So what's happening with the Matt Gaetz investigation?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Matt Gaetz' crime partner has decided he's not going down alone

A confession letter written by Joel Greenberg in the final months of the Trump presidency claims that he and close associate Rep. Matt Gaetz paid for sex with multiple women—as well as a girl who was 17 at the time.

“On more than one occasion, this individual was involved in sexual activities with several of the other girls, the congressman from Florida’s 1st Congressional District and myself,” Greenberg wrote in reference to the 17-year-old.

“From time to time, gas money or gifts, rent or partial tuition payments were made to several of these girls, including the individual who was not yet 18. I did see the acts occur firsthand and Venmo transactions, Cash App or other payments were made to these girls on behalf of the Congressman.”

  Daily Beast

Does Gaetz have his passport up to date?

The letter, which The Daily Beast recently obtained, was written after Greenberg—who was under federal indictment—asked Roger Stone to help him secure a pardon from then-President Donald Trump.

A series of private messages starting in late 2020—also recently obtained by The Daily Beast—shows a number of exchanges between Greenberg and Stone conducted over the encrypted-messaging app Signal, with communications set to disappear. However, Greenberg appears to have taken screenshots of a number of their conversations.

Sounds like Greenberg knew Stone well.

“My lawyers that I fired, know the whole story about MG’s involvement,” Greenberg wrote to Stone on Dec. 21. “They know he paid me to pay the girls and that he and I both had sex with the girl who was underage.”

[...]

“If I get you $250k in Bitcoin would that help or is this not a financial matter,” Greenberg wrote to Stone, one message shows.

“I understand all of this and have taken it into consideration,” Stone replied. “I will know more in the next 24 hours I cannot push too hard because of the nonsense surrounding pardons.”

“I hope you are prepared to wire me $250,000 because I am feeling confident,” Stone wrote to Greenberg on Jan. 13.

In a text message to The Daily Beast, Stone said that Greenberg had tried to hire him to assist with a pardon, but he denied asking for or receiving payment or interceding on his behalf.

So...hoping to get $250,000 because he was confident was about what exactly?

[In a draft letter, Greenberg] claimed that he, Gaetz, and others had sex with a minor they believed to be 19 at the time. Greenberg said he learned she was underage on Sept. 4, 2017, from “an anonymous tip” and quickly contacted Gaetz.

“Immediately I called the congressman and warned him to stay clear of this person and informed him she was underage,” Greenberg wrote. “He was equally shocked and disturbed by this revelation.”

Greenberg continued in the handwritten draft that he “confronted” the then-17-year-old and explained to her “how serious of a situation this was, how many people she put in danger.”

“She apologized and recognized that by lying about her age, she endangered many people,” he continued. “There was no further contact with this individual until after her 18th birthday.”

[...]

But after she reached the age of legal consent in Florida, Greenberg re-established contact. As The Daily Beast previously reported, about five months after her 18th birthday, Gaetz sent Greenberg $900 in two Venmo transactions—one titled “Test” and the other titled “hit up ___.” The blank contained a nickname for this girl, and Greenberg paid her and two other women a total of $900 about six hours later.

In his confession letter, Greenberg also admitted he facilitated Gaetz’s interactions with college students—and paid them on his behalf.

I'm confused. Is this the same girl he claimed in the first reported letter, admitting she was 17? Or another girl?

The Daily Beast also talked to 12 of the more than 40 different women who received money, and they all said they understood Greenberg was paying them at least in part for sex.

Greenberg, a disgraced local politician in Florida, currently faces a sweeping 33-count indictment that ranges from stalking to sex trafficking.

[...]

The messages [between Greenberg and Stone] show that in November, the pair discussed putting together a “document,” which later took the form of a confession letter and background missive about all the ways in which Greenberg had been loyal to Trump. In their early conversations, Greenberg told Stone that the letter was “about 8-10 pages” and asked if it should be shortened.

“No,” Stone replied, “use as much space as you need to tell the story fully but be certain to include your leader ship [sic] for Trump prominently.”

[...]

The letter went through multiple drafts and detailed Greenberg’s encounters with Gaetz, but it also focused on Greenberg’s early support of Trump’s run in 2016, such as posting a “Super Trump” highway billboard on Interstate 4. (A version of the letter actually includes the image Greenberg used for the billboard.)

