Law along with eight other jurisdictions, but then
18:02
Speaker 5: Missouri past Trey's Law last August. And you know, my
18:07
Speaker 5: brother was abused in so many jurisdictions that there were
18:10
Speaker 5: different options for the venue in his civil case. He's
18:14
Speaker 5: greed in Texas, as I mentioned, that ended with settlement
18:18
Speaker 5: agreement that involved a restrictive inn DA and he was
18:21
Speaker 5: an adult when he sued for the child sexual abuse
18:23
Speaker 5: that he suffered, but he hadn't exactly.
18:28
Speaker 6: And you know that therapist.
18:30
Speaker 5: After his death, I started doing my own investigation to
18:33
Speaker 5: understand what just happened to my brother, and that therapist
18:38
Speaker 5: said that he had made a comment just before he
18:42
Speaker 5: died that they would always control him and he would
18:45
Speaker 5: never be free. And that's what it feels like living
18:49
Speaker 5: under an NDA. And in America, where we stand on
18:52
Speaker 5: freedom and freedom of speech, and anyone who studied constitutional law,
18:57
Speaker 5: I mean that is aright as an American citizen to
19:02
Speaker 5: have freedom of speech and we protect it with veracity.
19:05
Speaker 5: But in this case, there's been a misuse of ndias,
19:08
Speaker 5: which originally were created to protect intellectual property like the
19:14
Speaker 5: Coca Cola recipe or trade secrets, and they've since been
19:19
Speaker 5: misused to silence victims of childhood sexual abuse, trafficking, even
19:26
Speaker 5: adult sexual assault survivors. That was addressed in the Speak
19:28
Speaker 5: Out Act that passed in twenty twenty two with the
19:31
Speaker 5: co sponsor of Treys Law, Senator Jilbrandt. But kids are
19:35
Speaker 5: being put under these NDAs and kids, they can't consent
19:39
Speaker 5: to contracts or clauses like this, and so oftentimes it's
19:42
Speaker 5: a guardian or a parent who is signing this DA
19:45
Speaker 5: on behalf of their child. The child grows up, becomes
19:49
Speaker 5: a young man or woman realizes what their parents signed
19:52
Speaker 5: and that they can't own their own story.
19:56
Speaker 6: And it's just a bar.
19:58
Speaker 1: Or even feel like they can't heal because they can't
20:00
Speaker 1: talk about it. In fact, they're so afraid. Talking to
20:04
Speaker 1: one person that was a victim of this, they described
20:05
Speaker 1: it to me this way. They said, Cannicut basically had
20:08
Speaker 1: enough money to buy silence to protect the brand because
20:13
Speaker 1: they knew if we were told our stories, the brand
20:16
Speaker 1: would die and all the money would stop coming in.
20:18
Speaker 2: That's a simplistic way. But you mentioned their revenue.
20:23
Speaker 1: This was you got to spend money to save this
20:26
Speaker 1: brand and continue to grow in sports and all the
20:29
Speaker 1: other activities that they that they do. I mean, that
20:31
Speaker 1: is that a fair way of putting it.
20:34
Speaker 5: I think that's yeah, that's definitely a fair way of
20:36
Speaker 5: putting it. And to add the other thing that's a
20:40
Speaker 5: layer of trauma in this is that their cover up
20:43
Speaker 5: bought enough time for these victims to be out of statute,
20:46
Speaker 5: So they can't now that they know the extent of
20:48
Speaker 5: the cover up unless under a certain discovery rule, which
20:51
Speaker 5: you could speak to as a lawyer senator, But they
20:55
Speaker 5: can't even have access to the civil courts and the
20:58
Speaker 5: jurisdiction where they were abused. So in Missouri, the civil
21:01
Speaker 5: statute of limitations to sue an institution that's liable for
21:04
Speaker 5: child sexual abuse or trafficking has been in the age
21:07
Speaker 5: of twenty six and that's been unchanged since nineteen thirty nine.
21:11
Speaker 5: And so we're doing a lot of advocacy work in
21:13
Speaker 5: Missouri to say survivors need more time. As I said
21:17
Speaker 5: when you asked the first question, there is a lot
21:20
Speaker 5: of research on delayed disclosure. My brother was unfortunately forced
21:26
Speaker 5: into disclosure because he was named as a victim during
21:28
Speaker 5: the criminal proceedings, and so he didn't have decades to
21:32
Speaker 5: process what happened to him and then come forward.
21:34
Speaker 6: But victims that weren't named.
21:36
Speaker 5: Or who came forward closer to the time of Pete
21:40
Speaker 5: Newman's arrest to name one of again, over ninety perpetrators
21:43
Speaker 5: we're aware of to.
21:44
Speaker 4: Date, they got how was he caught, how was his
21:48
Speaker 4: his abuse discovered?
21:49
Speaker 5: There are a few theories on that Canicut hasn't really
21:52
Speaker 5: been transparent about what led to his confession. So I
21:56
Speaker 5: would love to know the answer to that question. And
21:57
Speaker 5: that's why an independent investigation or some of LA enforcement
22:00
Speaker 5: agency stepping in is so necessary in this. He confessed
22:03
Speaker 5: allegedly in March two thousand and nine to abusing seven boys,
22:09
Speaker 5: and then he wasn't arrested until September two thousand and
22:13
Speaker 5: nine after summer camp season went uninterrupted, and then upon
22:19
Speaker 5: arrest they started investigating him criminally, and then that led
22:22
Speaker 5: to his sentencing in February twenty ten. Here we are
22:26
Speaker 5: in twenty twenty six, and because of facts about Cannacuk,
22:30
Speaker 5: which was created by a coalition of survivor families, and
22:33
Speaker 5: then recent publicity through USA Today published five articles on
22:37
Speaker 5: this dispatch. The Dispatch published it the New York Times.
