A case of Trump in the Epstein files

 And how did Bondi's people let this one get by?

The whole GOP barrel is rotten

Valdez also served as the chair of the Anchorage Young Republicans since January 2025.

  Alaska Beacon

Now do Trump and his administration.

 

Release the Epstein files

 I missed this slime sucking goat in the early stories.

[Jean-Luc Brunel ...] was a French model scout.

[...]

Brunel came under scrutiny for his ties to Epstein, with whom he worked from the early 2000s to 2015.[4] Brunel was accused of grooming young females and of taking part in an alleged sex trafficking operation involving Epstein.[5] In 2019, the French National Police launched an investigation on Brunel after he went into hiding following Epstein's death.[5] He was arrested on 16 December 2020, and French prosecutors charged him with the rape of minors;[6] however, he hanged himself in his cell before his trial could proceed.[7]

[...]

Brunel sued Epstein in 2015, claiming that he and MC2 had "lost multiple contacts and business in the modelling business as a result of Epstein's illegal actions".[4][21] He also alleged that Epstein had obstructed justice by directing Brunel to avoid having his deposition taken in the criminal case against Epstein by the Palm Beach Police Department.[21] The lawsuit was later dismissed.[3] In 2019, it was revealed that Brunel was among those named in court documents from a civil suit by Virginia Giuffre against Ghislaine Maxwell. The documents were unsealed on 9 August 2019, a day before Epstein's death.[22][23] Giuffre alleged that she was sexually trafficked by Epstein and Maxwell to several high-profile individuals, including Brunel, while she was underage in the early 2000s.[24] Brunel was last seen in public at the Paris Country Club on 5 July 2019.[25]

Following Epstein's death in August 2019, Brunel went into hiding; shortly thereafter, the French National Police launched an investigation into him.[5] In September 2019, his Paris home and offices were searched by investigators as part of a probe into sex trafficking by Epstein.[26] On 16 December 2020, Brunel was intercepted by police at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, as he was about to board a flight to Dakar, Senegal. He was held in custody in La Santé prison for questioning in relation to rape, sexual assault, criminal conspiracy, and human trafficking, with all of the allegations involving minors.[27][6] On 29 June 2021, Brunel was charged with drugging and raping a 17-year-old girl in the 1990s. Brunel said he was innocent.[28] On 19 February 2022, Brunel was found dead in his jail cell, after hanging himself.[29][30][31] He had attempted suicide several times before his death.[32]

  Wikipedia

Hmmmmm. Sounds very familiar. Except Jeffrey Epstein had reportedly only attempted suicide once before while in jail.

Where did Epstein get his money?

A few days ago, as the Jeffrey Epstein scandal gripped Washington, Senator Ron Wyden offered a striking revelation in an interview with The New York Times. The Oregon Democrat said that his investigators had discovered that four big banks had flagged to the Treasury Department $1.5 billion in potentially suspicious money transfers involving Epstein, much of which appeared to be related to his massive sex-trafficking network.

[...]

Wyden’s office just sent a new letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi—which The New Republic obtained—suggesting seven potent lines of inquiry that the Justice Department could follow, right now, to dig more deeply into Epstein’s web of financial relations with global elites.

  New Republic

That went straight to the shredder.

“I am convinced that the DOJ ignored evidence found in the U.S. Treasury Department’s Epstein file, a binder that contains extensive details on the mountains of cash Epstein received from prominent businessmen that Epstein used to finance his criminal network,” Wyden writes in the letter.

The Treasury Department has this information because that’s where banks file suspicious activity reports, or SARS. Wyden’s letter says his staff has documented that Epstein-related filings by banks contain “information on more than 4,725 wire transfers involving Epstein’s accounts, all of which merit further investigation.”

[...]

Wyden’s move here is in some ways a trolling exercise, since DOJ won’t act on it. But such trolling by lawmakers can be constructive if it communicates new information to the public or highlights the failure of others in power to exercise oversight and impose accountability. Wyden’s letter does both.

[...]

Wyden’s investigators know of these records because his office has been examining Epstein’s financial transactions for several years. In February 2024—when Democrats controlled the Senate—Wyden’s staff viewed in camera (that is, privately) thousands of pages of Treasury files documenting those transactions.

