Matt Gaetz reported to be leaving the House

[plague311]

Gaetz twitter reads like Trump's during the Russia investigation. Constant retweets of right wing talking heads saying how innocent he is, and how his father is backing up his story.

 

[Horatius]

Gaetz twitter reads like Trump's during the Russia investigation. Constant retweets of right wing talking heads saying how innocent he is, and how his father is backing up his story.

Okay, anybody want to take bets that the "FBI Agent" who asked his dad to wear a wire was really just Jacob Wohl?

 

[plague311]

In a surprise to absolutely no one David McGee has denied the accusations that Gaetz has made. Per business insider:

This is a blatant attempt to distract from the fact that Matt Gaetz is apparently about to (be) indicted for sex trafficking underage girls

David McGee is now a lawyer for a law firm in Florida. Beggs & Lane.

 

[shemp]

The one *big* problem with Matt Gaetz's explanation

 

[plague311]

I was thinking about this as well. If David McGee was extorting him for $25m to get the case to go away, wouldn't he still have to work at the DOJ? If he isn't there anymore he has no control over the case, or have the ability to drop the case.

 

[Elagabalus]

In a surprise to absolutely no one David McGee has denied the accusations that Gaetz has made. Per business insider:



David McGee is now a lawyer for a law firm in Florida. Beggs & Lane.

Gaetz: "Yeah ... it was David."
Reporter: "David, who?"
Gaetz: "uh ... David ... David ... Mc ... "
Reporter: "David McGee the ex DOJ attorney?!"
Gaetz: "Yes! That one!"

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Apparently the Tucker Carlson interview, even by his standard, was extremely strange.

And that's coming from Tucker ******* Carlson. The interview included this wtf moment:

Gaetz is referring to the person that is extorting him and then mentions Biden was going to pardon him. Then says he doesn't need it. I think Matt is panicking.

Source

Not important enough for Fox to defend? Or the folks at Fox know this guy is going to look even worse when this all comes out and they have enough on their hands defending Trump's behavior?

 

[Horatius]

Gaetz: "Yeah ... it was David."
Reporter: "David, who?"
Gaetz: "uh ... David ... David ... Mc ... "
Reporter: "David McGee the ex DOJ attorney?!"
Gaetz: "Yes! That one!"

DOJ: "Dave's not here, man....."

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

DOJ: "Dave's not here, man....."

So on the one hand he says the 17 yr old doesn't exist and on the other he says she's a 17 yr old woman.

And paying for a hotel room for a woman of legal age?

 

[carlitos]

A lot of them are acting like a card player who suddenly looked down at their hands and realized that just noticed that the flush they have been bluffing with and raising the pot on was really 4 spades and a club and they are no longer sure their opponents don't really have the better hand.

That is such a bad feeling. Not as bad as that feeling when you realize that you have a plane ticket and hotel room for a 17 year old on your AMEX, but looking down and realizing that your "spade" flush has two Jacks in it or whatever, just awful.

 

[smartcooky]

The one *big* problem with Matt Gaetz's explanation

Another big problem

Even if the extortion allegations are true, the investigation into Gaetz for sex trafficking began before the alleged extortion... when the DoJ was under Bill Barr - therefore, its possible for both things to be true, the sex trafficking and the extortion.

Methinks Daddy is not going to able able to pry him out of this one, and then fire the cops.

 

[catsmate]

"Age is just a number! So you're saying yesterday she was a child, today she's not."

Yes. That's how time works.

Indeed, the Fluxus Nunc continues.

 

[Dr. Keith]

That is such a bad feeling. Not as bad as that feeling when you realize that you have a plane ticket and hotel room for a 17 year old on your AMEX, but looking down and realizing that your "spade" flush has two Jacks in it or whatever, just awful.

Now I can't wait to find out that he used campaign money on this. Oh please let that be the case.

 

[tyr_13]

Exactly, it started under Bill Barr and the Trump admin. Which really crushes the whole "this is politically motivated by the dems!" argument.

Oh like that matters. He's a Republicans and Republican at this point are a cult.

"Prove to me 17 year old girls even exist, I think that is fake news" is not beyond what they will stoop to to troll reality itself.

It turns out Gaetz's allegation isn't exactly what I thought. His claim is not that the investigation was started because he was being blackmailed. His claim is that he was being blackmailed with the already existing investigation being made public. He claims this somehow makes the already existing investigation a political hit job. That was personally signed off on by Bill Barr.

Yeah...

 

[plague311]

It turns out Gaetz's allegation isn't exactly what I thought. His claim is not that the investigation was started because he was being blackmailed. His claim is that he was being blackmailed with the already existing investigation being made public. He claims this somehow makes the already existing investigation a political hit job. That was personally signed off on by Bill Barr.

Yeah...

...and that the person doing the blackmailing somehow still has control over the investigation through a tangled web of connections that go all the way up to the White House!

