What the hell is going on with Matt Gaetz tonight?
Congressman Matt Gaetz has long proven himself to be an ignorant buffoon, a clown, and worthless as a politician. But now things have taken a particularly ugly turn for him tonight, in a manner which goes beyond politics. Way beyond politics.
This evening the New York Times reported that the Department of Justice is investigating Matt Gaetz for allegedly having a relationship with a seventeen year old girl and paying to transport her across state lines for sex. Notably, the Times says that the probe began back when Trump appointee Bill Barr was still running the DOJ, meaning that this probe did not originate in the Biden era.
Matt Gaetz tweeted a detailed denial tonight, claiming that he’s fully innocent, and that he’s being extorted by an unnamed former DOJ official who made up the story. Gaetz also claims that he and his father have been working with the DOJ to try to take this former official down, and that Gaetz’s father has gone so far as to wear a wire during the process.
So what’s the real story? For now, we have no way of knowing. If Gaetz is guilty of these accusations, then he’s going to prison for a very long time. These allegations include transporting a minor across state lines for sex, which gets into sex trafficking crimes. If Gaetz is being framed and extorted as he claims, then the unnamed former DOJ official is going to end up in prison. One way or the other, there is serious criminality involved.
We expect that the real truth, whatever it is, will soon begin to find out. Once the issue is forced by this kind of leak, evidence and corroboration tends to begin surfacing rather quickly. But wow is this ever ugly. It’s worth noting that earlier this week, Axios reported that Matt Gaetz was considering resigning and taking a job with a far right TV network.