22:43
Speaker 5: I just went on the Sean Ryan Show, and we're
22:45
Speaker 5: getting more and more disclosures not just about Pete Newman,
22:49
Speaker 5: but other perpetrators associated with Kanukuck and other leadership who
22:52
Speaker 5: covered this up. And they are calling attorneys who are saying,
22:56
Speaker 5: I'm sorry, you're fifteen thirty forty five years too late.
23:02
Speaker 5: So victims don't know they're on the clock when perpetrators
23:05
Speaker 5: know exactly when, and institution's like Cannicut know exactly when
23:09
Speaker 5: the deadline is to file a civil lawsuit against them.
23:12
Speaker 5: So they bought enough time at this point for the
23:15
Speaker 5: cover up to have worked well.
23:17
Speaker 4: One of the things you talked about at the press
23:18
Speaker 4: conference today is how your brother's lawyer was pressuring him
23:26
Speaker 4: to sign this NDA and the incentives of the current system. Look,
23:31
Speaker 4: an abuser has every incentive in the world to try
23:35
Speaker 4: to cover it up, to try to hide it, to
23:36
Speaker 4: want an NDA to not have truth and transparency, and
23:41
Speaker 4: so we are seeing NDAs demanded by abusers in exchange
23:46
Speaker 4: for compensation. And the way our legal system works is
23:51
Speaker 4: typically if a victim has a lawyer, that lawyer will
23:55
Speaker 4: usually be compensated on a contingency basis where they eve
24:00
Speaker 4: a portion of whatever financial recovery there is. So the
24:05
Speaker 4: lawyer has every incentive in the world to try to
24:08
Speaker 4: reach a deal, to try to reach a settlement, to
24:10
Speaker 4: have a financial amount paid, and to discount the harm
24:17
Speaker 4: of silencing their client. And so it's one of the
24:22
Speaker 4: real values of Trey's law. It is that when this
24:28
Speaker 4: passes and I didn't say. If I said, when we
24:30
Speaker 4: will get this passed, thank you. When this passes, that
24:35
Speaker 4: incentive will go away. Look, if you're negotiating a settlement,
24:39
Speaker 4: I used an example earlier today, there aren't settlement agreements
24:44
Speaker 4: that say, as a condition of the settlement, you have
24:47
Speaker 4: to deal crack cocaine, because dealing crack cocaine is illegal.
24:52
Speaker 4: And so you can't agree in a settlement to do
24:54
Speaker 4: something that is illegal. By taking NDAs off the table,
25:00
Speaker 4: or forcing victims of child sex abuse to not be
25:03
Speaker 4: able to disclose what happened to them, that incentive for
25:08
Speaker 4: their lawyers to pressure them to.
25:09
Speaker 3: Do this will go away.
25:11
Speaker 4: Likewise, and importantly, we drafted trays law so that a
25:15
Speaker 4: victim can still insist on an NDA for the abuser.
25:19
Speaker 4: If a victim decides I don't want my story told,
25:22
Speaker 4: that's your right as well. We're not going to force
25:24
Speaker 4: a victim to tell his story or her story against
25:27
Speaker 4: their will.
25:27
Speaker 1: That you're protecting the victim in the way you're writing this,
25:30
Speaker 1: which I think is such an important part of this conversation.
25:32
Speaker 1: I want people to understand that it's a lot of
25:34
Speaker 1: what we talked about with we want to protect victims.
25:36
Speaker 1: For example, when we're exposing everything with Epstein Foules, it's
25:39
Speaker 1: the same mentality here. If you don't want your name
25:42
Speaker 1: out there, we want to protect it.
25:43
Speaker 3: Right.
25:44
Speaker 5: That's the heart of Trey's Law is giving survivors ownership
25:47
Speaker 5: of their own stories, yes, so that they can decide
25:51
Speaker 5: what they want told about what happened to them. The
25:53
Speaker 5: trauma alone is enough abuse. We don't need to pile
25:57
Speaker 5: that on. And you bring up a good point, Senator,
25:59
Speaker 5: around the incentives and the incentives being misaligned, because this
26:04
Speaker 5: type of case falls under personal injury law. And so
26:09
Speaker 5: you've been to law school and in that area of
26:12
Speaker 5: the law, it's typically your attorneys who are taking auto
26:16
Speaker 5: accident cases or slip and falls. Child sexual abuse is
26:20
Speaker 5: of fear, it's in it. I like that it's a
26:22
Speaker 5: personal injury claim because it is an injury to the brain,
26:26
Speaker 5: to the soul, and so it should be a personal
26:29
Speaker 5: injury claim. But the way personal injury law works is
26:32
Speaker 5: that you are looking to settle, keep this from going.
26:36
Speaker 5: I mean, over ninety six percent of cases I think
26:38
Speaker 5: settle outside of trial when it comes to personal injury.
26:42
Speaker 5: And so you know the victim doesn't want to have
26:45
Speaker 5: to go to trial and put themselves through more trauma.
