Montana AG Says ‘Human Trafficking is Happening in Missoula’

Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - Montana’s Attorney General Austin Knudsen appeared on the KGVO Talk Back show on Thursday to answer questions from listeners, and stated plainly that human trafficking is happening in Montana.

“We know human trafficking is going on in Montana,” began Knudsen. “And if you haven't heard me harp about human trafficking, here are the Cliff’s Notes. This is modern-day slavery. There's just no nice way to say that. I don't even like using the term human trafficking because I think it pulls the punch. We're talking about sexual slavery, and we're talking about labor slavery. It's as big a problem now as it ever was throughout human history. It is it's estimated to be a multi-hundred billion dollar industry in the U.S. alone, and we know what's happening here in Montana.”

Attorney General Knudsen is Alarmed over Human Trafficking in Montana

Knudsen narrowed the focus down to Missoula.

“Don't fool yourselves into thinking that human trafficking is only happening in big cities or in other states,” he said. “I can tell you firsthand, this stuff is happening in Montana. We've got a huge problem with it here in Montana. It's a big problem in Missoula. We might not like that and that might make us uncomfortable, but I can tell you it's happening, and we have to be aware of it.”

Knudsen referred to Human Trafficking as Slavery

Knudsen said there are all kinds of trafficking in Montana, which he referred to as slavery.

“There are federal laws on the books that say the federal government has to secure the southern border. And they're not doing it. This administration is just flagrantly thumbing their nose at the law and ignoring it and looking the other direction, and we're paying for it, whether it's through the drug trade, whether it's through human trafficking, illicit child sex, or labor because it's not just sex slavery; we've got labor slavery here in Montana.”

Knudsen said he was Still Concerned about the Chinese Spy Balloon

Knudsen also answered a listener’s question about the Chinese spy balloon that made its way over Montana and across many other parts of the United States.

“Despite this administration telling us and assuring us that ‘oh no, they didn't get anything valuable’, they still flew that thing over how many nuclear missile bases,” he said. “They flew it over our refineries. They flew it over a lot of our sensitive infrastructure. What if there had been an EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse) device attached to that balloon that the Chinese had detonated in our upper ionosphere that would have crippled, absolutely crippled our electrical grid, anywhere in a line of sight of that thing? That would have absolutely devastated our country.”

Knudsen said he enjoys the back-and-forth conversations with KGVO listeners on Talk Back.