Last week, Donald Trump nominated Matt Gaetz to be his new Attorney General. Gaetz resigned his Florida congressional seat on the day that Trump nominated him. As we soon learned, Gaetz’s resignation from Congress came just days before the House Ethics Committee was about to release their years-long report into Gaetz’s sleazy, criminal behavior, behavior which included human trafficking, statutory rape, illegal drug use and solicitation. The House Ethics Committee apparently heard testimony from one of Gaetz’s victims that he had sex with her when she was a minor. Apparently, the Ethics Committee also heard testimony that Gaetz paid adult women for sex:
An attorney representing two women who testified before the House Ethics Committee told ABC News in an interview that former Rep. Matt Gaetz paid both his adult clients for sex. Florida attorney Joel Leppard told ABC News’ Juju Chang that one of his clients also witnessed Gaetz having sex with a third woman — who was then 17 years old — at a house party in Florida.
“She testified [that] in July of 2017, at this house party, she was walking out to the pool area, and she looked to her right, and she saw Rep. Gaetz having sex with her friend, who was 17,” Leppard said.
The Justice Department spent years probing the allegations against Gaetz, including allegations of obstruction of justice, before informing Gaetz last year that it would not bring charges. Gaetz has long denied any wrongdoing related to the allegations investigated during Justice Department probe.
“Matt Gaetz will be the next Attorney General. He’s the right man for the job and will end the weaponization of our justice system,” Trump transition spokesperson Alex Pfeiffer told ABC News regarding all the allegations involving Gaetz. “These are baseless allegations intended to derail the second Trump administration. The Biden Justice Department investigated Gaetz for years and cleared him of wrongdoing,” Pfeiffer said of the allegations, which the Justice Department began investigating during the first Trump administration.
Leppard, who has called for the House Ethics Committee to release its report amid Gaetz’s nomination to serve as President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general, told ABC News that the former congressman paid both of his clients for sex using Venmo.
“Just to be clear, both of your clients testified that they were paid by Rep. Gaetz to have sex?” Chang asked Leppard. “That’s correct. The House was very clear about that and went through each. They essentially put the Venmo payments on the screen and asked about them. And my clients repeatedly testified, ‘What was this payment for?’ ‘That was for sex,'” Leppard said.
After failing to release the Gaetz report last Friday, the Ethics Committee is meeting again on Wednesday to discuss whether or not it should be released. Speaker Mike Johnson has gone on the record about how he doesn’t think it should be released. Donald Trump is also personally calling up senators to persuade them to vote for Gaetz as AG. But the Times reports that, privately, Trump has admitted that Gaetz might not be confirmed by the Senate given all of his baggage (baggage = Law & Order: SVU plotlines), but Trump still has shown no interest in withdrawing Gaetz’s nomination. Still, I bet shutting down Congress and pushing all of his nominees through as recess appointments is still on the table?
Photos courtesy of Cover Images, YouTube screencaps.
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- United States Representative Matt Gaetz (Republican of Florida) questions United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III during a House Committee on Armed Services hearing “A review of Defense Secretary Austin’s unannounced absence” in the Rayburn House Office Building. Featuring: Matt Gaetz Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 29 Feb 2024 Credit: CNP/INSTARimages
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- United States Representative Matt Gaetz (Republican of Florida) questions Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Director Steven Dettelbach appears before a House Committee on the Judiciary hearing “Oversight of the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives” in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, DC Featuring: Matt Gaetz Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States When: 23 May 2024 Credit: CNP/INSTARimages
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- United States Representative Matt Gaetz (Republican of Florida) speaks to press at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin at the Fiserv Forum Featuring: United States Representative Matt Gaetz (Republican of Florida) Where: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States Credit: CNP/INSTARimages
So vile and utterly unsurprising because honestly, what woman would do him for free?
What’s so sad is that this won’t matter. Paying for sex is cool now and definitely worthy of higher office. Rape, sex with underage girls, insurrection, a felonious record..what exactly would be a bridge too far for these people? Oh yeah, wearing women’s lingerie–that will absolutely get you booted out of the party before you can say MAGA.
Kitten, supposedly he’s even scuzzier than this. Orgies fueled with copious illegal drugs in combination with the high school teenager might still be too toxic for the public. Plus the fact that he’s apparently a difficult coworker for the Republicans. So he might actually not make it, however…The thing is, Trump has SO. MANY. UNFIT. Nominees. Anyway.
Is this in the report? RELEASE THE F*CKING REPORT!!