26:48
Speaker 5: Their incentivized to settle, and a lawyer says, this can
26:50
Speaker 5: all be behind you if you sign on the dotted
26:52
Speaker 5: line and then they can take forty percent, which is
26:55
Speaker 5: the typical commission on a case like this, move on
26:58
Speaker 5: to the next once and repeat, And that doesn't work
27:01
Speaker 5: when we're talking about childhood sexual abuse.
27:03
Speaker 3: Well, and the U. S.
27:04
Speaker 4: Supreme Court has described They've said, other than murder, rape
27:09
Speaker 4: is the most grievous harm that could be inflicted to
27:12
Speaker 4: a person. And I've spent a lot of my career
27:16
Speaker 4: fighting against child sexual abuse. So when I was the
27:20
Speaker 4: Solicitor General of Texas, I argued in front of the U. S.
27:25
Speaker 4: Supreme Court defending Louisiana's law that provided for capital punishment,
27:30
Speaker 4: the death penalty for the most egregious child rapist. Unfortunately,
27:35
Speaker 4: the Supreme Court five to four struck that down, so
27:37
Speaker 4: we did not prevail in that case.
27:39
Speaker 3: Texas's law was also struck down. When Louisiana's law was struck.
27:42
Speaker 4: Down, I also defended Texas has a Texas Sexually Violent
27:47
Speaker 4: Predator Civil Commitment law that gives the courts the ability
27:51
Speaker 4: to take a sexually violent predator and put them in
27:54
Speaker 4: civil commitment, take them off the streets to protect people.
27:57
Speaker 4: And a state court of appeals had struck that law
28:00
Speaker 4: down and concluded it was unconstitutional, and I argued the
28:04
Speaker 4: case in front of the Texas Supreme Court defending that law,
28:08
Speaker 4: and we won unanimously. The law was reinstated, and it's
28:11
Speaker 4: now a tool that you have to go after sexual predators.
28:14
Speaker 4: And you know we mentioned before, so this bill, my
28:19
Speaker 4: lead co sponsor is Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat from New York.
28:23
Speaker 4: And then we have on this bill as well, we
28:26
Speaker 4: have Katie Britt Republican from Alabama's a dear friend. We
28:30
Speaker 4: have Eric Schmidt, Republican from Missouri, another very good friend.
28:33
Speaker 4: And then we also have Amy Klobuchar, Democrat from Minnesota.
28:37
Speaker 4: We have Peter Welch, Democrat from Vermont, and then Jeane Shaheen,
28:41
Speaker 4: a Democrat from New Hampshire. And I think we will
28:44
Speaker 4: get very widespread bipartisan support. To be honest, those six
28:49
Speaker 4: are the only six I asked. I started with them.
28:52
Speaker 4: I've worked all of them. I've worked with on previous legislation.
28:57
Speaker 4: But you know, I'll tell you Jelibrendon and I started
29:01
Speaker 4: working on this issue more than a decade ago because
29:05
Speaker 4: she was a leader in going after sexual assault in
29:08
Speaker 4: the military. And there's been a real problem with sexual
29:10
Speaker 4: assault in the military, and the way it used to
29:13
Speaker 4: work is the decision about whether to prosecute a rapist
29:19
Speaker 4: was made by the commander, and the commander frequently knew
29:25
Speaker 4: the violator, often was close to the violator, and victims
29:29
Speaker 4: of sexual assault in the military were afraid to report
29:32
Speaker 4: the rapes because they didn't believe the commander would be fair.
29:36
Speaker 4: They believed the commander would be biased in favor of
29:40
Speaker 4: the violator. And so Jelibrandon, this is back twenty thirteen,
29:44
Speaker 4: when I was a brand new baby senator had just
29:46
Speaker 4: been elected. Kirsten was leading the charge saying, this doesn't
29:51
Speaker 4: make any sense, and the decision of whether to prosecute
29:55
Speaker 4: should not be made by the commanding officer, but rather
29:57
Speaker 4: should be made by a career military prosecutor. So in
30:02
Speaker 4: the military, but not in the chain of command, so
30:05
Speaker 4: not connected to the to the alleged violator. And I
30:11
Speaker 4: will tell you the Pentagon fought tooth and nail. They
30:14
Speaker 4: hated that provision, and I was on the Senate Armed
30:17
Speaker 4: Services Committee with Kirsten at the time, and I heard
30:20
Speaker 4: her make the argument, make the argument passionately for changing
30:24
Speaker 4: the prosecutor prosecuting decision to a career prosecutor. And it
30:29
Speaker 4: was one of those instances where sometimes you say hearings,
30:32
Speaker 4: don't you know our our kind of performance, They don't
30:35
Speaker 4: necessarily change anyone's mind. Well, I listened to her arguments
30:37
Speaker 4: and I was persuaded, and I went up to her
30:40
Speaker 4: and I said, Kirsten, I want to team up with
30:41
Speaker 4: you and let's get this done.
30:42
Speaker 3: And we did.
30:43
Speaker 4: It took nearly a decade to get it done because
30:47
Speaker 4: the Barack Obama wouldn't do it. By the way Obama
30:50
Speaker 4: was president, he could have done it unilaterally, and he
30:52
Speaker 4: wouldn't do it.
30:54
Speaker 3: Uh.
30:54
Speaker 4: And it took We ultimately got the legislation passed, but
30:57
Speaker 4: it was it was a decade long battle. And this
31:00
Speaker 4: is one I'm confident will be faster. I don't think
31:02
Speaker 4: this will take a decade to make happen. You know,
31:06
Speaker 4: you mentioned at the press conference also that we had
31:10
Speaker 4: another victim of sexual abuse share her story. Her name
31:13
Speaker 4: is Jaden Harris, and I want to play what she
31:17
Speaker 4: said at the press conference because this was.
