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Former Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz was chosen by Donald Trump as the brand new lawyer basic. In his November 13, 2024, announcement through Fact Social, the president-elect known as Gaetz a “deeply gifted and tenacious lawyer” who was “educated on the William & Mary Faculty of Legislation.” Trump went on to say that his AG choose will “finish weaponized authorities, shield our borders, dismantle prison organizations and restore America’s badly-shattered religion and confidence within the justice division.”
Beforehand, Gaetz was accused of participating in sexual activity with a 17-year-old woman and paying for her journey, The New York Occasions first reported in March 2021. The age of sexual consent in Florida is eighteen. On the time, the Division of Justice investigated whether or not Gaetz violated intercourse trafficking legal guidelines.
Gaetz, nonetheless, vehemently denied all allegations in a press release. In what Fox Information’ Tucker Carlson known as his “weirdest interview ever,” Gaetz claimed on the time that the allegations have been a part of an ongoing effort to extort him and his household. “Over the previous a number of weeks my household and I’ve been victims of an organized prison extortion involving a former DOJ official looking for $25 million whereas threatening to smear my identify… I demand the DOJ instantly launch the tapes, made at their route, which implicate their former colleague in crimes towards me based mostly on false allegations,” he mentioned.
“I’ve not had a relationship with a 17-year-old,” Gaetz mentioned in his Tucker Carlson Tonight interview. “That’s completely false. The allegation is, I learn it within the New York Occasions, is that I’ve traveled with some 17-year-old in some relationship. That’s false, and data will bear that out to be false. Offering for flights and lodge rooms for those that you’re courting who’re of authorized age will not be a criminal offense… Folks have been speaking a few minor and that there have been footage of me with baby prostitutes. That’s clearly false. There will probably be no such footage, as a result of no such factor occurred.”
Matt Gaetz vows to Tucker Carlson he did not “journey” with a 17-year-old, however his denial appears fairly particular and punctiliously worded pic.twitter.com/emGePJeVfV
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 31, 2021
He claimed that his father, former president of the Florida state Senate Donald Gaetz, “has even been sporting a wire on the FBI’s route to catch these criminals.” The previous DOJ official Gaetz named was lawyer David McGee, who denied any involvement within the investigation or makes an attempt to exort the household to The Washington Submit. McGee confirmed that Donald Gaetz had reached out to him to debate a topic he declined to reveal.
Gaetz reportedly gained a popularity when he arrived to Congress in 2017 for bragging about his sexual exploits, a number of sources informed CNN. The sources alleged that Gatz confirmed photographs and movies of nude girls whom he slept with, which he stored on his cellphone, to different lawmakers (together with on the Home ground). The sources, allegedly together with two individuals proven the express materials, informed CNN that Gaetz described having intercourse with the ladies as nicely.
Gaetz may have been charged below the Mann Act, which prohibits bringing anybody throughout state strains “with intent that such particular person have interaction in prostitution, or in any sexual exercise for which any particular person might be charged with a prison offense.” The investigation opened in 2020 below President Trump’s administration. Gaetz informed Axios, “The allegations towards me are as searing as they’re false. I consider that there are individuals on the Division of Justice who’re making an attempt to criminalize my sexual conduct, you realize once I was a single man.”
Nevertheless, the DOJ concluded its investigation and didn’t cost Gaetz with any crimes.
Right here’s what else you have to learn about Gaetz:
Gaetz Was Additionally Investigated For Allegedly Paying Ladies On-line For Intercourse
The DOJ’s investigation is concentrated on Gaetz’s alleged involvement with “a number of girls who have been recruited on-line for intercourse and acquired money funds,” The New York Occasions reported on April 1. Investigators consider that Joel Greenberg, a former tax collector in Florida who was indicted in 2020 on a federal intercourse trafficking cost, met the ladies in query on web sites the place girls go on dates in trade for items and cash, in accordance with sources who spoke with the paper. Investigators declare Greenberg launched the ladies to Gaetz, who allegedly had intercourse with them. Gaetz has denied ever paying a lady for intercourse.
The New York Occasions claims they reviewed receipts from Money App and Apple Pay that present cash despatched to one of many girls by Gaetz and Greenberg, and from Greenberg to a different girl. Gaetz and Greenberg allegedly informed girls to satisfy them at resorts and different areas in Florida all through 2019 and 2020. One girl informed the paper that Gaetz and Greenberg additionally typically paid her in money.
Gaetz As soon as Claimed the Capitol Assaults Weren’t All Trump Supporters
Gaetz incorrectly claimed that it was Antifa members and not all Trump supporters who laid siege on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. He declared, “A number of the individuals who breached the Capitol immediately weren’t Trump supporters. They have been masquerading as Trump supporters and actually, have been members of the violent terrorist group Antifa,” to rounds of “boo’s” throughout a speech on the Home ground early the next morning. Gaetz was flagged by Twitter for “glorifying violence” following an outrageous June 1, 2020 tweet amid the nationwide George Floyd police protests by writing, “Now that we clearly see Antifa as terrorists, can we hunt them down like we do these within the Center East?”
Gaetz has represented Florida’s 1st congressional district since 2016, and has been reelected twice since. He’s a member of the Home Freedom Caucus and sits on the next committees: Committee on Armed Companies, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces, Committee on the Price range, Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Mental Property and the Web, Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Business and Antitrust Legislation. He has not been faraway from any committees since information broke of his DOJ investigation.
He Voted ‘No’ on a Invoice Combatting Human Trafficking
Gaetz was the one Rep who voted “no” on the Combating Human Trafficking in Business Automobiles Act in 2017. The invoice allocates extra authorities assets to fight human trafficking in the US. Gaetz mentioned on Fb Reside that he opposed the invoice as a result of it represented “mission creep” of federal authorities. “Until there may be an awesome, compelling motive that our present businesses within the federal authorities can’t deal with that downside, I vote no as a result of voters in Northwest Florida didn’t ship me to Washington to go and create extra federal authorities,” Gaetz mentioned.
He’s Been a Staunch Supporter of Donald Trump
Gaetz has alienated himself from Congressional colleagues for his fervent Trump assist. All through Trump’s presidency, Gaetz was always featured on Fox Information and OAN parroting Trump’s rhetoric. When Trump known as Haiti a “sh*thole nation” in 2018, Gaetz backed him up by tweeting, “The circumstances in Haiti are deplorable, they’re disgusting. I imply, in every single place you look in Haiti, it’s sheet steel and rubbish.” Gaetz was so loyal to Trump that he even mentioned he’d resign his Home seat to characterize Trump in his second impeachment trial if requested to hitch his authorized workforce.
Gaetz Was A part of the #FreeBritney Motion
Britney Spears discovered a not possible ally in Gaetz. The congressman requested in March that Home Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) host a televised inquiry into the due technique of conservatorships, and particularly talked about the “Poisonous” singer in his letter. In his letter, Gaetz introduced up many factors of rivalry that appeared within the documentary Framing Britney Spears, together with how her father happened having management — and maintaining it — over Britney’s life through the conservatorship.
“The information and circumstancing giving rise to this association stay in dispute however contain questionable motives and authorized techniques by her father and now-conservator, Jamie Spears,” he wrote. Gaetz later tweeted on Mar. 9 that “I feel @britneyspears could be an important witness within the Home Judiciary Committee. She would possible have quite a bit to say on conservatorships. #FreeBritney”