On Nov. 20, 2020, Stone told Greenberg he had received “the document” and would show it to the team that “got me my commutation.”

“I will review it with them and give you a budget. This is very doable and the time is now,” Stone wrote.Federal prosecutors have not criminally charged Gaetz—or even publicly confirmed the expansion of their probe.

[...]

An update from Stone came just after midnight on Dec. 8: “Your thing is being looked at and I will have an answer by Saturday as to whether you have a viable shot for justice and how to go about it.”

“Thank you so much Roger,” Greenberg replied. “I am very thankful for you. I pray that the Lord will help. I remain optimistic and will wait to hear back from you.”

Stone quickly sought to dampen expectations surrounding “the whole pardon circus.”

“This is treacherous territory with a lot of different players such as Jared and Giuliani playing a hand,” Stone wrote, presumably referring to Trump adviser Jared Kushner and the president’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. “I have two things I’m trying to get done. Sit tight.”

So...he wasn't involved in interceding for Greenberg, eh? If true, that would mean he was just lying to Greenberg and hoping for money. Would that be extortion?

A distressed Greenberg told Stone that he felt “abandoned" by his allies, but emphasized that Gaetz—who was “like a son” to the president of the United States—could save him: “One conversation with POTUS and he can get this done and it all goes away.”

Greenberg said that while he had discussed pardons with Gaetz’s lawyer, he had not heard a reply and would “have to do what’s best for me and my family” after Trump left office.

[...]

It’s unclear if money was ever exchanged, but Greenberg offered to pay extra if Stone could, in fact, get him a pardon.“If you can get this done today I’ll add another 50k,” Greenberg texted Stone. In a subsequent message, Stone wrote that White House lawyer Pat Cipollone had taken Greenberg’s name out of the list of hundreds of people who might be pardoned. Cipollone didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment Thursday, but according to three people familiar with the matter, Greenberg’s name repeatedly made it to the Trump White House for a presidential pardon. The Daily Beast was shown an image of one such list, and Greenberg’s name and a favorable mini-profile were indeed included.

[...]

“What I don’t understand is why [Gaetz] would not help me at all and actually told me not to help you which I tried to do anyway. In the end it would not have mattered. Cipollone killed everything we wanted to get done and that includes stuff MG wanted,” Stone wrote.

[...]

“Ok. He actually said not to help me? Wow,” Greenberg replied.

“If you repeat it you’re really going to hurt me,” Stone warned.

“I won’t Roger. I don’t and haven’t talked to him. I won’t,” Greenberg said.

Nobody would help poor Joel Greenberg. The ride was over.

“Urge you to be very careful,” Stone said at the end of his text [to this reporter]. “I will take any appropriate legal action in the event that you publish anything that is false or defamatory. Sounds to me like you have been presented some kind of cut and paste record.”

Sure, Roger. Sure.

While Gaetz acknowledges the existence of the investigation, he denies having sex with an underage teen. But at some point, Greenberg began to cooperate with investigators, a development his lawyer has suggested poses a serious problem for Gaetz.

Get that passport read, Matt.

And perhaps you, too, Roger.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

Does it end in Argentina?

Matt Gaetz update

Beavis is in big trouble.

The group took off for their Bahamas weekend getaway on three separate flights. Most of the passengers, which included at least five young women, flew out of Orlando on two separate private planes. Matt Gaetz flew commercial.

[...]

Also among those on the trip: the former minor who is key to the investigation, whose presence on the trip was previously unreported. According to one of the women in the group who spoke on condition of anonymity, everyone on the trip was over the age of 18 — including the woman in question, who had turned 18 years old months before the trip, she said.

[...]

But questions surrounding the ages of some of the women surfaced immediately upon their return — three of them looked so young when they returned on Beshears’ private plane that U.S. Customs briefly stopped and questioned him, according to sources familiar with the trip, including a woman on the flight.

[...]

[The Mann Act] forbids transporting people of any age across state lines for purposes of prostitution..

[...]

