Matt Gaetz gets desperate after Joel Greenberg plea deal
Ever since federal prosecutors granted Joel Greenberg a cooperating plea deal late last week, we’ve been waiting to see how Matt Gaetz would respond. Up to now he’s mainly just bragged about his string of rallies, while attacking his political adversaries. But today he’s finally addressing the Greenberg deal, and let’s just say it reeks of desperation on Gaetz’s part.
Matt Gaetz just tweeted a propaganda article with the headline “The Media’s Matt Gaetz Source – Joel Greenberg – Just Pleaded Guilty To Making FALSE Pedophilia Allegations About His Opponents.” The article correctly states that Greenberg originally brought legal scrutiny onto himself when he falsely accused his then-opponent for county tax collector of pedophilia. But then the article goes on to imply that because Greenberg pulled this stunt years ago, he might be pulling it again with his plea deal.
Here’s the thing. When it comes to plea deals with federal prosecutors, defendants don’t get away with just making stuff up about the people they’re flipping on. After Joel Greenberg did his proffer session and provided the testimony and evidence he had against the people he was flipping on, the Feds obviously vetted it all to make sure it was true and viable before giving Greenberg a deal. If Greenberg were making stuff up in his proffer session, he’d have ended up facing more felony counts, not fewer.
We still don’t know for sure if Matt Gaetz is one of the multiple unnamed men Greenberg says he witnessed having sex with an underage girl. All we know is that Greenberg’s lawyer previously stated in public that Greenberg was flipping on Gaetz over something.
But now Gaetz is making a point of suggesting that if Greenberg is accusing him of pedophilia, it must be false, because Greenberg once made that same false accusation against someone years ago. It feels like an oddly specific denial. It also feels like the kind of legal argument you make at trial to try to create reasonable doubt with a jury. So maybe Gaetz now understands he’s going to end up on trial. In any case, it’s clear that Gaetz is getting desperate. He can’t beat the rap by tweeting about it, but he’s going to try anyway.
