On Monday afternoon, lawyers representing men caught in a sex work review website sting showed up in King County Superior Court with an unusual and bold request: to disqualify the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office from prosecuting their cases.
King County prosecutors aren’t typically disqualified from doing their jobs. But the reason for doing so, the lawyers say, is tied to more than $140,000 awarded to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office from a national sex work abolition group called Demand Abolition. The case rests on thousands of documents showing how the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office collaborated with the Massachusetts-based Demand Abolition, including correspondence over weekly phone meetings, media training, and strategies for dealing with reporters and sex worker advocates. (The Intercept also published a story on Demand Abolition’s influence on the office.)