Some of the women on the Bahamas trip entered the orbit of Gaetz and Greenberg through the SeekingArrangement website — a dating website that connects women with so-called sugar daddies — according to interviews with friends and associates who know the two men, and Greenberg introduced him to young women he met on the site. Gaetz said he’s never been on the site.

[...]

Gaetz’s predicament as the subject of a serious investigation became clearer this winter when federal agents executed a search warrant and seized his iPhone, according to interviews with three people who were told of the matter by Gaetz, who changed his phone number in late December.

  Politico

Shortly before he asked then-President Trump to issue him a blanket pardon.

A former local official in Florida indicted in the Justice Department investigation that is also focused on Representative Matt Gaetz has been providing investigators with information since last year about an array of topics, including Mr. Gaetz’s activities, according to two people briefed on the matter.

Joel Greenberg, a onetime county tax collector, disclosed to investigators that he and Mr. Gaetz had encounters with women who were given cash or gifts in exchange for sex, the people said.

  NYT

Greenberg is in so much trouble, it's unsurprising that he'd be ratting on Matt. Matt would do the same to him, I'm sure.

Mr. Greenberg faces dozens of other counts including sex trafficking of a minor, stalking a political rival and corruption. He was first indicted in June.

[...]

Mr. Greenberg began speaking with investigators once he realized that the government had overwhelming evidence against him and that his only path to leniency lay in cooperation, the people said. He has met several times with investigators to try to establish his trustworthiness, though the range of criminal charges against him — including fraud — could undermine his credibility as a witness.

[...]

Speculation about Mr. Greenberg’s cooperation began mounting last week, after his lawyer and a federal prosecutor both said in court that he was likely to plead guilty in the coming weeks. “I’m sure Matt Gaetz is not feeling very comfortable today,” Fritz Scheller, Mr. Greenberg’s lawyer, told reporters afterward.

He shouldn't get to feel comfortable for at least a decade.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

And they said Matt Gaetz is smart

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.) When Greenberg then made his Venmo payments to these three young women, he described the money as being for “Tuition,” “School,” and “School.”

  Daily Beast

If he's smart, then he must have felt assured he wouldn't get in trouble even if he left a paper trail.

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 New York Times says a Justice Department investigation is looking into Gaetz’s involvement in the cash-for-sex ring.

When's he going to use the Trump line: Look at me, do I look like someone who needs to pay for sex?

Greenberg and Gaetz are also connected on Venmo to at least one other woman that Greenberg paid with taxpayer funds using a government-issued credit card. Seminole County auditors flagged hundreds of those payments as “questioned or unaccounted for,” and in total found more than $300,000 in suspicious or unjustified expenses.

Jesus Christ.

According to the Times, the two men reportedly had sex with and trafficked the same 17-year-old girl.

[...]

In 2018, Greenberg also paid another woman, a mutual friend of Gaetz's, several thousand dollars using his taxpayer-backed Seminole County-issued Wells Fargo Visa card, according to county financial records obtained by The Daily Beast. Auditors flagged the transactions, saying that, despite having a contract and invoice from the company, they “do not know what it was for.”

[...]

“No one has any idea what he was doing. Zero,” said Daniel J. O'Keefe, an accountant who conducted a forensic audit for the county. “The arrogance of these guys. They just felt they were above the law. I've never seen it this bad.”

[...]

Gaetz has not been charged with a crime.

Yet.

UPDATE:

More on Matt Gaetz

A Justice Department investigation into Representative Matt Gaetz and an indicted Florida politician is focusing on their involvement with multiple women who were recruited online for sex and received cash payments.

[...]

Investigators believe Joel Greenberg, the former tax collector in Seminole County, Fla., who was indicted last year on a federal sex trafficking charge and other crimes, initially met the women through websites that connect people who go on dates in exchange for gifts, fine dining, travel and allowances, according to three people with knowledge of the encounters.

[...]

One of the sites [...] was called Seeking Arrangement, which describes itself as a place where wealthy people find attractive companions and pamper them “with fine dinners, exotic trips and allowances.” The site’s founder has said it has 20 million members worldwide.

[...]

Mr. Greenberg introduced the women to Mr. Gaetz, who also had sex with them, the people said.

[...]

