A Mueller witness’s firm runs interference for Pornhub, accused of profiting from rape.
NEW YORK, NY – JUNE 14: CEO 5W Public Relations Ronn Torossian speaks during 5WPR 15th Anniversary Event at Catch Rooftop on June 14, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for DuJour)
Earlier this month, Business Insider reported that a number of Pornhubâs top executives probably donât exist. For all of the companyâs most-quoted officials, no information, record, or verification can be found outside of scattered press releases and media quotes. Their social media profiles are either non-existent or completely devoid of details. Even official lines of communication are either dead ends or red herrings.
When Business Insider called one phone number listed as a Pornhub VPâs, it connected them somewhere else entirely: 5W PR, a New York firm headed up by Ronn Torossian. If those names sound familiar to you, youâre not alone. 5W is the agency of record for Pornhub, yesâbut the pornography monolith is far from their highest-profile client. Youâre more likely to have heard Torossianâs name in any of a number of widely divergent places.
Maybe you remember him from the Mueller probe. Torossian was called to testify about professional conversations he had held with Paul Manafort and Rick Gates in the spring of 2012. These particular talks didnât develop into a business relationship, but they were far from the PR executiveâs only interactions with Donald Trumpâs inner circle. Torossian has represented Jay Sekulowâa member of President Trumpâs personal legal teamâand brushed elbows with a horde of other Trump orbiters, including Rudy Giuliani. As recently as 2017, Torossianâs services were retained by the Eric Trump Foundation after reports that donated funds were not going where the presidentâs son said they were. An assistant to Eric Trump did not respond to The American Conservativeâs inquiries about the PR repâs other clients.
âIt has been revealed that the 5W PR firm and its CEO Ron Torossian have been partnering with, and defending Pornhub and its parent company MindGeek, a mega-corporation publicly exposed for complicity in child trafficking and the monetization of child rape,â Laila Mickelwait, founder of the #TraffickingHub campaign, told TAC. âFor any company to participate in defending those who profit from child exploitation is both debased and unacceptable. Torossian and 5W should be ashamed of their actions.â
Torossian also garnered a good bit of attention for his work with Sinclair Broadcast Group in 2017. Sinclair is a conservative, pro-Trump media conglomerate that came under fire for allegations that it had compelled its local affiliates to broadcast a statement condemning fake news. Torossian got to work quickly, waging a no-holds-barred campaignâhe is renowned for his aggressive approachâagainst the broadcasting companyâs critics. Sinclair is one of the biggest names to the right of center in the media world, and in their moment of need Torossian seems to have come through for them. Sinclair Broadcast Group has not responded to TACâs request for comment.
Jon Schweppe, director of policy and government affairs at the American Principles Project, saw no gray area here. âYou canât be a conservative and support Pornhub. Itâs that simple,â Schweppe told The American Conservative. âFew companies have done more to undermine the American family. Anyone on the Right who cares â or even claims to care â about protecting the family should immediately sever all ties with this individual.â
5W PRâs client list is hardly limited to the rich and powerful of right-wing politics, though. Their catalogue of corporate customers is enormous. A few names jump out. Topps, a decades-old company known mostly for its baseball cards, is touted on 5W PRâs website. Their specialization in sports collectibles and memorabilia means, of course, that Topps markets mostly to children and nostalgics. Likewise, Welchâs, a well-known peddler of grape-based products, makes use of Torossianâs firm. âFarmer owned. Family grown,â their website prominently boasts. Their PR campaigns are almost exclusively targeted towards families, with marketing materials generally featuring and aimed at children. Speaking of childrenâthere are a surprising number of companies who make their money in childcare products on the 5W client list. These include baby bottle company Perry Mackin and nursery furniture firm Delta Children (who 5W has tweeted about this month), among others. One wonders if such family-friendly companies might have misgivings about sharing a public relations firm with the world-leader in the pornography industry. But we canât know for sureânot one of them responded to TACâs requests for comment.
A glance further back into Ronn Torossianâs history will reveal that he was a longtime contributor to the New York Observer. Over a number of years, Torossianâs writings there focused mainly on Israel-related politicalconcerns, but occasionally digressed into culture, economy, and the workings of the PR industry. (The subheading of a January, 2015 article: âOdious clients who present a moral hazard should be rejected, no matter how lucrative the contract.â) Throughout this period, the now-defunct weekly newspaper was owned and published by one Jared Kushner.
A number of notable Christian televangelists have also hired 5W PR. These include such names as Creflo Dollar and Israeli-born âfaith healerâ Benny Hinn. Dollar, Hinn, and others in Torossianâs orbit are influential peddlers of the âprosperity gospelââthe belief that financial wealth is a sign of Godâs blessingâa doctrine used by its advocates to justify amassing substantial personal fortunes. Trinity Broadcasting Network, also known and criticized for its prosperity gospel advocacy, has made us of Torossianâs services as well. TBN is the largest religious TV network in the entire world. (With the top evangelists and the top pornographers, Torossian really has his bases covered.) The network did not respond to TACâs request for comment.
The prosperity gospel has served Torossian well. The New York Postâwhere Torossian has also been known to contribute in the pastâreported in 2018 on his acquisition of a condo on NYCâs Park Avenue for just under $17 million. On Twitter, Torossian recently posted a picture of himself seated in a vintage Jeepster Commando with the caption âNew hamptons [sic] toy.â (In Torossianâs profile bio, sandwiched between two professional self-praisesââCEO @5W_PR, PR Agency of Year,â and âPR Executive of the Yearââis a different kind of boast: âProud dad.â) Just how much of Torossianâs very public prosperity is thanks to a lucrative contract with Pornhub is unclear.
Also unclear is where Pornhubâs own fortune has come from. The general thrust of the industry should be controversial enough, but Pornhubâwhich maintains a near-monopoly on online pornography streamingâis the subject of far more troubling accusations. Many have raised concerns, for instance, about the siteâs platforming of child pornography. (In this area, Torossian has a bit of experience. âGirls Gone Wildâ retained his services after allegedly doing the same thing a few years ago.) Simulated rape is the stock-in-trade of Pornhub and the broader porn industry, but there have been numerous incidents in which the site published videos of actual rape. To make matters worse, the company has even verified the accounts some offenders, welcoming pedophiles, rapists, and human traffickers behind their paywallâallowing both Pornhub and the direct abusers to reap profit from violent sexual crimes. Anti-trafficking activists like Laila Mickelwait have attempted to raise the alarm about Pornhubâs most vicious practices.
Youâre unlikely to have heard about any of it, thoughâtheir PR outfit is top-notch. Torossian did not respond to our questions as of press time.