Wednesday 31 March 2021

GaetzGate

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GaetzGate

Congress' Trumpiest Republican, Florida's Matt Gaetz, is allegedly under investigation by the FBI for having had sex with a teenage girl.

John Aravosis

Mar 31

It couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.

Last night, the news broke from multiple news outlets that Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz — a top Trump ally — was under investigation by the FBI for an alleged sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl. Gaetz denies all of this — we’ll get to that in a moment.

Gaetz, you’ll recall, announced last summer that he has a son — even though he legally doesn’t. It’s a weird story, that got a bit wilder once I read up on these latest allegations. Let me explain.

Gaetz says that seven years ago he was dating a woman in Florida whose younger 12-year-old brother, Nestor, had just arrived from Cuba. The kids’ mother had just died, and the boy moved to Florida to live with his sister. As the sister was dating Gaetz at the time, Nestor moved in with them, and stayed even after his sister broke up with Gaetz. Nestor is now approximately 20-years-old. Last summer, Gaetz publicly revealed Nestor’s existence, and referred to Nestor as his “son,” even though Gaetz has not adopted the young man.

Fast forward to the final months of the Trump administration. Trump’s Justice Department approves an investigation into Gaetz’s alleged relationship with a 17-year-old girl two years ago. Around the same time, Gaetz proposes to a woman, Ginger Luckey, at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club.

Adding to his woes, in 2017, Gaetz was the sole “no” vote — in the entire Congress — against an anti-human-trafficking bill:

Gaetz cast the lone "no" vote on a widely bipartisan human trafficking bill that passed unanimously through the U.S. Senate in September before sailing through the House by a count of 418 to 1.
The legislation — the Combating Human Trafficking in Commercial Vehicles Act — is an attempt to give the federal government more resources to combat the sex trade in the U.S., such as a human trafficking prevention coordinator at the U.S. Department of Transportation and a committee in the department to help develop best practices to fight human trafficking.

Fast forward to yesterday (Tuesday) morning. Axios gets the scoop that Gaetz is considering retiring early, and taking a job at the far-right Web site Newsmax. At this point, the news is not yet public that the FBI may be investigating Gaetz. A few hours later, the New York Times reports that Gaetz “is being investigated by the Justice Department over whether he had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old and paid for her to travel with him.”

That gets us to Tuesday evening, when Gaetz tells Axios that he’s actually the victim of an extortion scheme, and that’s why the FBI was involved — because Gaetz and his father were working with the FBI to catch the extortionist!

"The allegations of sexual misconduct against me are false. They are rooted in an extortion effort against my family for $25 million … in exchange for making this case go away."

More from a Gaetz statement issued that same evening:

"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 New York Times tonight was intended to thwart that investigation. No part of the allegations against me are true, and the people pushing these lies are targets of the ongoing extortion investigation. I demand the DOJ immediately release the tapes, made at their direction, which implicate their former colleague in crimes against me based on false allegations.

Also Tuesday evening, Gaetz goes on Tucker Carlson’s show on Fox News. In an incredible, and bizarre, interview, Gaetz first reminds Fox viewers that Tucker was himself implicated in a sexual misconduct scandal:

Sawyer Hackett @SawyerHackett

When you land a softball interview to address negative press and end up reminding the host’s 4 million viewers that he himself was accused of sexual misconduct

Things got even spicier when Gaetz appeared to draft Tucker into the whole affair:

Aaron Rupar @atrupar

Gaetz again bizarrely implicates Tucker Carlson in his own personal peccadillo, then says, "providing for flights and hotel rooms for people that you're dating who are of legal age is not a crime"

Gaetz then says that someone is claiming there are pictures of Gaetz with child prostitutes — hoo boy:

Aaron Rupar @atrupar

Gaetz mentions that someone has alleged there's photos of him with child prostitutes. He claims such pictures don't exist.

Some in the media are casting doubt on Gaetz’s extortion claim. But regardless, being the victim of an extortion plot doesn’t preclude you from also having had sex with a minor. It could work something like this:

Extortionist tells you they have evidence you had sex with a minor, and they want $1 million to keep it quiet.
You tell FBI about the extortion, they investigate.
FBI finds evidence that you did have sex with a minor.
FBI now investigates you and extortion.

Thus, both cold be true: Gaetz could have been blackmailed, and he could still be under investigation for sex with a minor.

Republicans in Congress have just weighed in, saying they’ll take Gaetz’s committee seats away from him if he did in fact have a sexual relationship with a minor while serving in Congress.

The Hill @thehill

WATCH: McCarthy says Gaetz would lose committee seat if charges true hill.cm/T1JeIoq

Note what McCarthy doesn’t say — that Gaetz will be forced to step down should he be found guilty. So it’s totally okay to keep your seat in Congress if you’re involved in the human sex trafficking of minors. A bad position for anyone, let alone a party whose base is intimately enmeshed with sex-trafficking conspiracy theory QAnon.

Other Interesting Stuff

SpongeBob has offended the Clams.
Fifteen years ago, a group of bloggers met with former President Bill Clinton. I was one of them. It was an amazing meeting. Man, that guy is smart.

Matthew Yglesias @mattyglesias

Fifteen years ago, this photo led to one of the most hilarious meltdowns the internet has ever seen.

An article that makes my midwestern heart — and mouth — swoon. It’s healthy to talk to strangers!
Ted Cruz is making friends in San Antonio:

Giant wall sticker in San Antonio

And I’ll conclude with a beautiful sunset we had in DC the other night. It’s full-blown spring here, with occasional sprinkles of winter (it got up to 80F the other day, but we’ll be hitting a low of 28F for a few nights still).