31:20
Speaker 3: Really powerful and moving.
31:22
Speaker 4: She was sharing about about the sexual violence she experienced
31:27
Speaker 4: and give a listen, give a watch.
31:31
Speaker 7: Good morning. First, I want to thank these co sponsors
31:35
Speaker 7: for their leadership in filing Tree's law at the federal level.
31:44
Speaker 7: My name is Jaden Harris, nineteen years old, and I'm
31:48
Speaker 7: here today not just as a child sexual abuse survivor
31:51
Speaker 7: from Branson, Missouri, but as someone whose voice was protected
31:55
Speaker 7: by Drew's law. It's why you can be here today.
32:01
Speaker 7: When I came forward about the abuse I experienced, I
32:04
Speaker 7: was prepared for it to be difficult. What I wasn't
32:08
Speaker 7: prepared for was the intimidation not only for my abuser,
32:11
Speaker 7: but for my own lawyer to sign a non disclosure
32:16
Speaker 7: agreement in exchange for restitution during a mediation process. I
32:21
Speaker 7: was alone when it came to fighting.
32:22
Speaker 6: For my voice.
32:24
Speaker 7: It was both my abuser and my lawyer that tried
32:30
Speaker 7: to require me to sign an NDA, a contract to
32:33
Speaker 7: a clause that would have restricted my ability to speak
32:37
Speaker 7: about the details of what happened to me for the
32:39
Speaker 7: rest of my life. Imagine being told you can never
32:43
Speaker 7: tell your own truth. Despite the bowling for my attorney
32:47
Speaker 7: and all those involved in the case. In my heart,
32:50
Speaker 7: I knew I had to stand for truth, not just
32:54
Speaker 7: for myself, but for others who feel they had been silenced.
33:00
Speaker 7: I'm standing here today with my voice because Trey's Law
33:03
Speaker 7: protected it as a matter of public policy, and I
33:06
Speaker 7: was able to achieve settlement while preserving my ability to
33:09
Speaker 7: speak out in hope of protecting others. Due to learning
33:14
Speaker 7: about Trey's Law and Missouri, I knew something important. I
33:18
Speaker 7: cannot be legally forced into silence. No agreement could take
33:23
Speaker 7: away my right to speak about my own experience and
33:26
Speaker 7: those responsible for the abuse. That legal right changed everything.
33:31
Speaker 7: It shifted the balance and power. It meant that any
33:34
Speaker 7: resolution would not come at the cost of me owning
33:37
Speaker 7: my story, not only as having a voice essential to
33:42
Speaker 7: my healing journey, but is also how I can warn others.
33:46
Speaker 7: My abuser is still out in public every day. He
33:49
Speaker 7: goes by the name Raisa. He is a well known
33:53
Speaker 7: entertainer in Branson who still has a magic show, and
33:57
Speaker 7: I'm concerned about ongoing victimization. The criminal justice system has
34:04
Speaker 7: done nothing to remove them from being around children. So
34:08
Speaker 7: I'm going to do something. I'm speaking out today, and
34:12
Speaker 7: I'm advocating the law that protected me to protect victims everywhere.
34:20
Speaker 7: Federal action on Trey's Law is critical. A survivor's freedom
34:24
Speaker 7: of speech should not depend on geography. I am fortunate
34:28
Speaker 7: that Trey's law had passed in Missouri and allowed me
34:31
Speaker 7: to keep my voice. But someone's ZIP code should not
34:34
Speaker 7: determine whether they can tell the truth and warn the
34:36
Speaker 7: public about predators. This needs to be national. Trey's law
34:43
Speaker 7: is straightforward but powerful. It makes non disclosure agreements in
34:47
Speaker 7: cases of child sexual abuse void and unenforceable. It ensures
34:52
Speaker 7: that secrecy cannot be purchased when a child has been harmed.
34:56
Speaker 7: It affirms that survivors can be seen, heard, and leaved,
35:00
Speaker 7: and that's in the best interest of public safety. What
35:04
Speaker 7: almost happened to me, siting away my voice should never
35:07
Speaker 7: be an option in this country. I'm grateful to be
35:11
Speaker 7: part of today's important milestone and making that happen in
35:16
Speaker 7: setting truth free.
35:18
Speaker 2: Thank you, sator, you're watching that. It's painful.
35:26
Speaker 1: It also is incredible to see someone like that get
35:29
Speaker 1: their voice because of this law and that was enacted
35:34
Speaker 1: in her state, and that's exactly what you are trying
35:38
Speaker 1: to do nationwide and It's why I say this for
35:41
Speaker 1: everyone watching, please share this. There may be somebody that
35:46
Speaker 1: needs to know the website with a connection with Cannoncut.
35:49
Speaker 1: There may be someone else that needs to know this
35:51
Speaker 1: because they're in an NBA. This is why we do
35:54
Speaker 1: this show, and it's one of those episodes that I
35:57
Speaker 1: hope you'll put it everywhere on social media.