I think if anything even remotely slows down his confirmation it will be the difficult coworker part. Republicans seem to loathe him – lets not forget this is a Republican investigation, not a Democrat one. I’m 99% sure he’ll get confirmed, but if he doesn’t, it wont be because of the ethics investigation. It will be because the Republicans dont like him.
From what I understand (I’m Canadian) the Speaker has no jurisdiction over whether or not an ethics issue goes to the Senate or gets released to the public. American celebitches, can you correct me on this? In any event this is a totally ham-fisted mess and we already know enough about Gaetz’s predilection for underage girls and nose candy. His BFF Joel Greenberg, currently in jail for sex trafficking, is probably champing at the bit to reveal all as he took the fall for both their crimes.
They have all known this.. will they finally hold him accountable? I have zero faith that he will be.
They support a convicted rapist as their party’s leader. So, no. He won’t be held accountable.
So many white male predators…so many excuses not to prosecute. I am resigned to 4 years of white supremacy ruling the Fed, so here’s to Gaetz being the next AG! Done with hope, thoughts and prayers…
even if the Senate gets a chance to pretend to deliberate Trump’s appointments instead of them being shoved through recess appointments, we know that a Republican led Senate will just rubber stamp them. They’ll rubber stand Hegseth, also credibly accused of rape, as well.
Mind you, I think we need to hammer in to the stupid women that voted for the GOP in this last election that filling the administration with unrepentant rapists likely signals that they may well look into doing whatever they can to destroy many laws against rape. Hegseth wrote a paper 20 years ago indicating that sex with a woman who doesn’t consent is only rape if she says no and is under duress therefor sex with a woman who is unconscious for any reason during the act is not and should not be considered rape. Using Hegseth’s definition of rape, Gisèle Pelicot wasn’t raped at all, let alone repeatedly over 10 years. I think women need to be reminded that as hard as it is to get anyone to believe them that they were raped now, it was worse in the past eras that the GOP considers the good ol days. Some info on the Hegseth allegations: https://abc7ny.com/post/hegseth-paid-settlement-woman-accused-sexual-assault-lawyer-says/15553721/
Remember all that the Trump administration did to help cover up allegations against Kavanaugh, the only people who will likely be investigated any time Trump gives another rapist a high level position will be the victims
For the record, not charging someone following a criminal investigation is not the equivalent of “clearing” them. Gaetz was never cleared by the Justice Department. There are many reasons for a no charge decision. In this case, it was likely due to credibility problems with the women who testified since they would be considered sex workers. Not fair but reality. In any case, the bar is not as high for an ethics investigation. The congressional Dems should be making all kinds of noise about Republicans participating in a cover up of credible allegations of statutory rape and sex trafficking.
he was expected to be charged by Congress last Friday. The only reason he wasn’t was because he resigned before they could charge him
I think our best hope is that Trump will decide to ditch Gaetz because he thinks he’s is a sucker for paying for sex when rape is not just free, but fully endorsed by the Republican party and, in just a couple months, the government at large.
Ditch Gaetz because he thinks he’s a sucker for paying for it? Uh, Stormy Daniels. 34 counts. Felonies. Also, Melania. He had to pay his wife, what? More than $300 grand to speak at one of his rallies. But I’m sure he’s used to paying Melania.
No surprise that he’s had to pay for it.
His marriage is basically an arranged marriage and she doesn’t even live with him.
Paid for it? He’ll fit right in with the MAGA party. The cult doesn’t care as long as he carries out their fantasies of owning the libs and cruelty.
And while we’re shitting ourselves…..
Gaetz’s history has been known for several years, his partner in crime has been in jail for sex trafficking for a while. Unfortunately it looks like both Speaker Johnson and Senate Majority leader John Thune are on board with recessing Congress to get cabinet nominees sworn in without being approved. Thune said “it’s on the table” and Johnson is all in. Thune used to have a backbone (rocky history with Trump) but we’ll see.
I think Trump is appointing candidates who would choose loyalty over the 25th amendment, loyalty before anything really.
Paying adult women for sex is like the most family friendly thing this creep does.
From the party of morals and patriotism, y’all.
I know that it won’t happen but I really hope that this guy doesn’t get confirmed and ends up with no job at all. That would be incredibly satisfying. The best possible outcome would be for him to go to prison but that probably won’t happen either.
Hey, remember when NY governor Elliot Spitzer was publicly humiliated, had ethics investigations opened, his wife stood by him (then divorced), got shunned by everyone who sang his praises until 5 mins prior, his long career as a fantastic prosecutor trashed and forgotten…
… Because he was client 9 in for a high end adult sex worker? For nothing weirder than keeping his socks on?
That was only 15 years ago. We were so innocent then.