Epstein clearly had access to enormous financing to operate his sex trafficking network, and the details on how he got the cash to pay for it are sitting in a Treasury Department filing cabinet.

[...]

Wyden’s letter also lays out other lines of inquiry for DOJ, urging examination of a number of specific payments to Epstein by several wealthy financiers that his investigators discovered.

[...]

In an intriguing move, Wyden also presses DOJ to examine “hundreds of millions of dollars in wire transfers” discovered by his investigators that passed through “several now-sanctioned Russian banks.” The latter adds suggestively: “It appears that these wire transfers were correlated to the movement of women or girls around the world.”

[...]

Right now the White House insists that [Trump] personally favors transparency on the Epstein files but is letting Bondi, DOJ, and the FBI decide how to proceed.

Yah, sure.

The in-camera review by Wyden staffers of Treasury documents in February 2024 itself shows that Wyden sought this info from the Biden administration—and that he got access to it.

What’s more, a Wyden aide tells me that in 2024, soon after Wyden’s staff viewed these Treasury documents in camera, Wyden actively moved to get the Senate to subpoena their release. Because Finance Committee rules require bipartisan support for subpoenas, Wyden sought the backing of several GOP senators on the committee, including now-chairman Mike Crapo and Marsha Blackburn. But none would support a subpoena, the aide says.

Imagine that.

Here's a little background from January 2024...

The first batch of court documents naming numerous figures tied to Jeffrey Epstein was released Wednesday, as part of New York Southern District Judge Loretta Preska's December order unsealing filings in a prior defamation case against Epstein's accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell. But word about the banking community's ties with Epstein has been trickling out for more than two years.

Executives at JPMorgan Chase, Deutsche Bank and Barclays have faced considerable blowback from federal regulators after the organizations continued to keep Epstein on as a client for years after he was was convicted in 2008 of procuring a child for prostitution and of soliciting a prostitute.

[...]

Barclays Chief Executive Officer Jes Staley is stepping down amid a U.K. regulatory probe into how he characterized his past ties to [...] Epstein.

Staley, 64, is leaving immediately.

[...]

Before the announcement, regulators told Barclays the preliminary findings of a two-year investigation into how Staley explained his long-running relationship with Epstein to the bank. "In view of those conclusions, and Mr. Staley's intention to contest them, the board and Mr. Staley have agreed that he will step down from his role as group chief executive and as a director of Barclays," the lender said in a statement. "The board is disappointed at this outcome." The findings have not yet been made public.

[...]

Jeffrey Epstein was accused and convicted of sex trafficking over a period of years. After he was convicted, and despite the bank's knowledge of his chronic and criminal behavior, Epstein became a client at Deutsche Bank. And then, after he became a client, Epstein tripped multiple red flags during his five-year relationship with the bank.

  American Banker

Deutsche Bank was backing Epstein's friend, Donald Trump, too. Those dealings were frought with suspected money laundering deals.

Epstein is referred to in the [July 2020 New York State Department of Financial Services order] as "a wealthy financier with hundreds of millions of dollars in assets and an extensive network of friends and connections that included prominent financial institutions, politicians, royalty, and billionaires."

[...]

The U.S. Virgin Islands is suing JPMorgan Chase for "turning a blind eye" to former client Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking on his private island there.

U.S. Virgin Islands Attorney General Denise George said her suit filed in late December 2022 in Manhattan federal court was part of an "ongoing effort" to hold accountable those who facilitated Epstein's activities. Epstein brought many of his victims to his villa on Little St. James, the private island he owned.

"Human trafficking was the principal business of the accounts Epstein maintained at JPMorgan," the complaint states.

[...]

According to the suit, JPMorgan concealed "wire and cash transactions that raised suspicion of a criminal enterprise whose currency was the sexual servitude" of women and girls in the Virgin Islands.

Bring them home

The best people.

 

UPDATE 02/28/2025:

Gaetz gets hit again

Until now, there were signs the alleged sex-trafficking victim was not cooperating with federal authorities. In August, prior to Greenberg’s sex-trafficking indictment, Greenberg said in a WhatsApp chat with another friend that he was paying for her attorney at the time and that she was resistant to cooperating with investigators.