One of the women who had sex with both men also agreed to have sex with an unidentified associate of theirs in Florida Republican politics.

[...]

The Justice Department inquiry is also examining whether Mr. Gaetz had sex with a 17-year-old girl and whether she received anything of material value, according to four people familiar with the investigation. The sex trafficking count against Mr. Greenberg involved the same girl, according to two people briefed on the investigation.The Times has reviewed receipts from Cash App, a mobile payments app, and Apple Pay that show payments from Mr. Gaetz and Mr. Greenberg to one of the women, and a payment from Mr. Greenberg to a second woman. The women told their friends that the payments were for sex with the two men.

[...]

In encounters during 2019 and 2020, Mr. Gaetz and Mr. Greenberg instructed the women to meet at certain times and places, often at hotels around Florida, and would tell them the amount of money they were willing to pay, according to the messages and interviews.

One person said that the men also paid in cash, sometimes withdrawn from a hotel ATM.

Some of the men and women took ecstasy, an illegal mood-altering drug, before having sex, including Mr. Gaetz

[...]

Some of the men and women took ecstasy, an illegal mood-altering drug, before having sex, including Mr. Gaetzes has reviewed receipts from Cash App, a mobile payments app, and Apple Pay that show payments from Mr. Gaetz and Mr. Greenberg to one of the women, and a payment from Mr. Greenberg to a second woman. The women told their friends that the payments were for sex with the two men.

[...]

In some cases, Mr. Gaetz asked women to help find others who might be interested in having sex with him and his friends, according to two people familiar with those conversations. Should anyone inquire about their relationships, one person said, Mr. Gaetz told the women to say that he had paid for hotel rooms and dinners as part of their dates.

  ABC

Which is also what he told Tucker Carlson.

No charges have been brought against Mr. Gaetz, and the extent of his criminal exposure is unclear. Mr. Gaetz’s office issued a statement on Thursday night in a response to a request for comment.

“Matt Gaetz has never paid for sex,” the statement said. “Matt Gaetz refutes all the disgusting allegations completely. Matt Gaetz has never ever been on any such websites whatsoever. Matt Gaetz cherishes the relationships in his past and looks forward to marrying the love of his life.”

LOL. He did it all.

It is not illegal to provide adults with free hotel stays, meals and other gifts, but if prosecutors think they can prove that the payments to the women were for sex, they could accuse Mr. Gaetz of trafficking the women under “force, fraud or coercion.”

I don't care what he did with those women, as long as it was consenual, but lying about it is bad form.

It is also a violation of federal child sex trafficking law to provide someone under 18 with anything of value in exchange

[...]

[Greenberg] potentially faces decades in prison on three dozen charges. The U.S. attorney’s office in Central Florida initially secured an indictment against Mr. Greenberg in June, alleging that he had stalked a political rival and had used his elected office to create fake identification cards.for sex, which can include meals, hotels, drugs, alcohol or cigarettes. A conviction carries a 10-year mandatory minimum prison sentence.

Gaetz has an automatic out on the underage trafficking count by saying the 17-year-old presented him a fake ID, unless she personally claims he knew how old she was.

Mr. Greenberg was indicted this week on additional charges, accusing him of submitting false claims to receive pandemic relief aid from the government and trying to bribe a government official.

I wonder if Gaetz helped him.

Mr. Gaetz said this week that his lawyers had been in touch with the Justice Department and that he was the subject, not the target, of an investigation. Subjects of investigations are often witnesses or people who might have information that could help the government pursue its targets. But it is common for that designation to shift over the course of an investigation.

[...]

Mr. Gaetz has sought to divert attention from the Justice Department investigation by claiming that he and his father were the targets of an extortion plot by two men trying to secure funding for a separate venture.

The men — Robert Kent, a former Air Force intelligence officer who runs a consulting business, and Stephen Alford, a real estate developer who has been convicted of fraud — approached Mr. Gaetz’s father, Don Gaetz, about funding their efforts to locate Robert A. Levinson, an American hostage held in Iran. They suggested to Don Gaetz that Mr. Levinson’s successful return could somehow be used to secure a pardon for Matt Gaetz if he were charged with federal crimes, according to a copy of their proposal provided to The Times.