36:00
Speaker 4: Well, and look, there's something really powerful about a survivor
36:07
Speaker 4: taking ownership of their own story, of their own abuse
36:11
Speaker 4: and sharing their story. It can be healing, it can
36:14
Speaker 4: be empowering. Look when Jaden told her story, there was
36:19
Speaker 4: not a dry eye in the room. I mean it
36:21
Speaker 4: was you just heard it, and for those of you
36:25
Speaker 4: watching online, you saw it. And this is a nineteen
36:29
Speaker 4: year old young woman who was bearing her soul. And
36:34
Speaker 4: there's something powerful a for the survivor to move past
36:39
Speaker 4: the pain and grief. But it's also powerful because for
36:44
Speaker 4: every survivor that tells her story or his story, there
36:48
Speaker 4: are dozens or hundreds or even thousands of other victims
36:53
Speaker 4: who never told anybody. And one of the horrific things
36:58
Speaker 4: about this crime in particular, listen, if you're walking home
37:02
Speaker 4: at night and you get mugged and beaten up. You're
37:05
Speaker 4: not typically embarrassed or ashamed to admit I got mugged
37:09
Speaker 4: and beaten up someone stole my wallet. Sexual assault, and
37:14
Speaker 4: particularly sexual assault for kids, the guilt, the self loathing.
37:21
Speaker 3: The fear, the precis the shame.
37:27
Speaker 1: Uh.
37:27
Speaker 4: So many victims are trapped in silence and never report
37:35
Speaker 4: their crimes. And so there is a power not just
37:39
Speaker 4: for the survivor, but but for everyone else who's been
37:44
Speaker 4: a victim, who has not been able to to own
37:52
Speaker 4: their truth. And you know, I don't like language like that.
37:55
Speaker 4: Own their truth sounds a little new agy for me.
37:57
Speaker 3: It's not the way I normally speare.
37:59
Speaker 6: But survivors hold the truth.
38:02
Speaker 4: And here it is right. I don't think someone has
38:06
Speaker 4: their truth on whether two plus two is four. But
38:10
Speaker 4: your life and your experience no one should take away,
38:17
Speaker 4: particularly from a child, the ability to tell your story.
38:22
Speaker 4: And it's and I'll tell you look, Trey's Law would
38:28
Speaker 4: not have been a law in Missouri, Elizabeth, without your leadership,
38:32
Speaker 4: it would not have been a law in Texas.
38:34
Speaker 3: It would not have been a law.
38:35
Speaker 4: I mean, you have devoted a lot of time to
38:38
Speaker 4: fighting for this nationwide.
38:40
Speaker 5: Yeah, and I hope to get back to my day job. Eventually,
38:44
Speaker 5: I'm a mother of three. I've got other things to do.
38:46
Speaker 5: This is not something I want to carry. It's always
38:50
Speaker 5: encouraging when legislators like yourself step up and say we're
38:55
Speaker 5: going to champion this on behalf of survivors so that
38:59
Speaker 5: Trey's outcome doesn't happen again. And I just want to
39:03
Speaker 5: comment on Jaden and what she did today because that
39:07
Speaker 5: was heroic. It will inspire others to come forward, and
39:11
Speaker 5: as she stated in her testimony, she just doesn't want
39:15
Speaker 5: other people to continue to be victimized by her abuser.
39:18
Speaker 5: Today was the first time she named her abuser. Wow,
39:23
Speaker 5: and I am so honored.
39:25
Speaker 4: I didn't realize that when she said that, I assumed
39:27
Speaker 4: she had said it previously.
39:29
Speaker 3: I did not realize she had not.
39:31
Speaker 5: That's when a press conference becomes holy, sacred space, because
39:37
Speaker 5: she was sharing the truth about a predator who's still
39:40
Speaker 5: out there. And I am amazed by her courage because
39:46
Speaker 5: she achieved settlement last year and asked if she wanted
39:51
Speaker 5: this opportunity. It was healing for her, as hard as
39:54
Speaker 5: it was to be able to stand on truth. And
39:58
Speaker 5: that's one of our slogans with the trays campaign is
40:00
Speaker 5: every voice of truth matters, because I agree with you,
40:04
Speaker 5: I don't like this language around. They are truth, There
40:09
Speaker 5: is absolute truth. And Jaden stead on that today in
40:14
Speaker 5: her remarks and we got to stand beside her, and
40:18
Speaker 5: that was so powerful, and like you said, not a
40:20
Speaker 5: dry eye in the room, because if you're not personally
40:23
Speaker 5: affected by child sexual abuse, you sure know someone who
40:26
Speaker 5: Waymen is or will come forward eventually about that.
40:30
Speaker 3: The numbers are staggering, Yeah.
40:32
Speaker 5: And we have studied this. Only one in seven victims
40:36
Speaker 5: will ever come forward. And the deadly disclosure issue I
40:40
Speaker 5: was bringing up earlier, especially with male victims, they often
40:44
Speaker 5: don't disclose until between the age of fifty and seventy.
40:47
Speaker 5: And so it's important parents understand that because again I
40:51
Speaker 5: think they think if someone experiences this, that child's going
40:56
Speaker 5: to come home and tell mom and dad immediately. But
40:58
Speaker 5: to your point, it's not like an injury you would
41:02
Speaker 5: endure on the streets or in some sort of other accident.
41:06
Speaker 5: This does have an element of shame. And what Jayden
41:09
Speaker 5: did today is she put the shame back where it belongs, Yeah,
41:12
Speaker 5: on the person who accused her. It was never her fault.
41:16
Speaker 4: And let me say to anyone listening to this, if
41:18
Speaker 4: you've been a victim, it's not your fault.
41:21
Speaker 3: And that's one of the lies.
