The letter comes less than a month before Polaris’s HHS grant is set to be renewed.
A whistleblower has come forward to confirm allegations brought by over 40 attorneys general that the nonprofit Polaris Project, contracted by the federal government to run the National Human Trafficking Hotline, routinely fails to pass along pertinent trafficking tips to law enforcement.
Senator Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa), wrote a letter Monday laying out the whistleblower disclosures to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., National Review has learned.
“Legally protected whistleblower disclosures provided to my office appear to confirm the allegations that Polaris is not reporting instances of potential human trafficking to law enforcement,” Grassley wrote in the letter, which NR exclusively obtained.
The letter comes about a month before Polaris’s HHS grant is set to be renewed. In his letter, Grassley cites an internal March 2025 case file for a potential sex trafficking case involving minors that showed “high indicators” of trafficking. The file was created after a potential victim contacted a “signaler” who came forward to the hotline. The case file alleged that the victim was afraid of physical abuse and was being forced to provide sex as an escort in exchange for money. A staffer for Polaris reviewed the case file and labeled it “work not required” meaning the file was closed and law enforcement was not alerted.
Another whistleblower disclosure to Grassley’s office featured a potential victim who contacted the human trafficking hotline about a situation involving her and her sister. The victim and her sister were being held by two potential traffickers and are both U.S. citizens. The file also contained “high indicators” of trafficking and the victim opted to report using her name, rather than remaining anonymous. The victim appears to have stopped communicating to the hotline out of safety concerns, and, as a result, Polaris staff labeled the file “work not required.”
Grassley is conducting oversight on HHS’s response to the AG’s concerns, its grant-making process, and its monitoring of Polaris’s management of the hotline. He is demanding answers from HHS by May 19, 2025 to five questions about the hotline.
The Iowa Republican is asking about the “work not required” designation and for records showing HHS’s steps to address the Attorneys General’s concerns. He is also requesting records related to HHS’s oversight of Polaris and whether the agency’s Office on Trafficking in Persons (OTIP) Director Katherine Chon has any role in deciding which organization receives HHS’s grant funding to operate the hotline. Chon is a co-founder and former president of Polaris Project. In raising concerns about Chon’s potential role in the grant awarding process, the letter cites NR’s previous reporting on the matter.
Grassley’s letter attaches the whistleblower exhibits and a letter from Empower Oversight, a whistleblower protection group, to Polaris CEO Megan Lundstrom. NR has reached out to HHS and Polaris for comment.
According to Empower Oversight, the whistleblower, a Polaris employee, made disclosures within the organization and to government offices, including the HHS Office of Inspector General and Congress. The person has been placed on temporary administrative leave because Polaris is dealing with “ongoing considerations.”
The disclosures are “consistent with concerns recently expressed by the National Association of Attorneys General, who wrote on April 15, 2025 to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: ‘Without [certain] tips, our law enforcement loses critical leads to dismantling trafficking operations. We also lose valuable leads to rescuing the victims of trafficking and helping them begin the road to recovery,” Empower Oversight President Tristan Leavitt wrote.
The bipartisan group of 41 Attorneys General wrote a letter to Kennedy last month raising the alarm about Polaris’s apparent mismanagement of the hotline. The letter followed a similar warning two years ago that Polaris’s approach to handling law enforcement was leading to delayed reporting from the hotline.
“The National Human Trafficking Hotline had long been an integral part of our work, until it was discovered a few years ago that the organization awarded the grant to run the Hotline, Polaris, was no longer sharing tips from concerned citizens and distressed family members with local law enforcement. Without those tips, our law enforcement loses critical leads to dismantling trafficking operations. We also lose valuable leads to rescuing the victims of trafficking and helping them begin the road to recovery,” the AGs wrote.
Polaris has run the hotline since 2007 with funding from HHS. If HHS renews its grant to Polaris, it will receive up to $9 million to continue managing the hotline. Lundstrom was recently named Polaris CEO as the Trump administration began and administration officials vowed to crack down on sex trafficking.
“President Trump made clear that ending human trafficking is a top priority,” a senior HHS official previously told NR. “We are proud that the Hotline is saving lives and helping dismantle trafficking networks through trauma-informed service referrals and real-time tip reporting.”
The National Human Trafficking Hotline is a 24/7 resource for potential victims to seek help or informed citizens to bring forward tips about suspected sex trafficking activities. More than 100,000 cases involving 197,000 victims have been identified since 2007, hotline statistics indicate. The hotline delivers thousands of tips to law enforcement annually, totaling roughly 21,000 over the past seven years, HHS previously told NR. The agency said it never stopped reporting tips to law enforcement in that time.