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 Matt Gaetz Being Investigated: Sex Trafficking Probe

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PostSubject: Matt Gaetz Being Investigated: Sex Trafficking Probe   Matt Gaetz Being Investigated: Sex Trafficking Probe EmptyTue Mar 30, 2021 5:26 pm

3-30-2021

Matt Gaetz under federal investigation over possible sexual relationship with a teenage girl:

On Tuesday, a bombshell report in The New York Times revealed that outspoken pro-Trump Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-FL) is being investigated as part of a federal sex trafficking probe, into a possible relationship he had with a 17-year-old girl who he may have paid to travel across state lines.

"Investigators are examining whether Mr. Gaetz violated federal sex trafficking laws, the people said.

A variety of federal statutes make it illegal to induce someone under 18 to travel over state lines to engage in sex in exchange for money or something of value. The Justice Department regularly prosecutes such cases, and offenders often receive severe sentences," reported Michael Schmidt and Katie Benner.

"It was not clear how Mr. Gaetz met the girl, believed to be 17 at the time of encounters about two years ago that investigators are scrutinizing, according to two of the people."

"The three people said that the examination of Mr. Gaetz, 38, is part of a broader investigation into a political ally of his, a local official in Florida named Joel Greenberg, who was indicted last summer on an array of charges, including sex trafficking of a child and financially supporting people in exchange for sex, at least one of whom was an underage girl," said the report.

"Mr. Greenberg, who has since resigned his post as tax collector in Seminole County, north of Orlando, visited the White House with Mr. Gaetz in 2019, according to a photograph that Mr. Greenberg posted on Twitter."

"No charges have been brought against Mr. Gaetz, and the extent of his criminal exposure is unclear," said the report. "Mr. Gaetz said in an interview that his lawyers had been in touch with the Justice Department and that they were told he was the subject, not the target, of an investigation."
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The constituents of Florida's First Congressional District, the people of Florida, and the citizens of the United States demand the immediate resignation of Representative Matt Gaetz.
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PostSubject: Re: Matt Gaetz Being Investigated: Sex Trafficking Probe   Matt Gaetz Being Investigated: Sex Trafficking Probe EmptyTue Mar 30, 2021 11:03 pm

3-31-2021

Former Trump and GOP officials celebrate the fall of 'mean' Matt Gaetz:
'He's a blight on the conference'

Former officials in President Donald Trump White House and the Republican Party were "gloating" Tuesday night when it was revealed that Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) was being investigated by the Justice Department for possible sex trafficking, Business Insider reported.

Gaetz, who is the "subject" of an investigation, could end up being indicted if evidence is found of a crime. It's possible he could also be completely vindicated.

But the latter didn't matter as Republicans joined with jubilation to celebrate what they thought was Gaetz's fall.
One former senior Trump White House aide was on multiple text chains with former colleagues gossiping about the deluge of news about Gaetz's legal predicament.

"The former Trump aides aren't necessarily happy to see the three-term lawmaker in trouble, but they 'feel a little vindicated,'" BI said, citing a former White House staffer. "He's the meanest person in politics."

A former congressional aide implied that Republican leaders wanted to get rid of him, but didn't want their hands on it.

"Republican leadership will likely watch him completely implode in a matter of days without having to do a thing," the former aide told BI.
But if the leadership intends to remove Gaetz from any committees, there would need to be an actual indictment first.

"Good riddance," another former Trump White House aide celebrated. "It sounds like he let whatever BS power he thought he had go to his head and he thought himself above the law."

"The congressman is one of those that came to Washington to make an impression for fame and fortune rather than accomplishing anything in Washington for his constituents," a national Republican campaign consultant told BI.

"Matt is going to have a popularity problem now, and may just fade into obscurity. No one will want to associate with him until there's a resolution —
which probably won't be favorable."

"He's not in the legislative business. He's just out there to blow sh*t up and get on TV," said a Republican House staffer.

"National Republicans are concerned and are carefully monitoring the situation," said a senior GOP strategist.

But one former House staffer isn't so sure that Gaetz is completely done.

"They didn't believe he would be that stupid," the former staffer explained. The person did say, however, that Gaetz is known for being a "showboat" with few friends. "He's a blight on the conference."

Before the news broke on Tuesday, Gaetz teased that he might retire from Congress early. According to Axios, there was an offer to host a show at Newsmax.

Read the full piece at BI.
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PostSubject: Re: Matt Gaetz Being Investigated: Sex Trafficking Probe   Matt Gaetz Being Investigated: Sex Trafficking Probe EmptyThu Apr 01, 2021 6:30 pm

4-1-2021

Feds have evidence connecting Matt Gaetz
to fake ID scheme in Florida:

New details continue to emerge about the federal sex trafficking investigation into Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL).

"Federal investigators looking into Rep. Matt Gaetz's relationships with young women have examined whether any federal campaign money was involved in paying for travel and expenses for the women, a person briefed on the matter said.

Cash and drugs may also be involved.

"Information that may connect Gaetz to a fake ID scheme at the center of the case against that second Florida politician, Joel Greenberg, was presented to federal investigators in a meeting early last year, according to two other people familiar with the matter," CNN reported.