Soon after, Don Gaetz hired a lawyer and contacted the F.B.I.

Mr. Kent denied the Gaetzes’ assertions. He said he had heard rumors that Matt Gaetz might be under investigation and mentioned them only to sweeten his proposal. “I told him I’m not trying to extort, but if this were true, he might be interested in doing something good,” Mr. Kent said in an interview.

[...]

[Kent] was stunned when he heard that Matt Gaetz had sought to tie the Justice Department investigation to an extortion plot related to the Levinson case.

“He threw Levinson and the entire Levinson family under the bus,” Mr. Kent said. “I can’t imagine what these poor people have been through. This guy, to divert attention from himself, has raked up the attention to the family.”

Don Gaetz also taped a phone call and a meeting with David McGee, a Levinson family lawyer, where they discussed the rescue proposal. In an interview, Mr. McGee denied any involvement and suggested Matt Gaetz was conflating the matter inappropriately with his own potential criminal liability.

“He’s trying to distract attention from a pending tidal wave that is about to sink his ship,” Mr. McGee said.

Oh, what tangled webs we weave...

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Matt Gaetz seems to have hit a snag

And it couldn't happen to a more deserving asshat. This dropped a couple days ago...

U.S. Congressman Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., has spent so much time making cable TV appearances that he had a TV studio installed at his father’s house in the Florida Panhandle.

TV appearances are so appealing to Gaetz that he’s reportedly considering quitting Congress for a gig with Newsmax, the Boca Raton-based media outlet that’s trying to build viewership among former President Donald Trump’s fan base.

  South Florida Sun-Sentinel

So many Trumpist congress critters are nothing more than blowhards doing nothing more than blowing hard. They all need to quit congress and stick to Trumpy TV. But I'm wondering, could this news that dropped yesterday have anything to do with Matt's decision making...

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) defended himself after news broke on Tuesday of a Department of Justice (DOJ) probe reportedly investigating whether the lawmaker had sexual relations with a teenager, claiming he was the victim of “an organized criminal extortion” involving a former DOJ official.

“Over the past several weeks my family and I have been victims of an organized criminal extortion involving a former DOJ official seeking $25 million while threatening to smear my name,” Gaetz said in a series of tweets on Tuesday.

“We have been cooperating with federal authorities in this matter and my father has even been wearing a wire at the FBI’s direction to catch these criminals. The planted leak to the FBI tonight was intended to thwart that investigation,” he wrote.

  The Hill

Oh, way to get your father killed! (If there really is an organized criminal element involved.)

The Florida congressman also called on the DOJ to “immediately release the tapes, made at their direction, which implicate their former colleague in crimes against me based on false allegations.”

Whatever, Matt.

According to The New York Times, the DOJ probe is investigating whether the Florida lawmaker had sexual relations with a teenager. The probe, which reportedly launched during the last months of the Trump administration, is also looking at whether the congressman violated federal sex trafficking laws by allegedly paying for the girl to travel with him.

The girl is reportedly 17 years old.

[...]

The probe is reportedly part of a larger investigation into Joel Greenberg, a former local Florida tax collector and an ally of Gaetz who is facing charges of sex trafficking a child and payment to at least one female minor for sex. Greenberg has reportedly pleaded not guilty to the charges.

[...]

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) has called for Gaetz to be suspended from the House Judiciary Committee, on which they both serve, pending the outcome of the probe.

“He should not be sitting on a Congressional Committee with oversight over the DOJ while the Department is investigating him,” Lieu tweeted on Tuesday shortly after the Times published its report.

Indeed he should not. And, by the way, 17 is about the proper stage of maturity for Matt Gaetz. Although 13 would be closer.Even Tucker Carlson is backing away from Gaetz. (Which makes me wonder, not for the first time, what sex scandal of his own Tucker Carlson is eager to keep under wraps.)

“If you just saw our Matt Gaetz interview, that was one of the weirdest interviews I have ever conducted,” Carlson said to his viewers after the segment on his Fox News show “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”

[...]

[Gaetz] denied the allegations but confirmed that he was under investigation.

Gaetz said that the accusations were part of an “extortion effort against my family for $25 million ... in exchange for making this case go away.”