Gaetz’s former girlfriend has played a bit role in the unfolding public drama — she is the woman who sent the lawmaker a nude video of her performing a hula hoop dance that he showed to other members of Congress.

[...]

Gaetz was criticized for allegedly showing the hula hoop video to congressional colleagues, and he was also accused of engaging in revenge porn against his former girlfriend. But two of her friends say the woman, in her early 20s, did not object to him showing it to friends — provided he didn’t send it to others or post it on social media — because she was proud of her appearance and performance.

“This is the best I will ever look in my life,” a friend who saw the video recalled her saying. “That’s how she is. It’s not revenge porn.”

[...]

[T]wo of her friends, who declined to be identified publicly because of the sensational nature of the case, say she now suspects she was being set up when the alleged victim and another woman involved in the case called her to discuss the lawmaker in what she fears might have been a recorded conference call.

[...]

The three women on the call were all present on a September 2018 trip to the Bahamas that authorities think may shed light on the allegations against Gaetz. Also present on that trip: Gaetz and two other Florida Republican political players, former Orlando-area aviation authority member and Gov. Ron DeSantis fundraiser Jason Pirozzolo and former state Rep. Halsey Beshears.

[...]

As the investigation intensified this winter, Beshears abruptly resigned in January as Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation Secretary — a post that made him the state’s top business regulator — noting he had contracted Covid-19.

[...]

Gaetz and the ex-girlfriend continued to date until well after the Bahamas trip in 2018. Friends said the two remained on good terms, although she was a source of friction between the lawmaker and Beshears. Beshears had apparently been taking her out on dates in Tallahassee.

  Politico

I don't think "girlfriend" is the right descriptor for this woman.

At the time, Beshears had recently been left by another girlfriend after she learned about the Bahamas trip. Beshears, then a state legislator, had flown several of the women on his private plane, which was briefly detained by U.S. Customs upon its return to Florida for questioning about the ages of several of the young women on the trip.

“Here was Halsey with three young women who could have been his daughters, and a Customs agent was like, ‘Whoa, what’s going on here?‘” said a source who was familiar with the incident.

[...]

The alleged victim in the sex-trafficking case had turned 18 almost nine months before the Bahamas trip. But Gaetz has acknowledged he’s the subject of a federal investigation into whether he had improper involvement with her as a 17-year-old.

A source familiar with the investigation wouldn’t say whether the alleged victim was cooperating with authorities. But when asked if she has been talking for months with the federal government, the source said “100 percent.”

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

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:

Amongst his other crimes...

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

Trump's criminals: George Nader update

The Justice Department on Tuesday announced it had indicted eight men for conspiring to illegally funnel $3.5 million to political committees supporting Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential bid. Prosecutors say the money came from George Nader—a businessman who was was recently charged with trafficking a child for sexual purposes. Nader was a key figure in the Trump-Russia scandal. According to special counsel Robert Mueller, he helped arrange meetings between Trump advisers and Russian emissaries.

  Mother Jones

Sounds like he played both sides.

The charges paint a picture of an effort by Nader to gain influence with Clinton’s supporters, and to hedge his bets by cultivating Trump’s team—all while reporting back to unnamed foreign masters. According to the indictment, in a July 19, 2016, WhatsApp message to an unidentified foreign official, Nader said he was “developing a steady, consistent and constructive relationship with both camps!” After Trump’s electoral victory, Nader appears to have hustled to ingratiate himself with the incoming administration.

[...]

But this week’s indictment leaves a key question unanswered: Was Nader also the source of a $1 million donation from one of the defendants to Donald Trump’s inaugural committee?

[...]

According to the indictment, Nader conspired with Andy Khawaja, the CEO of an embattled online payment processing company, in a plot to provide massive campaign donations to Democratic groups. Khawaja allegedly made the contributions in his own name and through his wife and his company, and was then reimbursed by Nader.

[...]

While arranging the payments to Democratic groups, Nader “reported to an official from a foreign government about his efforts to gain influence,” prosecutors said in a statement Tuesday. They didn’t name that government. According to the Mueller report, Nader “worked for the United Arab Emirates royal court” in 2016. The report described Nader’s efforts during the presidential transition period to help the UAE set up meetings between the Trump team and Russia.

