U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) is seen throughout preparations on the second day of the Republican Nationwide Conference on the Fiserv Discussion board on July 16, 2024 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. | Supply: Joe Raedle / Getty
Former Rep. Matt Gaetz has not been having his greatest political yr regardless of his orangey-white nationalist messiah kicking, screaming, mendacity and bigot whispering his means again into the White Home in November. Gaetz resigned from Congress after Donald Trump nominated him to function legal professional common, however that every one fell aside because of the lingering allegations that he paid quite a few girls for intercourse, together with an underaged lady who was solely 17. Effectively, the Justice Division might have closed the federal investigation into his intercourse trafficking allegations in February of final yr, however the Home Ethics Committee reported that it discovered proof that Gaetz is responsible of practically all the things he was accused of.
The investigators discovered he paid for intercourse or medication on at the least 20 events whereas serving as a federal legislator, and that, in 2017, he paid to have intercourse with the aforementioned teenager. Moreover, the committee reported that lots of the transactions had been facilitated by Joel Greenberg, a former Seminole County tax collector who’s serving an 11-year jail sentence and cooperated with federal investigators.
“The Committee decided there may be substantial proof that Consultant Gaetz violated Home Guidelines and different requirements of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, impermissible items, particular favors or privileges, and obstruction of Congress,” the committee wrote in its report, in response to CNN.
So, in response to the investigating panelists, Gaetz is a drug abuser, statutory rapist and a participant in unlawful prostitution, which could lead one to consider that, just like the president-elect, he relied on his white male privilege to evade accountability whereas nonetheless claiming his occasion is the occasion of legislation and order and household values.
From CNN:
The panel investigated transactions Gaetz personally made, usually utilizing PayPal or Venmo, to greater than a dozen girls throughout his time in Congress, in response to the report. Investigators additionally targeted on a 2018 journey to the Bahamas – which they stated “violated the Home reward rule” – throughout which he “engaged in sexual exercise” with a number of girls, together with one who described the journey itself as “the cost” for intercourse on the journey. On the identical journey, he additionally took ecstasy, one lady on the journey informed the committee.
The committee discovered that the sexual encounters had been usually organized by Greenberg by means of a web site, SeekingArrangement.com. “Mr. Greenberg informed the Committee that Consultant Gaetz was conscious that the ladies that they had intercourse with and paid had met Mr. Greenberg by means of the ‘sugar courting’ web site,” the panel wrote.
Congressional investigators discovered that Gaetz made cost to girls utilizing a number of platforms, together with PayPal, Venmo and CashApp. The committee listed funds Gaetz made to 12 girls, together with to his former girlfriend, in addition to Greenberg.
The committee wrote that Gaetz didn’t seem to barter particular cost quantities for intercourse with the ladies he paid. “Most of the girls interviewed by the Committee had been clear that there was a common expectation of intercourse,” investigators wrote.
“One lady who was paid greater than $5,000 by Consultant Gaetz between 2018 and 2019 informed the Committee that ‘99 % of the time that (Consultant Gaetz and I) had been hanging out, there was intercourse concerned,’” the panel stated.
The Home of Representatives Committee on Ethics workplace within the Longworth Home Workplace Constructing on Capitol Hill on December 18, 2024, in Washington, D.C. | Supply: Chip Somodevilla / Getty
Regardless of all the proof that the committee discovered that factors to Gaetz being each little bit of the degenerate and sexual deviant he was accused of being, panelists reported that they discovered no proof that he violated any federal intercourse trafficking legal guidelines, despite the fact that he reportedly did transport prostitutes throughout state strains.
“Though Consultant Gaetz did trigger the transportation of girls throughout state strains for functions of business intercourse, the Committee didn’t discover proof that any of these girls had been underneath 18 on the time of journey, nor did the Committee discover adequate proof to conclude that the industrial intercourse acts had been induced by pressure, fraud, or coercion,” the committee wrote.
After all, Gaetz remains to be denying all of it, and like strongest males who’re attempting to elucidate away intercourse abuse allegations, his denial makes him out to easily be some youthful playboy having enjoyable throughout his “single days.”
“In my single days, I usually despatched funds to girls I dated – even some I by no means dated however who requested. I dated a number of of those girls for years,” Gaetz stated. “It’s embarrassing, although not prison, that I in all probability partied, womanized, drank and smoked greater than I ought to have earlier in life. I stay a distinct life now.” (For the report, Gaetz would have been round 35 in 2017, when he was accused of paying a teen for intercourse — however, certain, let’s go along with the “I used to be younger and dumb” argument combined with a touch of “boys shall be boys.”)
Anyway, whereas white privilege did possible assist Gaetz escape federal expenses, it didn’t cease the Home Ethics Committee report from being made public. Truly, in response to CNN, the committee initially voted towards publishing the report, however earlier this month, it reversed that call and secretly voted to publish it to the dismay of panel Chairman Michael Visitor, a Mississippi Republican.
“The choice to publish a report after his resignation breaks from the Committee’s long-standing follow, opens the Committee to undue criticism, and shall be seen by some as an try and weaponize the Committee’s course of,” Visitor stated.
Yeah — and declining to publish these findings may be “seen by some” as extra proof that white male authorities officers get safety civilians don’t get it doesn’t matter what they’ve finished.
It must be famous that whereas the committee reported that all the girls interviewed stated they weren’t compelled or coerced into having intercourse, it doesn’t imply no energy dynamics had been at play.
Extra from CNN:
The panel wrote that a number of girls informed the committee they might not voluntarily take part within the investigation, and a few had been “clear at first contact that they feared retaliation or had been unwilling to voluntarily relive their interactions with Consultant Gaetz.”
“Whereas all the ladies that the Committee interviewed said their sexual exercise with Consultant Gaetz was consensual, at the least one lady felt that using medication on the events and occasions they attended might have ‘impair(ed their) potential to essentially know what was happening or totally consent,’” the panel wrote. “One lady stated, ‘I give it some thought on a regular basis … . I nonetheless see him after I activate the television and there’s nothing anybody can do. It’s irritating to know I lived a actuality that he denies.’”
Gotta love these MAGA household values, amirite?
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