[...]

“They even claimed to have specific connections inside the Biden White House,” he added. “Now, I don’t know if that’s true. They were promising that Joe Biden would pardon me. Obviously, I don’t need a pardon. I’m not seeking a pardon. I have not done anything improper or wrong.”

  

Matt Gaetz would be a defense attorney's nightmare.

And what an obvious bogus claim about the Biden White House. Pathetic.

“You would think that he would be wanting to work with the FBI and you would think he would want to keep this quiet,” Katie Benner, who covers the Justice Department for the Times, said in an appearance on “The Rachel Maddow Show.”

“So you have to put this all into context and say that in doing this and basically blowing up an FBI investigation into people trying to extort his family, you know, he has both complicated that investigation and also cast aspersions on something that was serious enough that Attorney General [William] Barr approved it," Benner added.

[...]

“But what I am troubled by is the real motivation for all of this,” Gaetz said to Carlson. “You know, just tonight, Ted Lieu, a Democrat, was calling on me to be removed from the House Judiciary Committee. I believe we are in an era of our politics now, Tucker, where people are smeared to try to take them out of the conversation.”

"Cancel culture"?

Gaetz told Carlson there have been similar attempts to use law enforcement to intimidate him, something he said the host should be aware of since it came up while Carlson and Gaetz were at dinner together once.

“I can say that actually, you and I went to dinner about two years ago, your wife was there, and I brought a friend of mine, you will remember her,” Gaetz said. “And she was actually threatened by the FBI, told that if she wouldn’t cop to the fact that somehow I was involved in some pay-for-play scheme that she could face trouble. And so I do believe that there are people at the Department of Justice who are trying to smear me.”

Carlson said he had no recollection of that event.

Which liar do you believe? It's so hard to choose.

“That story just appeared in the news a couple of hours ago, and on the certainty that there is always more than you read in the newspaper, we immediately called Matt Gaetz and asked him to come on and tell us more, which, as you saw, he did,” Carlson said about the interview. “I don’t think that clarified much, but it certainly showed this is a deeply interesting story, and we will be following it. Don’t quite understand it, but we will bring you more when we find out

Or not.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE: Further details on the interview...

In the interview, Gaetz detailed how his father was texted by someone asking for “$25 million in exchange for making horrible sex trafficking allegations against me go away” and how the FBI asked his dad to wear a wire.

Then, as Carlson looked intently into the camera, Gaetz dramatically called on the FBI to share the resulting tapes.

“Tonight, I am demanding that the Department of Justice and the FBI release the audio recordings that were made under their supervision and at their direction, which will prove my innocence,” Gaetz said.

Before Carlson could ask a follow-up question about the tapes, Gaetz said the publication of a New York Times story revealing the investigation was purposely timed to ruin an imminent sting operation and provide cover for the extortionist.

“And this former Department of Justice official tomorrow was supposed to be contacted by my father so that specific instructions could be given regarding the wiring of $4.5 million as a down payment on this bribe,” Gaetz said. “I don't think it's a coincidence that tonight, somehow The New York Times is leaking this information smearing me and ruining the investigation that would likely result in one of the former colleagues of the current DOJ being brought to justice.”

Later in the interview, Gaetz referenced a slightly different time for the supposed sting, mentioning “money that was supposed to be paid today.”

[...]

Carlson remained pokerfaced as the Florida congressman seemed to try to appeal to him by raising what Gaetz characterized as similar accusations faced by the Fox News anchor.

“I'm not the only person on screen right now who has been falsely accused of a terrible sex act,” Gaetz said. “You were accused of something that you did not do. And so you know what this feels like, you know, the pain it can bring to your family.”

Gaetz did not specify what allegations he meant. But while assuming an off-hand manner, Carlson replied that the congressman must have meant “a mentally ill viewer who accused me of a sex crime 20 years ago. And it, of course it was not true. I'd never met the person. But I do agree with you that being accused falsely is one of the worst things that can happen. And you do see it a lot.”[*]

The incident Carlson mentioned likely occurred after he joined Fox as a contributor in 2009. It was something he detailed in a 2017 episode of his Fox News show, when he discussed being falsely accused of felony rape by a certified public accountant in Indiana who he “had literally never even seen.”