[...]

According to emails obtained by Mother Jones, Khawaja brought Nader as his guest to [Trump's] inauguration. In a form apparently sent to the inaugural committee, Khawaja described Nader as an “advisor” to [Khawaja's company] Allied Wallet.

In interviews and electronic messages prior to his indictment, Khawaja denied that Nader was his guest at the inauguration or an adviser to Allied Wallet. Any email suggesting this, he said, “is inaccurate. It’s bullshit. It’s fabricated.”

Tuesday’s indictment contradicted this denial, alleging that Nader had indeed attended the inauguration as Khawaja’s guest. Prosecutors also charged Khawaja with obstructing the investigation.

[...]

Khawaja says Nader had nothing to do with it. “Nader did not give me money for [the] inauguration,” he told Mother Jones Thursday. He also disputed the charges in the indictment. “Nader never gave me any money to give to [Hillary Clinton],” he said, asserting that Nader had instead simply done business with his company.

“Nader was a Trump supporter and never cared about Hillary or her campaign,” said Khawaja. “This is a hit job to make Democrats look bad.”

[...]

[Nader's] attendance at the inauguration came as part of an effort in which he developed relationships with Steve Bannon, Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, GOP fundraiser Elliott Broidy, and Erik Prince, the Blackwater founder and brother of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

The indictment also detailed WhatsApp messages in which Khawaja and Nader allegedly discussed plans for Nader to reimburse Khawaja for his donations, in part through allegedly fake invoices Khawaja sent Nader.

[...]

When Khawaja pressed Nader in early July 2016 about the status of a reimbursement, Nader responded, “I shall pursue it vigorously!” Nader also told Khawaja that he was conferring with someone he called “HH.”

[...]

According to the Mueller report and other public sources, Nader in 2016 was in direct contact with Mohammed bin Zayed, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi and the effective ruler of the UAE. Bin Zayed, known as MBZ, is referred to by many Emirates as “High Highness.” Press officials at the Emirati embassy in Washington, DC, did not respond to questions about whether the UAE is the unidentified foreign government referenced in the indictment.

[...]

Khawaja’s indictment makes him the second major Trump inaugural donor to be charged with illegally funneling earlier political donations to Democrats. In October, Imaad Zuberi, a California businessman who gave $900,000 to Trump’s inaugural committee, agreed to plead guilty in connection with a nearly 10-year scheme in which he solicited money from foreign people and firms to donate to US political campaigns on the foreigners’ behalf.

[...]

[T]he statute that prohibits making a contribution in the name of another person to a political campaign does not apply to inaugural committees. Thirteen of the charges in Tuesday’s indictment relate to violations of that law.

[...]

The charges against Khawaja and Nader come amid other legal problems for both men. Nader, who was convicted in the Czech Republic in 2003 of sexually abusing minors, was arrested in June in New York. He remains jailed on charges that include child pornography and transporting a 14-year-old child for sexual activity. On Monday, six attorneys representing Nader in that case filed motions to withdraw as his counsel.

[...]

In May, Khawaja and his firm agreed to pay the Federal Trade Commission $110 million to settle charges that the company knowingly processed payments for online firms—including sketchy debt collection and pornography outfits—that were engaged in fraud.

[...]

Khawaja, who did not respond to questions about this probe, told Mother Jones in October that he had retained a high-powered legal team that includes former FBI director Louis Freeh [...] Robert Shapiro and Alan Dershowitz. Dershowitz, a prominent defender of Trump, said Tuesday that he cannot comment on who he represents. Freeh and Shapiro did not respond to inquires.

Khawaja has said he has been traveling abroad for the past few months. In message sent Thursday, he said that he is in China but plans to return to the US to “deal with these fake accusations.” In a phone call in October, speaking from what he said was Tokyo, he was defiant. He argued that the allegations against him were manufactured by unnamed Republican operatives worried about his support for Joe Biden’s presidential campaign. Khawaja said his lawyers will “come down on” his critics “like the hand of God.” “Tell them Andy is not gonna stop supporting Democrats,” he said. “He’s not gonna stop supporting Joe Biden. And let them go fuck themselves.”