I don't know what he's stressing about though, he already said Biden was going to give him a pardon.

But a pardon? He don't need no stinkin' pardon.

 

[dirtywick]

Yeah, Matt can say whatever he wants. None of that will matter if he was messing around with underage girls.

 

[Regnad Kcin]

The Herb Tarlek collection is making a comeback!

I’m pleased at myself for getting that reference.

 

[slyjoe]

Didn't he just get married? That may be why he isn't just shutting up about the whole thing. His new wife may be the audience.

 

[rdwight]

To be fair, it would probably still be a minor scandal if 38 year old Gaetz was having a fling with an 18 year old still in high school. Potential legal issues escalate the scandal quite a bit, but it would still be pretty gross and probably damaging to his reputation.

For sure, and even non legal things that allow a congressman to be blackmailed is not a good situation. He could have been doing something completely legal that would hurt his job prospects worse. Like if he was outed a furry.

People might be a little more willing to cut the republicans some slack, if they weren't feeding on the whole 'Q-Anon/Demos are running a child sex ring' conspiracy theory, and weren't trying to portray themselves as the party of morality.

For sure, but it is not like demonizing and conspiracy theories is a partisan thing. Also, you think the Republicans are the only party portraying themselves as the party of morality? I'd concede that only if it was specific to what they consider Christian values.

Yes, the dividing line between "child" and "adult" is, to some degree arbitrary. But that line still exists in a legal sense. You would figure that someone who had a legal degree would understand that.

It would be great if we could have some sort of "maturity test" that can be applied to various rights and privileges (like voting, drinking, sex) rather than relying on a simple age number, but since that is impractical, we're stuck with the '18 year old' as the delimiter.

I don't have any issue with having a legal age cut off, it is necessary and while somewhat arbitrary I don't think it is really out of what most consider an acceptable range for different activities. I am talking about moral acceptability, and how selective it is on stuff like this.

Wondered how long before the "What's the big deal, she's only 17" thing came about.

"Age is just a number! So you're saying yesterday she was a child, today she's not."

Yes. That's how time works.

It's not really the age of consent stuff about the story, although I did add onto my post with that stuff. More on the framing and what is regularly perceived by words. It can be completely accurate reporting and wildly different from what you would think.

"Matt Gaetz involved in child sex trafficking" is the same as "Matt Gaetz let's his 17 year old girlfriend use his Uber account to meet him at Holiday Inn in Georgia for sex". Illegal, and he should be charged with whatever crime he committed, but feels like it cheapens the term.

 

[Checkmite]

Gaetz's father has apparently released "documents" supposedly detailing this "extortion" scheme; but the weird part is, it doesn't sound like extortion, it sounds like bribery.

The elder Gaetz said that he got a text message on March 16 from Kent, who has claimed he put together a mission to rescue Levinson, a retired FBI agent, from Iran in 2018 that was foiled by the U.S. government.

“I would like to talk with you immediately about the current federal investigation, and the indictment that is about to filed against your son,” the message read.

“I have a plan that can make his future legal and political problems go away.”

The message went on to say that he had located Levinson in Iran and had two proof-of-life videos. If Don Gaetz would help secure Levinson’s release, the message said, his son would get credit and a presidential pardon.

The next day, according to Don Gaetz, he met with Kent and was given the “Project Homecoming” document, which opened with a description of the supposed FBI investigation of Matt Gaetz, referencing alleged photographs of the congressman and an unnamed election official in a “sexual orgy with underage prostitutes.”

The three-page letter, according to the Examiner, went on to say—with no corroboration—that a grand jury had been impaneled to hear evidence against Gaetz and others.

“In exchange for funds being arranged, and upon the release of Robert Levinson, Congressman Gaetz shall be given credit for facilitating the release of Mr. Levinson. Congressman Gaetz shall also be on the plane that returns Mr. Levinson to freedom, and shall be the person to “reunited” Mr. Levinson with his family and bring Mr. Levinson back to the United States.”

It went on to day that “in exchange for the funds being arranged, and upon the release of Mr. Levinson, the team that delivers Mr. Levinson to the President of The United States shall strongly advocate that President Biden issue a Presidential Pardon, or instruct the Department of Justice to terminate any and all investigations involving Congressman Gaetz.”

Gaetz, according to this description of the "scheme", was already being investigated by the DoJ; so it's not like the schemers were threatening to tell the FBI anything incriminating about him. Rather, if Gaetz's father paid the money and Levinson ended up being freed, Gaetz would get the credit for the release and the "conspirators" would ask the Biden Administration to either pardon Gaetz or have the DoJ investigation into him quietly canceled.

But, even if this plot is real, and whether or not it amounts to extortion, the original investigation into Gaetz and underage sex allegations were evidently independently begun by the DoJ sometime before the plot began.