The Matt Gaetz Soap Opera

[Carpet_pissr]

Just saw that. I just saw one person live saying they are sure an indictment is coming much sooner than later. They also pointed out they assigned two veteran sex trafficking prosecutors a few weeks ago which bolsters that this is coming soon. Hoping for something to come down here.

Hey, I'm the guy that gets hammered with the "INDICTMENT COMING SOOOON!!#!#@" guy! It's kinda my (unwanted) thing, now. I've seen nothing from random Twitter authors about this, and therefore I conclude that this is a nothingburger.

[malchior]

Just saw that. I just saw one person live saying they are sure an indictment is coming much sooner than later. They also pointed out they assigned two veteran sex trafficking prosecutors a few weeks ago which bolsters that this is coming soon. Hoping for something to come down here.

Hey, I'm the guy that gets hammered with the "INDICTMENT COMING SOOOON!!#!#@" guy! It's kinda my (unwanted) thing, now. I've seen nothing from random Twitter authors about this, and therefore I conclude that this is a nothingburger.

My default position is this is a nothingburger but for Gaetz all the noise indicates something is happening here. FWIW this also validates what the lawsplainers say indicating that DOJ is doing squat on capitol riot stuff above the foot soldier level. Gaetz's ex-girlfriend testifies to the grand jury and the same day that info is leaked to the press? Versus the absolute silence? Nothing is happening there and even though its way more important than this side show.

[Carpet_pissr]

Just saw that. I just saw one person live saying they are sure an indictment is coming much sooner than later. They also pointed out they assigned two veteran sex trafficking prosecutors a few weeks ago which bolsters that this is coming soon. Hoping for something to come down here.

Hey, I'm the guy that gets hammered with the "INDICTMENT COMING SOOOON!!#!#@" guy! It's kinda my (unwanted) thing, now. I've seen nothing from random Twitter authors about this, and therefore I conclude that this is a nothingburger.

My default position is this is a nothingburger but for Gaetz all the noise indicates something is happening here. FWIW this also validates what the lawsplainers say indicating that DOJ is doing squat on capitol riot stuff above the foot soldier level. Gaetz's ex-girlfriend testifies to the grand jury and the same day that info is leaked to the press? Versus the absolute silence? Nothing is happening there and even though its way more important than this side show.

A more cynical person would translate that as the DOJ making some kind of deal: "we get to NAIL Gaetz, in exchange for intentionally whiffing on the brains behind the riot. Gotta give us SOMEthing so we don't look incompetent!"

[coopasonic]

I'm just glad she was finally old enough to testify.

[gbasden]

My default position is this is a nothingburger but for Gaetz all the noise indicates something is happening here. FWIW this also validates what the lawsplainers say indicating that DOJ is doing squat on capitol riot stuff above the foot soldier level. Gaetz's ex-girlfriend testifies to the grand jury and the same day that info is leaked to the press? Versus the absolute silence? Nothing is happening there and even though its way more important than this side show.

It's trivially unimportant compared to Jan 6th, but I will smile and wave nonetheless should his ever so punchable face get thrown in prison.

[malchior]

[Smoove_B]

Makes sense:

Federal prosecutors have recommended not to bring charges against Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz as part of a sex trafficking investigation, The Washington Post reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The prosecutors said they made that decision in part because of credibility questions with two central witnesses, those people told the Post.

The reported recommendation means the Department of Justice is unlikely to charge Gaetz, 40, with a crime as a result of the probe. The investigation began in 2020 and centered on the Florida congressman's alleged relationship with a 17-year-old girl years earlier. While the recommendation is not a final decision — and the Post's sources said new evidence could emerge that changes the prosecutors' view — their advice is likely to be upheld, the report said.

[Isgrimnur]

[malchior]

It's almost like the powerful are being handed a manual for impunity. Chapter 1 - Choose your fall guy carefully!*



* Does not apply to minorities and/or jail house confessions against minorities.

[malchior]

It's sort of fascinating tonight to watch all the people who think the WaPo Gaetz story is #fakenews. We're seeing phrased thrown around that "Garland's DOJ" doesn't leak. Or the idea that someone is leaking the story to get Gaetz a better plea deal. Americans are ever fantasists. Many people refuse to see our nation for what it is. The powerful are not treated like us.



Edit: FWIW - CNN also independently sourced a similar story. The DOJ is afraid of its shadow where the powerful are concerned. They'll just stick to bullying the little people who can't defend themselves and have to plead out.

[Smoove_B]

Yeah, I was going to come back in after seeing quite a few people online saying the same thing (including those two you linked). I guess we'll see...as nothing continues to happen.

[LawBeefaroni]

Nowadays prosecutors would rather face minor league defense. Put them against major league shit and they'd rather sit it out and save their batting average.

Gaetz.has professional counsel.

[Kurth]

Or, like, maybe the evidence just isn’t there? I’d like to see Gaetz in jail as much as the next sane person, but I also accept the possibility that maybe there’s not sufficient evidence to support an indictment.

