BILLINGS — As the House of Representatives prepares to vote next week on whether to release materials tied to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, one Yellowstone County advocate says the high-profile case should serve as a reminder that human trafficking is not only a national problem, but a local one too.
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House Speaker Mike Johnson said this week he plans to bring forward H.R. 4405, a bipartisan bill requiring the Department of Justice to release all unclassified documents, records, and communications connected to the prosecution of Epstein, a convicted sex offender who died in prison in 2019. The bill was introduced by Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif. and has gained support from both Democrats and several Republicans, including Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Nancy Mace of South Carolina.
Related: ‘Be brave’: Victims urge lawmakers to support release of Epstein files
President Donald Trump’s name appears hundreds of times in the 23,000 pages of records and messages released by the House Oversight Committee earlier this week. Trump has repeatedly denied knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and has called the renewed scrutiny a “hoax” on his social media platform, Truth Social.
Related: Trump attacks Democrats over Epstein emails, calls it a ‘hoax’
In Yellowstone County, Penny Ronning, the co-founder and president of the Yellowstone Human Trafficking Task Force, said the national attention should spark deeper conversations at the local level.
"What we're seeing at really the global level with the Epstein case, it is a reflection on every community and those power structures in place,” said Ronning. “I want the files released. Every decent human being should want these files released. However, we should want righteous action to stop this type of violence in every community at every level.”
The task force, established in 2016, now has more than 800 members collaborating with federal, state, and local agencies. Ronning, the daughter of a trafficking survivor, said reported cases in Montana have climbed sharply since 2015, from seven to 143 in 2023, a rise she attributes to better awareness and more coordinated enforcement.
"Oftentimes, people will hear in the news that there's been ... a large percentage of increase in human trafficking cases in Montana. That doesn't mean that there's been an increase in the crime," said Ronning. "What that means is that we've now been able to catch more people."
Still, she said the true scope remains and difficult to track. Many cases go unreported, and online exploitation, particularly through social media and the increasing use of AI, has made investigations increasingly complex.
"This is a violence and a crime that has been happening really since the beginning of man," said Ronning. “Every home is potential to human trafficking, and the reason being, it's not just because of the victim, but it's because of the buyer."
In recent months, Billings saw its own high-profile case when former local doctor Usman Hanif Khan pleaded guilty to interstate transportation in aid of racketeering after arranging commercial sex with a minor. Khan communicated with a Lame Deer woman named Veronica Clarice Baker, who helped him arrange the encounter and pleaded guilty to sex trafficking of a minor. Khan faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, and Baker faces at least 10 years.
Related: Billings advocate explains human trafficking following recent charges of a Billings doctor
Ronning said cases like that show why the Epstein files matter beyond Washington.
"Human trafficking, no matter where, it looks the same," said Ronning. "What we have to get beyond is that money does not equate to moral, ethical goodness."
She argues the national debate has increasingly politicized human trafficking, something she fears distracts from meaningful reforms.
"I see a lot of righteous anger, but I don't see a lot of righteous action," said Ronning.
Ronning said she has pushed for years to strengthen state and federal laws protecting minors online and improving how human trafficking is defined in Montana statute, but has experienced difficulties doing so.
"We've been working on bills to protect children online for years and years and years and years, and we're still struggling to get these bills passed,” said Ronning. "No child under the age, anyone under the age of 18—because they cannot give consent—the word prostitution should never even be in a position of equating that with a child, ever, in legal language."
With the House scheduled to vote on the federal Epstein records next week, Ronning hopes the release could be the long-awaited step towards government transparency and a cultural shift when discussing human trafficking victims, even here in Yellowstone County.
“That's where it's got to be addressed is culturally, in order for this crime to go away. We're never going to arrest our way out of this," said Ronning. “We have to look at ourselves and say, 'Who are we?' Epstein didn't happen in a vacuum. Happens in a society that normalizes this type of behavior.”
If you or someone you know suspects human trafficking in Montana, please contact the 24-hour victim services hotline at (833) 406-7867 or visit 406STOP.com.