"In the meeting, which has not been previously reported, a witness provided evidence linking Gaetz
to Greenberg, the former tax collector in Seminole County, Florida, who was arrested last year on charges that include sex trafficking of a minor and fabricating fake IDs."

There is reportedly video evidence.

"According to one of the people familiar with the matter, an employee at the tax collector's office saw Greenberg and Gaetz on internal office surveillance video looking through driver licenses on a weekend evening," CNN reported.

"In a text message exchange shared with CNN that the source said was between Greenberg and the employee, Greenberg confirmed he was in the office 'showing congressman Gaetz what our operation looked like.'
That witness shared the information with prosecutors from the local US attorney's office and US Secret Service agents investigating Greenberg's case in January 2020, the person familiar with the matter said."


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PostSubject: Re: Matt Gaetz Being Investigated: Sex Trafficking Probe   Matt Gaetz Being Investigated: Sex Trafficking Probe EmptyTue Apr 06, 2021 5:09 am


Gaetz’s Accused Extorter Confirms, Then Denies $25 Million Shakedown
William Bredderman, Justin Baragona | The Daily Beast
Mon, April 5, 2021, 6:36 PM

The man Rep. Matt Gaetz has accused of trying to extort millions from his family—and blamed for recent allegations of sexual improprieties—admitted in a bizarre interview Monday to asking the Florida Republican’s dad to finance an international plot to “rescue” an American citizen widely believed to be dead in Iran.

Air Force veteran and “research consultant” Bob Kent verified to Sirius Radio personality Michael Smerconish that he had approached Gaetz’s deep-pocketed father, former Florida Senate President Don Gaetz, last month seeking a $25 million loan. The funds would ransom the release of Robert Levinson, a former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent who disappeared in Iran more than a decade ago. Levinson’s own family believes him to be dead, but Kent has insisted he has evidence Levinson is alive and remains a hostage of the Islamic Republic, though credible experts have dismissed his claims.

Kent said he was aware at the time that Matt Gaetz might have “legal issues” and that he suggested that assisting in the mission would create “good will” toward the congressman. Although Kent didn’t say it outright, those issues seem to be the recently surfaced allegations that the lawmaker paid women for sex—including, possibly, an underage girl—and misused campaign funds.

“Matt Gaetz is in need of good publicity, and I’m in need of $25 million to save Robert Levinson,” Kent told Smerconish.

Kent described a sequence of improbable purported events that he said led him to solicit money from Gaetz’s dad: Namely, that he misinterpreted a “joke” by a federal agent who said the U.S. government would believe Kent’s intel on an Iranian-linked militant’s activities if Kent could track Levinson down. Kent said his team had attempted a rescue of the U.S. operative last July and that he “lost four people” to Iranian forces.

Despite having coupled his request for money with an allusion to the congressman’s alleged improprieties, and despite working on the project with serial Florida fraudster Stephen Alford, Kent maintained he had not sought to extort the Gaetz clan.

“I never threatened the man—matter of fact, it was the opposite: I told him if he decides not to help us, he’ll never hear from me again,” Kent said of his meeting with Don Gaetz. “I can’t help how it sounds.”

Nevertheless, Kent said Gaetz’s father initially interpreted the overture as a blackmail attempt. But Kent asserted that the local Republican power broker then grew receptive and offered to approach then-President Donald Trump with the materials.

Kent said he insisted he wasn’t interested in the U.S. government’s assistance. He claimed that he received notice a week ago from Levinson family attorney David McGee that Don Gaetz would in fact bankroll his Middle Eastern adventure—only to have the younger Gaetz come forward a day later and assert the consultant was behind reports that the congressman had allegedly trafficked a 17-year-old girl.

“Last Monday I got a call from David telling me Don agreed to fund the project and I’ll be sending you operating money on Tuesday,” Kent said. “Then that evening Congressman Gaetz went on the news.”

In another interview Monday night with CNN’s Chris Cuomo, Kent reiterated that “this was no an extortion attempt” but that he mentioned the congressman’s potential legal problems because “he’s in need of goodwill from the government.”

Asked why he wrote to the Gaetz family that an indictment was imminent and whether he realized that could be an implied threat, Kent merely said there was “no threat” and that he didn’t “have anything to do with the indictment” or investigation.

Kent also claimed that if the congressman really believed he was being extorted, “he could have kept this quiet and gone to the FBI” but that he instead “exposed the Levinson family to additional grief, and he’s capitalizing off that and trying to direct attention from himself.”

He added: “Robert Levinson is a constituent of Matt Gaetz, and you know. The congressman just made the Levinson situation worse. If he is alive, he is directly impacting his predicament right now.”

Cuomo further pressed Kent on specific details he included in his letter to the Gaetz family, namely Kent’s claims that the FBI was supposedly aware of compromising pictures involving the congressman and underage prostitutes.

“How confident are you in what you are told?” Cuomo wondered aloud.

