COLUMBUS, Ohio — From advocating for victims of human trafficking to leading a lawsuit for the state's largest public pension against a social media giant, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost was part of several events that caught national attention.
10TV's Lindsey Mills sat down with Yost to look back on the year and what his focus is in 2022.
Q: We saw a lot of efforts led by your office this year to really crack down on human trafficking. Tell us about those efforts and new initiatives that were worked on this year.
A: “Number one is we are bringing victims’ advocates and sometimes even survivors of human trafficking in to help the survivors that we encounter on these law enforcement operations. The last thing we want to do is re-traumatize them. We want to help them to exit that life. But the second thing is to diminish demand.”
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In October for example, an investigation called "Ohio Knows" resulted in 200 arrests and the recovery of 10 missing children.
Q: Switching gears and looking to the COVID-19 vaccine and we know that you've been very vocal about your concerns for government overreach. You've made it clear that you're not anti-vaccination, but you are concerned about government overreach. As we are seeing cases rise again, and a new variant, our hospitals are really under a lot of stress right now, have your thoughts changed? Have your concerns changed?
A: “Well no and on two standpoints. First of all, officially, the president can’t do what the president can’t do. And it doesn’t matter how difficult it is or whether the congress is not acting. The president has limited powers um the cop that writes the speeding ticket doesn’t get to decide what the speed limit is. That’s what we mean by separation of powers. But equally important and again I’m vaxed and boosted and have natural antibodies on top of all that. I am not anti-vax. But it isn’t going to stop the transmission of this disease. This vaccine does not work like the smallpox vaccine where you can’t transmit it anymore. You can still get the disease you can even be a-symptomatic and still transmit it. So the only person that is protected by you getting vaccinated is you. You’re less likely to get the disease you’re less likely to die from it or to get seriously ill. But it’s not going to prevent it from being transmitted. That’s just not the way the science works on this and so while we can all look at these numbers and rightly be concerned, saying that a mandate for vaccines is the solution just isn’t supported by the biology and the way this disease operates.”
Doctors say the most important thing you can do to protect yourself is get vaccinated. It also reduces your risk of needing to go to the hospital and hospitals are seeing the highest numbers since this time last year.
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Q: When it comes to litigation as well this year we did see you file a lawsuit against Facebook/META on behalf of OPERS. What is the latest with that lawsuit have you heard anything?
A: “So what happens next is Facebook will have to file an answer I imagine they'll probably file a motion to dismiss because it's the first trick in every lawyer's book. I suspect that we will survive that and we will end up having litigation. It will probably last a couple of years. But the bottom line is, Facebook lied to us. They said that they were taking steps to protect particularly young people on Facebook. They had rules that they were providing across the board, and then we found out because of the expose in the wall street journal that wasn't true. And when that happened the stock prices plummeted. When you lie about something and it has an impact on securities that's called fraud.”
Q: What will you be focusing on in the new year as Attorney General what efforts will our state be seeing you lead?"
A: “Obviously police training. Continuing human trafficking, protecting the environment, we've got a long list of things that are important. But maybe the most important, the overarching rule whether you're talking about law enforcement or the environment, or other safety issues, consumer transactions, the marketplace fairness and competitiveness, the rule of law: the same rules for everybody.”