Yeah, he's not coming back to the US.

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

Passed into the fog of forgetfulness

We have so much corruption and crime thrown in our faces on a daily basis that we can't hold it all.

Uh-oh - those men in high places aren't off the hook yet

Perhaps this is what had Trump posting Clinton murder conspiracy tweets about Epstein:

Kudos to the Houston Chronicle editors

At a rally Wednesday, after indulging in an extended, falsehood-filled rant against Omar, Trump basked with approving silence at the crowd’s raucous chanting — “Send her back! Send her back!” — only to later say he didn’t agree with the statement.

At one point during the week, [President] Trump tweeted: “This is about love for America.”

We beg to differ.

To love America is to love that it was born to stand against ancient notions of people’s coercive loyalty and allegiance to power. Obedience and compliance are the stuff of totalitarian regimes — not of the Declaration of Independence, which states: “it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish” any government that has become destructive.

[...]

Our country and our ‘leaders’ are getting dumber all the time.

The world is laughing at us. We’re like a bunch of patsies.

Our country is in serious trouble; we don’t have victories anymore.

Clearly, the above statements, on their face, are not pro-American. But are they anti-American?

The answer for too many of us depends on who is doing the speaking.

It was President Donald J. Trump who uttered those comments, and his supporters would say he did so with an intent to make America better.

[...]

His own inauguration speech was a dystopian vision of “American carnage” and “rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones.”

  Houston Chronicle

Yes. As others have pointed out, it's ironic that someone wearing a MAGA hat would insist people who are unhappy with the country should leave it. But then, someone wearing a MAGA hat probably doesn't understand irony.

They might assign a different intent altogether if the speaker were someone else — someone such as U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, whose birthplace of Somalia, Arabic name, head scarf and skin color have led some to question her American bona fides. Even though she’s a duly elected congresswoman. Even though she swore an oath to uphold the Constitution. Even though she’s an American citizen who came here as a child refugee.

[...]

What makes a true American?

Is it someone who blindly supports the current occupant of the White House — right or wrong? And if so, how many of us would truly meet that standard — either now or during President Obama’s administration? Or is it someone who believes as Carl Schurz, a German-born U.S. senator said in 1871: “My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.”?

The latter, of course. And that's what all the MAGA voters were saying (MAGA) before Trump suggested four dark-skinned Congresswomen should get out of the country (ignorantly saying they should go back to their "own" countries, when three of the four were born in America).

Americans have always debated this question, and politicians have always exploited it. During McCarthy’s communist witch hunts, during Vietnam, and now.

Not to mention, during the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Other Republicans parroted [Trump's] derision [of their fellow Congress members], and only four out of 191 in the U.S. House — among them, Texas’ Rep. Will Hurd of Helotes — voted to condemn it.

[...]

The oath of citizenship doesn’t require a vow of silence; new citizens pledge to “support and defend the Constitution,” which protects dissent.

[...]

True love of country is expansive, encompassing both pride in America’s exceptionalism and obligation to speak out against her failings.

[...]

Over its 243-year history, our country has often been prodded onto a better path by those who raised their voices against injustice — from the founding fathers who sloughed off the yoke of monarchy to the abolitionists who worked to dismantle slavery, from suffragettes who fought for a woman’s right to vote to Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders (also branded as anti-American at the time) who marched for equality.

Trump, who also told black athlete Colin Kaepernick to “find another country” after he protested police brutality, parades in the mantle of American iconography -- claiming he is defending the anthem, the flag, the Fourth of July — while he tramples the values those symbols represent.

[...]

As Americans, born here or journeyed here, it is our highest calling to work to “form a more perfect union,” to speak truth to power through votes and words. It is our duty to push back against despotism and those who would seek to divide us — especially if the divider resides in the White House.

UPDATE: Also, this president often remarks that we don't want criminal elements coming into this country, usually specified as rapists and sex traffickers. He's been credibly accused of rape by more than one woman, and he has a history of association with Jeffrey Epstein, a man who escaped justice over a decade ago and about to be tried again in another state for sex trafficking.



UPDATE:







I'm sensing a pattern.