“So you can never be confident of rumors. Those are just rumors that are rampant in north Florida among the legal and journalist communities,” Kent responded, adding: “I don’t have any information on a federal investigation. Those were just rumors that were circulating.”

In the end, asked whether he was concerned about anything he may have said on tape in conversations with Don Gaetz, Kent insisted that he hopes “the father was wearing a wire.”

Neither the congressman nor a lawyer for his father immediately responded to a request for comment. Like Kent, they denied any wrongdoing.
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PostSubject: Matt Gaetz Sex Scandal-    Matt Gaetz Being Investigated: Sex Trafficking Probe EmptyThu Apr 08, 2021 11:06 pm

Embattled Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) was harshly ridiculed on Thursday after allegedly using his public Vemno account to send money to an alleged sex trafficker who then passed on the exact same amount to three young women.

In two late-night Venmo transactions in May 2018, Rep. Matt Gaetz sent his friend, the accused sex trafficker Joel Greenberg, $900.
The next morning, over the course of eight minutes, Greenberg used the same app to send three young women varying sums of money. In total, the transactions amounted to $900.

"The memo field for the first of Gaetz's transactions to Greenberg was titled "Test." In the second, the Florida GOP congressman wrote "hit up ___."
But instead of a blank, Gaetz wrote a nickname for one of the recipients. (The Daily Beast is not sharing that nickname because the teenager had only turned 18 less than six months before.)"

"Gaetz and Greenberg are both connected through Venmo to this then-18-year-old woman—who now works in the porn industry, according to a friend of the girl.
And on Thursday, Greenberg's attorney and prosecutors indicated during a court hearing that they expect Greenberg to strike a plea deal, likely meaning he plans to cooperate with investigators," The Beast reported.
"That could be potentially disastrous for Gaetz, as investigators look into the connections between these two men. And one particularly damning connection is their financial transactions."

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PostSubject: Re: Matt Gaetz Being Investigated: Sex Trafficking Probe   Matt Gaetz Being Investigated: Sex Trafficking Probe EmptyFri Apr 09, 2021 1:42 am

Matt Gaetz Being Investigated: Sex Trafficking Probe ExzhsVhXIAIV4JF
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PostSubject: Re: Matt Gaetz Being Investigated: Sex Trafficking Probe   Matt Gaetz Being Investigated: Sex Trafficking Probe EmptyMon Apr 12, 2021 4:15 pm

4-12-2021

The line of Republican sleezebags is long and Matt Gaetz is only the latest -- with more to follow: columnist.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) isn't the only Republican in office with questionable ethics. In fact, the GOP has spent years welcoming the morally questionable into their party and putting them up for election.

Daily Beast columnist Danielle Tcholakian noted that the tactics Gaetz is employing to save his fledgling career are the same as those who've come before him.

"We watched the former president do it for years, manipulating people who would have benefited from actual government services, but instead got ginned up by hatred of oblique monoliths—the media, that so-called 'deep state,' various nameless nefarious enemies around every corner except of course the one guarded by one hyper-privileged, no-class opportunist with no concern for anyone but himself," wrote Tcholakian, comparing Gaetz to former President Donald Trump.

The only thing left is for him to make a tearful apology to Jesus Christ after joining a church he's only been to a few times.

She even compared him to Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) who faced scrutiny for his actions around COVID-19 and nursing homes. He wrote a "self-congratulatory memoir" to rewrite history.

She listed off "the passes we've given out" to people like Rep. Jim Jordan, who is still in Congress, "despite the fact that the public knows he covered up sexual abuse by the Ohio State wrestling team physician while he was a coach there."

Then there's "crying, lying Brett Kavanaugh" who sobbed over his illegal beer drinking in high school that led to accusations of rape.

He joined the U.S. Supreme Court with "his colleague Clarence Thomas, whose wife is a walking, squawking conflict-of-interest violation and who paved the way for the sorry little act the Judiciary Committee pantomimed with Kavanaugh."

There's infamous former Florida Congressman Mark Foley, who was engaged in sexual chats with teenage boys.
A 2019 Sun Sentinal story noted that he's now reinvented himself and being and honored by Republicans.

Foley happened a little before Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID), who would allegedly have meet-ups with gents in the men's room of the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport.

In a sting operation, Craig was arrested under suspicion of disorderly conduct. He followed the path of those before him, denying the allegations, apologizing to his family and the voters, and proclaimed he's not gay. He then pleaded guilty.

Five years later he was charged a hefty $242,000 fine for misuse of campaign funds after using donor dollars to pay his lawyers for the bathroom scandal. He's now living his best life as a high-paid lobbyist in Washington, D.C.

The list doesn't include unelected officials like Roy Moore, or even state officials like former Gov. Mary Fallon (R-OK), who had an affair with a state trooper hired to protect her when she was Lt. Gov. She went on to win an election to Congress and governor.

Referring to him as an "entitled asshat," Tcholakian noted that men like Gaetz are so lazy in their reckless behavior because they know they'll get away with it.

"Even if Gaetz goes, absent a system where consequences are common enough that politicians have to regain or finally develop their own senses of shame that stop them before they chance those consequences, there will always be another just like him," Tcholakian closed.

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