WASHINGTON – Empower Oversight has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) suit against the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) seeking records related to the administration of the National Human Trafficking Hotline, a critical public safety resource for victims of trafficking. The request includes records about an alleged conflict of interest involving Katherine Chon, the Director of HHS’s Office on Trafficking in Persons (OTIP). Chon co-founded and previously led the Polaris Project, the organization that has contracted with HHS to run the hotline since 2007.
Following concerns raised by bipartisan coalitions of state Attorneys General (2023, 2025), Empower Oversight aided a whistleblower in making disclosures to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, who wrote to HHS. The state Attorneys General and Grassley have raised concerns about Polaris’s lack of cooperation with law enforcement and Ms. Chon’s potential conflict of interest. Chon was the head of Polaris for nearly 10 years before joining HHS.
Empower submitted an August 5, 2025 FOIA request for various communications related to Katherine Chon, Polaris, and the National Human Trafficking Hotline, as well as communications between OTIP and state attorneys general concerning these topics. HHS acknowledged receipt of the request but has failed to produce any records or respond within the statutory time period.
In the complaint filed Sept. 18, 2025, Empower Oversight wrote that “the requested records are likely to show a startling failure by HHS to properly administer the National Human Trafficking Hotline. These records likely will show that HHS has allowed an individual with an actual and apparent conflict of interest to be involved in the administration of the hotline, to the detriment of the public interest and the protection of countless people. Empower Oversight requested records pursuant to FOIA to show this improper involvement of the individual with the conflict of interest with the hotline.”
Polaris has received millions in federal funding for its role in operating the hotline.
To read the state Attorneys General letters, click here for 2023 and here for 2025.
To read Grassley’s letter, click here.
To read the May 14, 2025 letter to Kennedy, click here.
To read the Aug. 5, 2025 FOIA request, click here.
To read the Sept. 18, 2025 lawsuit filing, click here.
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