UPDATE:





UPDATE:

Unpacking the Epstein charges

Renato Mariotti and Mimi Rocca enlighten us about the facts and the possibilities around the outrageous deal Alex Acosta made for Jeffrey Epstein and just how extraordinary the entire situation is.

Listen here.

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

Questions for Alex Acosta

From Ken White, defense attorney and former US prosecutor.





 [...]



 [...]






 [...]

Regarding Alex Acosta

President Donald Trump came out with Acosta at the White House at 9:34 a.m. and said Acosta called him that morning to say he’s resigning. Though Acosta spent nearly an hour Wednesday defending his handling of Epstein’s South Florida case in 2007 and 2008, Trump said the decision to resign was Acosta’s.

[...]

He said Acosta “graciously tendered his resignation.”

  Miami Herald

"Resign or be fired. Your choice."

Acosta, during a question-and-answer session with reporters, declined to apologize to Epstein’s victims and said he had, in fact, ensured they weren’t re-victimized during what would have been a contentious trial.

Oh, right. He didn't even TELL the victims he was making a deal with Epstein. They weren't given a chance to say whether they wanted to give evidence at a trial.

During his four-year tenure, the U.S. Attorney’s Office prosecuted major figures in drug trafficking, terrorism and fraud cases such as al Qaida-trained terrorist Jose Padilla, GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff, Liberian torturer Chuckie Taylor Jr., and Colombian cocaine kingpins Miguel and Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela.

His office also prosecuted hundreds of healthcare, banking and mortgage fraud offenders involved in billions of dollars of scams, including prominent Swiss bank UBS for establishing secret offshore bank accounts for U.S. clients to avoid paying federal income taxes.

Acosta also touted his office’s prosecutions of sex trafficking and sex tourism cases involving minors, as well as internet child pornography cases.

Well, except for that ONE.

Bradley Edwards, an attorney who represents some of Epstein’s accusers, said the resignation Friday does not answer all of the questions that he and his clients have for the former prosecutor.

“We want to sit down with him and have him talk to us and explain why he did what he did,” Edwards said, adding “what we really want to know is if there was somebody above him that ordered that victims not be notified. Was there someone else involved in scuttling the case?”

I'm sorry. Mr. Acosta had to leave the country on a family emergency.

In her year-long investigation of Palm Beach multimillionaire Jeffrey Epstein, Miami Herald reporter Julie Brown tracked down more than 60 women who said they were victims of abuse and revealed the full story behind the sweetheart deal cut by Epstein’s powerhouse legal team.

Since the Herald published ‘Perversion of Justice’ in November 2018, a federal judge ruled the non-prosecution agreement brokered by then South Florida U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta was illegal, and last week Epstein was arrested on sex trafficking charges in New York state. And on July 12, Acosta resigned as U.S. Secretary of Labor. Investigative journalism makes a difference. Your support makes it possible.

[...]

Over the last week, even as Acosta argued that he’d successfully forced Epstein to register as a sex offender and pay damages to dozens of girls, at least two congressional committees called on him to appear before them to explain Epstein’s plea deal.

[...]

Acosta’s handling of Epstein’s plea agreement also remains the subject of an ongoing Department of Justice review. Trump, while defending Acosta Tuesday at the White House, seemed to allude to the review when he noted “we’re going to look at it very carefully.”

[...]

U. S. Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, D-Miami, said it was clear Acosta had to resign once a Miami judge ruled in February that his office had violated a federal law protecting victims’ rights when it kept Epstein’s plea deal secret from his accusers. “It was inconceivable that he continued in his post, such a high level post."

[...]

“There’s a lot of arrogance around the men surrounding the president and his appointees,” she said. “They think they can get away with it but we are still living in the United States of America where no one is above the law [...] .”

Tell that to Nancy Pelosi.

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

UPDATE:



Dear god.

UPDATE:

Interesting article about Acosta claiming he was becoming persona non grata in the adminstration anyway, because he wasn't pushing deregulation fast enough

UPDATE:







I sense a pattern.

Too hot in the kitchen

Sure, that's the way that happened.



And isn't it handy that it gives His Lardship yet another "acting" cabinet secretary?



Which is no doubt what they're trying for, and with Barr at the helm, they probably have assurances that it will.

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