41:22
Speaker 4: These abusers try to convince children that it is your
41:27
Speaker 4: fault that you invited this, that the blame is with you,
41:31
Speaker 4: and that is a total and complete lie.
41:33
Speaker 5: Yeah, And that's what grooming does, and what grooming is
41:37
Speaker 5: is it creates secrecy.
41:39
Speaker 6: If you ever tell.
41:40
Speaker 5: Anyone, I'm going to hurt your loved one, or if
41:44
Speaker 5: you ever tell anyone, it's going to ruin everything. That
41:46
Speaker 5: is a grooming tactic to keep the victim quiet, and
41:49
Speaker 5: they often don't come out of that brainwashing for many,
41:51
Speaker 5: many years. So that's why research shows all of this
41:54
Speaker 5: around it late disclosure. She was able to move from
41:59
Speaker 5: victim is a to survivor and now survivor advocate in
42:03
Speaker 5: a matter of months, and that's what we got to
42:05
Speaker 5: witness today thanks to you introducing Trey's Law federally along
42:09
Speaker 5: with Senator Jilligren and other co sponsors. And I thought
42:11
Speaker 5: Senator Britt had some really poignant remarks as well.
42:14
Speaker 3: She was fantastic.
42:15
Speaker 5: Oh, and it was very clear that the group you
42:19
Speaker 5: mentioned earlier, the ones you've asked so far they are
42:22
Speaker 5: behind survivors. They want to protect survivors' voices, and that's
42:25
Speaker 5: what Trey's Law will do. And it does need to
42:28
Speaker 5: be national because going state by state creates an imbalance,
42:32
Speaker 5: protects the people in power, the predators, and the institutions
42:36
Speaker 5: that harbor these predators over a child having ownership of
42:41
Speaker 5: their story. And that's the core of our mission here.
42:45
Speaker 5: And thank you for taking time out of not a
42:48
Speaker 5: slow news day to make this a priority to hear
42:50
Speaker 5: from people like Jaden and others.
42:52
Speaker 4: Who spoke this is important to happen and to go
42:55
Speaker 4: to the really corrosive power of shame last year, and
43:00
Speaker 4: we talked about this earlier today. A law that I
43:03
Speaker 4: authored and we passed into law was to Take It
43:05
Speaker 4: Down Act. And Take it Down Act makes it a
43:09
Speaker 4: crime to post non consensual intimate imagery, either real pictures,
43:15
Speaker 4: and you see so called revenge porn of explicit photographs
43:19
Speaker 4: or videos that a couple breaks up and one decides, Okay,
43:23
Speaker 4: I'm going to hurt my former lover and publish and
43:29
Speaker 4: no one has the right to make that public and
43:31
Speaker 4: to do that to someone else. But we've also seen
43:34
Speaker 4: with AI the rise of deep fakes, and this problem
43:39
Speaker 4: has increased more than three thousand percent in the last year,
43:42
Speaker 4: and more than ninety percent of the victims are either
43:45
Speaker 4: women or teenage girls. And when we were pushing to
43:49
Speaker 4: pass it and building the coalition to pass it, one
43:51
Speaker 4: of the things we did, the First Lady became very
43:55
Speaker 4: actively involved in this legislation, and I appreciated she. I
43:58
Speaker 4: hosted the First Lady on Capital Hill and she was
44:01
Speaker 4: at a roundtable where she met with a number of
44:04
Speaker 4: the victims. And to give you a sense, there was
44:08
Speaker 4: one person who testified who was a state legislator in
44:12
Speaker 4: South Carolina.
44:14
Speaker 3: Whose son.
44:17
Speaker 4: Had received it was online, and he was a teenager
44:22
Speaker 4: and he thought he was talking with a cute teenage girl,
44:28
Speaker 4: and the supposed cute teenage girl was flirting with him,
44:31
Speaker 4: and teenage boys everyone can make foolish decisions, but teenage
44:37
Speaker 4: boys in particular. This cute girl convinced him to take
44:45
Speaker 4: revealing and naked pictures of himself and to send those pictures.
44:51
Speaker 4: It turned out that the cute girl was not a
44:53
Speaker 4: cute girl, but rather was a predator, a predator, a
44:59
Speaker 4: foreign predator, who then began blackmailing him and saying I'm
45:04
Speaker 4: going to take this picture that you just took. You
45:07
Speaker 4: just took a naked picture of yourself and sent it
45:09
Speaker 4: to me. I'm going to send this picture to your family.
45:13
Speaker 4: I'm going to send it to your parents. I'm going
45:14
Speaker 4: to send it to your friends. I'm going to send
45:16
Speaker 4: it to everyone unless you give me money sextortion, And tragically,
45:22
Speaker 4: this teenage boy took his life. The entire exchange from
45:26
Speaker 4: the first interaction to when he took his own life
45:31
Speaker 4: was ninety minutes.
45:34
Speaker 3: And his father shared that story.
45:35
Speaker 4: But that's the power of shame of this teenager who
45:38
Speaker 4: had taken a picture of thinking he was flirting, and
45:41
Speaker 4: then the terror of if I get exposed for that,
45:45
Speaker 4: which look compared to being a victim of sexual assault,
45:49
Speaker 4: taking a picture of yourself is not nearly as severe.
45:54
Speaker 4: And yet that shame was so powerful that that teenage
45:59
Speaker 4: boy took a life. I mean, this is the pressures
46:03
Speaker 4: on our kids. They're enormous, and they face things that
46:09
Speaker 4: technology amplifies all of this.