  The Hill

Both Don [Matt's father] and Matt Gaetz have accused former federal prosecutor David McGee of being behind the alleged plot. McGee, who is now a lawyer at Florida-based firm Beggs & Lane, told the Daily Beast in an interview on Tuesday that the claims were “completely, totally false.”

“The FBI asked me to try and get that information for Matt and an indication we would transfer money to Mr. David McGee,” Don Gaetz told Politico. He didn't say what information he was intended to get for his son.

Don Gaetz also told Politico that he wore a wire during a meeting earlier this month with McGee, and was going to meet with Stephen Alford, who he also claimed was part of the effort.

The elder Gaetz said that he was trying to get Alford to discuss payments he was making to McGee, but the meeting fell apart when the Justice Department's investigation into Matt Gaetz was reported in the press.

  The Hill

Hey, Trumpers, I thought it was supposed to be Democrats who were child sex traffickers. WTF?

*

UPDATE:

Does he not even have an attorney?  Is it Rudy?  Or is he just ignoring a good one's advice to STFU?

UPDATE:

UPDATE:

UPDATE:  How it began...

The Justice Department is investigating allegations that Gaetz had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl and paid for her to travel across state lines, The Washington Post reported Tuesday. Gaetz confirmed the inquiry in an interview with Axios, but has said the allegations are an attempt to extort his family. The FBI is separately investigating the extortion claim, The Post reported.

[...]

[L]ast June [...] federal investigators arrested [ex-GOP official Joel Greenberg] on stalking and child sex trafficking charges, prompting his resignation.

[...]

It’s unclear exactly how Greenberg’s criminal case is connected to the Gaetz investigation; Greenberg’s lawyers did not immediately respond to messages from The Post. But it is clear that the two men, who posed for a photo together outside the White House in 2019, had ties in Florida, where they both first gained power in the GOP around 2016.

[...]

Greenberg made headlines [shortly after being elected Seminole County tax collector] as he pushed for his deputy tax collectors to be allowed to carry guns to work — a move opposed by then-attorney general Pam Bondi (R). He began wearing his tax collector badge around his neck like a police official, and in December 2017, flashed the badge to pull over a woman and accuse her of speeding, WESH reported. A month later, he used his title while trying to sway an actual police officer who stopped him for driving 39 mph in a 25 mph zone.

[...]

Greenberg also navigated a political quagmire after the Orlando Sentinel reported he had inappropriately funneled $3.5 million of taxpayer dollars to his friends, including three men who were in his wedding party.

An independent audit conducted for the county also found he had used public funds to buy body armor, weapons, ammunition and a drone. He also purchased a $90,000 server room to benefit a cryptocurrency company he created. Those servers overloaded a circuit breaker inside a county building, sparking a fire that caused $6,700 in damages that weren’t covered by insurance, the audit said.

  WaPo

You can't say the man wasn't bold.

On June 23, federal officers raided his home in Heathrow, Fla., and arrested the tax collector on charges that he had stalked a political adversary. He resigned the next day.

The federal investigators said Greenberg had posed as a “very concerned student” in anonymous letters sent to the school where the political rival worked as a teacher. The letters accused the teacher of having inappropriate sexual contact with a student. The tax collector also created impostor Facebook and Twitter accounts made to look like they belonged to the teacher and wrote posts that portrayed his adversary as a “segregationist and in favor of white supremacy,” the indictment said. (Greenberg himself had a documented history of posting anti-Muslim rhetoric, as Orlando Weekly reported in 2018.)

In August, federal investigators added charges that Greenberg had used his government position to commit identity theft and accused him of sex trafficking a child.

He was a busy man.

Greenberg was released on bond to await his trial, but was taken into custody again in early March after he violated the conditions of his pretrial release by leaving his home after curfew to search for his wife, who told police she had left to “take a break from the stressful situation with Joel.”

[...]

Until last year, Joel Greenberg was an ascendant political player in Seminole County, Fla. [...] and flaunted his connections to prominent Republicans with close ties to then-President Donald Trump, including Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and Roger Stone.

And Roger Stone. That name turns up in all the depraved scandals.

UPDATE: