Rep. Matt Gaetz.Photo: Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg via Getty
Florida Rep.Matt Gaetzis responding to new reports that he is under federal investigation for possible sex trafficking of a 17-year-old girl — a claim he denies, insisting to multiple news outlets that the case is “rooted in an extortion effort” against him.
Gaetz and the teen allegedly had encounters about two years ago though it was unclear how they met, according to theTimes.
For more on the sex trafficking allegations against Rep. Matt Gaetz, listen below to the episode of PEOPLE Every Day.
The Wall Street Journalpublished a report soon after, citing its own sources who described Gaetz being under the same federal investigation.
Federal law enforcement officials have not publicly commented and often note that policy usually bars them from discuss ongoing work. Gaetz adamantly denies wrongdoing.
Though many details of the probe remain unclear, sources told theTimesthat it stems from a separate investigation into Joel Greenberg, an ex-GOP official from Seminole County, Florida, who wasindicted on a range of charges, including sex trafficking of a child, in 2020. Hepleadednot guilty.
Greenberg and Gaetz have beenphotographed togetherin the past.
“I only know that it has to do with women,” Gaetz told theTimesof his knowledge of the investigation. “I have a suspicion that someone is trying to recategorize my generosity to ex-girlfriends as something more untoward.”
Gaetz said that the allegations were false and that, according to his lawyers, he believed he was the subject of the federal investigation rather than the target, which is a more serious designation.
The whole thing, he maintained, traced back to a former Department of Justice employee who he claimed had attempted to extort him and his family to make the case go away.
Gaetz’s office did not respond to PEOPLE’s repeated requests for comment.
Hours after theTimesreport was published, the Florida lawmaker denied that he had “traveled with a 17-year-old woman” and elaborated on his claims of blackmail in an unusual appearance on Fox News — one hostTucker Carlson deemed"one of the weirdest interviews I’ve ever conducted."
“The New York Timesis running a story that I have traveled with a 17-year-old woman and that is verifiably false,” Gaetz told Carlson. “People can look at my travel records and see that is not the case. What is happening is an extortion of me and my family involving a former Department of Justice official.”
Detailing his version of this intricate plot, Gaetz continued:
SpeakingwithPoliticoon Tuesday, Gaetz’s father said that he had worked with the FBI and had worn a wire.
Perhaps the most eyebrow-raising exchange in the Fox News interview came when Gaetz made things personal, attempting to draw a comparison between his situation and previous allegations against Carlson.
“I’m not the only person on screen right now who’s been falsely accused of a terrible sex act. You were accused of something that you did not do. And so you know what this feels like,” Gaetz said.
In response, Carlson said, “You just referred to a mentally ill viewer who accused me of a sex crime 20 years ago and of course it was not true, I had never met the person.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Gaetz suggested to Carlson that they had in fact previously had dinner with a woman who was allegedly involved in the FBI investigation.
“I don’t remember the woman you are speaking of or the context at all, honestly,” Carlson said.
Gaetz further claimed that the leak of the sex trafficking inquiry to theTimeswas actually meant to thwart the FBI’s investigation into the extortion plot.
He named the former Department of Justice official whom he claimed was involved, saying that David McGee offered him a pardon in exchange for $25 million.
McGee, a former federal prosecutor who now works as an attorney at a firm in Florida, quickly denied the claims. He toldThe Washington Post: “It is completely false. It’s a blatant attempt to distract from the fact that he’s under investigation for sex trafficking of minors. I have no connection with that case at all, other than one of a thousand people who have heard the rumors.”
The attorney added that Gaetz’s father — former Florida state Sen. Don Gaetz — did contact him but would not tell thePostwhat the conversation entailed. (McGee did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s requests for comment. )
The FBI declined to comment to PEOPLE when asked about the existence of either investigation. A spokesperson for the Department of Justice did not respond to questions.
TheTimes' Katie Benner — one of the journalists who first reported that Gaetz was being investigated —clarified on CNN Tuesday nightthat the probe into the Republican’s alleged relationship with a teenage girl has been going on for more than six months.
Benner added on CNN that theTimesdoes have reporting that “last week, somebody had heard about this investigation and did use the information to try and get money out of Congressman Gaetz’s father.”
“I don’t think that what Congressman Gaetz is saying about extortion actually undermines that he himself is under investigation,” Benner said.
First elected to Congress in 2016 after serving in the Florida House of Representatives, Gaetz has made a name for himself as a pro-Trump provocateur — withheadline-grabbing stuntsa key part of his political brand. He likewise supported Trump’s call to overturn the 2020 election.
A fierce ally of the former president’s since the 2016 election, Gaetz once toldGQof Trump, “He knows who I am, and he doesn’t want to screw me.”
Though the two made several appearances together during his term, Trump repeatedlybotched Gaetz’s nameat a 2020 Florida rally, mistakenly calling him “Rick Gates,” the name of a former Trump aide who wasconvictedafter making false statements related to Russian interference in the 2016 election.
The possible sex trafficking case against Gaetz was reported not long after Axios published a story that the lawmaker wasmulling an early retirement from Congressin order to take a job as an on-air personality at Newsmax, a conservative cable news network.
Newsmax tells PEOPLE that it “doesn’t comment on possible talent negotiations or plans the network may have underway.”
source: people.com