46:11
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's really an epidemic.
46:13
Speaker 3: Yeah, and.
46:17
Speaker 6: As a mom of three, I know you have two girls.
46:20
Speaker 5: The threats are different than they were in our childhoods
46:23
Speaker 5: and very different, very different.
46:25
Speaker 6: We were play.
46:25
Speaker 4: One in three kids one in three kids will be
46:28
Speaker 4: propositioned sexually online.
46:29
Speaker 5: Yeah, one and three, And so again, thank you for
46:33
Speaker 5: championing the Take It Down Act and your co sponsors
46:37
Speaker 5: and the survivors and sadly the families victimized in that situation.
46:41
Speaker 6: The National Center on Missy Next.
46:42
Speaker 5: With Your Children just put out a very powerful video
46:45
Speaker 5: on that issue in particular. And when I was the
46:47
Speaker 5: board chair of an anti trafficking organization, the FBI put
46:50
Speaker 5: out their notice on sex stortion. We had something come
46:53
Speaker 5: through a case around girls being trafficked on Venmo. So
46:57
Speaker 5: it sometimes often these apps parents are and even thinking about,
47:02
Speaker 5: but roadblocks especially atrocious. So many examples of abuse happening
47:08
Speaker 5: on discord and then what they do is they take
47:11
Speaker 5: it live. So in my brother's story, it was an
47:14
Speaker 5: institution that covered up abuse. Now it's these tech companies
47:17
Speaker 5: covering up abuse, and the bad actors are a step
47:22
Speaker 5: ahead of us, and the legislation can't continue to be reactive.
47:27
Speaker 5: What I think Trey's law does is it removes that
47:30
Speaker 5: barrier because the shame is already inherent in the crime itself,
47:35
Speaker 5: and it removes that barrier so that victims come forward quicker.
47:38
Speaker 5: We can catch the bad guys faster and the truth
47:41
Speaker 5: comes to light a lot sooner than when the power
47:45
Speaker 5: and balance is in such a way that lawyers, even
47:48
Speaker 5: plaintiffs attorneys as we've discussed, or others, are keeping that
47:54
Speaker 5: victim from speaking out. So NDAs are one barrier. But
47:57
Speaker 5: the shame is real and the gap in parntal education
48:01
Speaker 5: is real, and that's why conversations like this really matter.
48:04
Speaker 3: Well, Elizabeth, thank you for taking your pain. I know
48:11
Speaker 3: you missed your brother.
48:12
Speaker 4: I know you feel the pain every day, but thank
48:16
Speaker 4: you for taking that and saying I'm not just going
48:19
Speaker 4: to de grieve. I'm not just going to weep. I'm
48:22
Speaker 4: going to use the pain to make a difference and
48:25
Speaker 4: help others because your courage matters. It has already changed
48:30
Speaker 4: the law in a number of states across the country,
48:32
Speaker 4: and it's going to change the law nationally. And your
48:34
Speaker 4: leadership is why this is happening. And so I just
48:37
Speaker 4: want to say thank you.
48:38
Speaker 6: It's a sacred honor.
48:41
Speaker 1: Final question I want to bring up real quick one.
48:44
Speaker 1: Will you give the website one more time for people
48:46
Speaker 1: that may have been affected at CANNICOCT with the place
48:48
Speaker 1: where your brother was and to senator, so this doesn't
48:52
Speaker 1: drag on for a decade to get it passed.
48:54
Speaker 2: What can vertict listeners.
48:55
Speaker 1: Do to help advocate for this and no matter who
49:00
Speaker 1: their senator is.
49:02
Speaker 5: So the whistleblower website on Cannoncock is facts about Cannacock
49:07
Speaker 5: dot com. And then our website for Trey's Law is
49:11
Speaker 5: Treyslaw dot org. There's a community page for survivors who
49:14
Speaker 5: want to tell their story in a safe way until
49:16
Speaker 5: we get this legislation passed and they don't feel safe
49:18
Speaker 5: coming out fully in their identity. We had a survivor
49:21
Speaker 5: testify in Missouri just a couple of weeks ago, and
49:24
Speaker 5: he said, for twenty five years, I've been a John
49:26
Speaker 5: Doe and today I'm coming forward in my full name
49:28
Speaker 5: because of trays passing in Texas. That's the power of
49:32
Speaker 5: Trey's Law in Texas. And you know we heard about
49:35
Speaker 5: Missouri today at the press conference and just replay Jaden's remarks.
49:38
Speaker 6: So this needs to be national.
49:41
Speaker 5: The other way to support this effort is through the
49:44
Speaker 5: No More Victims Alliance and that website is in Mvalliance
49:48
Speaker 5: dot org. And we have a lot of advocates and
49:51
Speaker 5: allies who want to help support this, and Senator, I'm
49:54
Speaker 5: curious your thoughts as far as what are the most
49:56
Speaker 5: effective calls to action people that want to jump in.
50:01
Speaker 4: So let me say one thing. The press conference we had,
50:04
Speaker 4: we had probably about fifty people who came. There was packed,
50:08
Speaker 4: many of whom were themselves victims or they were the
50:12
Speaker 4: families of victims. And the emotions, the tears in the room,
50:18
Speaker 4: it was I actually think that the TV cameras did
50:21
Speaker 4: not pick up on the folks that were there that
50:24
Speaker 4: were supporting what we were doing. But it was really powerful. Look,
50:27
Speaker 4: what can you do? One thing I would encourage you
50:29
Speaker 4: to do. Share this podcast, Send this podcast to your friends,
50:34
Speaker 4: send them the YouTube link, send them the audio link.
50:38
Speaker 4: Encourage people to learn about trades law and then pick
50:45
Speaker 4: up the phone and make a phone call. Call your senator,
50:48
Speaker 4: call your house member, and urge them past trades law.
50:52
Speaker 4: Look those phone calls, people wondered, do those phone calls matter?
50:56
Speaker 4: Do they make a difference? And I'll tell you they do.
50:58
Speaker 4: I get a report every day, and I think this
51:01
Speaker 4: is true for most members of Congress. I get a
51:03
Speaker 4: report of how many calls we got and what the
51:06
Speaker 4: topics were what the people were urging. And you notice,
51:09
Speaker 4: if there's a surge on a topic, it makes a
51:14
Speaker 4: difference and it focuses the mind. And so speaking out,
51:18
Speaker 4: urging your elected representatives to support this law. As we've
51:21
Speaker 4: got broad bipartisan support, we're going to get this done.
51:25
Speaker 4: And also speak out, you know, speak out on social media.
51:28
Speaker 4: Put up a post on Facebook, put up a post
51:30
Speaker 4: on X or true Social or Instagram or whatever whatever
51:35
Speaker 4: platform you use. But speak out and advocate it, because
51:41
Speaker 4: the more people hear about this, I think it is
51:44
Speaker 4: basic common sense.
51:46
Speaker 3: There is no reason a.
51:48
Speaker 4: Child lacks the emotional maturity to make a decision to
51:54
Speaker 4: bind themselves by an NDA. And and Trade's law is
51:57
Speaker 4: going to say, we're not going to allow children to
51:59
Speaker 4: be taken advantage of first when they're abused, but they're
52:02
Speaker 4: taking advantage of a second time when they are pressured
52:08
Speaker 4: into signing an NDA and muzzled for the rest of
52:11
Speaker 4: their life. And look, we can't necessarily stop every instance
52:18
Speaker 4: of abuse of kids in the first instance, so though
52:21
Speaker 4: obviously we want to, but every predator we take off
52:24
Speaker 4: the street stops that predator from victimizing another child another victim.
52:30
Speaker 4: But we can stop the second victimization. We can say
52:34
Speaker 4: we are not going to allow, as a matter of law,
52:37
Speaker 4: for children who have experienced this violence to be silenced.
52:41
Speaker 4: And that's what we're trying to do. And Elizabeth, that's
52:43
Speaker 4: what your leadership is producing.
52:45
Speaker 5: Well, and that's why we call this a public safety bill.
52:48
Speaker 5: And you know, nothing will bring my brother back. And
52:51
Speaker 5: thank you for acknowledging that, like this is happening out
52:54
Speaker 5: of heartbreak and I see it as you know, grief
52:59
Speaker 5: can be love and action. So I'm taking action because
53:03
Speaker 5: of what my brother's life and death has taught me.
53:06
Speaker 5: So bigger picture, you know, encourage people to not let
53:11
Speaker 5: these hardened lessons die in vain. We won't let this
53:15
Speaker 5: be in vain. And thank you for taking action with me,
53:19
Speaker 5: With all the survivors in the room today who flew
53:21
Speaker 5: in from across the country. They've been advocating in Georgia
53:24
Speaker 5: and Alabama and Missouri and Texas, and they showed up
53:27
Speaker 5: in that room and it was, yes, full of tears,
53:30
Speaker 5: but also full of hope. And there's some other bills
53:33
Speaker 5: right now that it needs support, like the Renewed Hope
53:36
Speaker 5: Act and the Defiance Act, which is a compliment to
53:39
Speaker 5: the Take It Down Act, and so this Congress can
53:41
Speaker 5: achieve a lot to protect victims. And if people do
53:47
Speaker 5: call their elected legislators, then we can get this done.
53:51
Speaker 5: And I love hearing you say that over and over
53:53
Speaker 5: that it's not an if, it's a win, and you
53:57
Speaker 5: know with this kind of thing there's never a win.
54:00
Speaker 5: It is a lose lose in my family's case. But we,
54:05
Speaker 5: like you said, we can prevent this from happening. We
54:07
Speaker 5: can catch it sooner and this era can end.
54:11
Speaker 1: Amen, don't forget. We do this show three days a week, Monday,
54:14
Speaker 1: Wednesday and Friday. I ask you, if you get to
54:18
Speaker 1: see this, please share the video YouTube video on Facebook
54:21
Speaker 1: as well.
54:22
Speaker 2: You can share it on x and share this podcast.
54:25
Speaker 1: You can hit that little forward button and share it
54:27
Speaker 1: wherever you are on social media. Hopefully you can help
54:29
Speaker 1: others and victims come forward and understand what's happening to
54:33
Speaker 1: the laws and how they're changing.
54:34
Speaker 2: Also, be an advocate.
54:35
Speaker 1: Talk to your senator and call their offices and let
54:38
Speaker 1: them know about this law.
54:39
Speaker 2: They may not know what's going on with it.
54:41
Speaker 1: Let them know why you're in favor of it, why
54:43
Speaker 1: they should get behind it so it doesn't take ten
54:45
Speaker 1: years to get this pass and the Senat, and I
54:47
Speaker 1: will see you back here in a couple of days