I haven’t followed his case that closely, so maybe there are publicly known facts that suggest otherwise, but this also could just be the prosecutors at the DOJ doing their job as opposed to trying to use the DOJ as a political cudgel. You know, like what they’re actually supposed to be doing.

[malchior]

Or, like, maybe the evidence just isn’t there? I’d like to see Gaetz in jail as much as the next sane person, but I also accept the possibility that maybe there’s not sufficient evidence to support an indictment.

I mean sure that's possible and that's a problem with trial by press. Big but here though. We have stories how he preemptively went to seek a pardon for the conduct. The underage girls involved have essentially confirmed the stories. They have Venmo payments between Gaetz and the girls. There is a chance this conduct wasn't criminal and he's just a creep but it still looks like another white, powerful man is getting a pass. The same machine that routinely ramrods minorities and poorer people through it by charging them even when those cases are shaky knowing they can't defend themselves.

I haven’t followed his case that closely, so maybe there are publicly known facts that suggest otherwise, but this also could just be the prosecutors at the DOJ doing their job as opposed to trying to use the DOJ as a political cudgel. You know, like what they’re actually supposed to be doing.

IMO the strong reaction that we are seeing from folks disbelieving the WaPo story is because the evidence in the public sphere is pretty compelling. On top, just to juxtapose, we are seeing the DOJ sanction political prosecutions that are extremely shaky. The case against Sussman is a good example. So I get the strong urge to hold onto hope that this is just the system working as it should but we have a lot of evidence it isn't. In any case, the comments on the WaPo piece are basically people pointing this all out. Confidence in institutions has collapsed here so outcomes like this are incredibly, incredibly corrosive to public order.

[malchior]

Joel Greenburg's lawyer filed a memo last night essentially mocking the DOJ for failing to prosecute public figures likening them to Nero fiddling away as Rome burns.

Lawyer complains that Matt Gaetz (sorry unnamed public figure) gets a free pass for underage prostitution

A longtime cooperating witness, Florida man Joel Greenberg pleaded guilty to six of the 33 federal charges that he had been facing in May 2021, including a charge of sex trafficking a child. A federal judge repeatedly delayed his sentencing, with the government’s blessing, to allow him to provide information implicating possible co-conspirators. Greenberg was a former tax collector for Seminole County, Fla., and his cooperation also assisted public corruption, election fraud, and wire fraud investigations. Prosecutors indicted two of his associates — Keith Ingersoll and James P. Adamczyk — a little more than a year ago in November 2021 in an alleged $12 million real estate fraud scheme.

...

Still, Greenberg’s attorney Fritz Scheller suggested that the Justice Department spared others whom they could have prosecuted, and he questioned what message would be sent if his client were the only one to receive harsh punishment for it.

“If the Government is so concerned with general deterrence, then why hasn’t it prosecuted the other individuals, including public figures, who were also involved in Greenberg’s offenses?” Scheller asked in an 26-page memo on Monday evening. “Indeed, Greenberg’s plea agreement refers to the involvement of multiple co-conspirators including individuals involved in his sex offense. The identification of these potential co-conspirators was not only provided by Mr. Greenberg in his numerous proffers, but also has been collaborated by other witnesses and records. Unfortunately, at the time of Greenberg’s sentencing, many of these individuals have not been held to account.”

...

During Greenberg’s fall, the Daily Beast published the ex-wingman’s letter to Republican operative Roger Stone stating that he and Gaetz paid a 17-year-old girl for sex. The draft of the letter reportedly said that both he and Gaetz believed that the girl was 19 years old at the time. Gaetz has denied wrongdoing, and in September, the Washington Post reported that prosecutors recommended against charges for the Florida congressman.

In a remarkable footnote, Greenberg’s lawyer questioned whether charges would be filed against others whom his client implicated.

“Perhaps the DOJ in Washington is still moving forward on its prosecutions,” Scheller wrote. “Perhaps the DOJ will return the prosecutions to the capable hands of U.S. Attorneys in the Middle District or the State of Florida. Perhaps the DOJ will appoint a special counsel to address those individuals that implicate broader national concerns. Perhaps the DOJ are master strategists far beyond the capabilities of the undersigned. Or perhaps the DOJ is like Nero fiddling away as Rome burns.”

[Isgrimnur]

Hey, anyone seen Jeffrey Epstein's black book lately?

[Smoove_B]

Oh hey look, an update:

Joel Greenberg, a former Florida tax collector who sources say agreed to cooperate in the federal probe into his one-time close associate, Rep. Matt Gaetz, was sentenced Thursday to 11 years in prison after pleading guilty to crimes ranging from wire fraud to sex trafficking a minor.

Greenberg pleaded guilty last May to six of the 33 federal charges he was facing, including charges of stalking, identity theft, wire fraud, and conspiracy to bribe a public official, as well as one charge of sex trafficking.

...

"If the Government is so concerned with general deterrence, then why hasn't it prosecuted the other individuals, including public figures, who were also involved in Greenberg's offenses?" Schiller wrote in a memo filed ahead of his client's sentencing. "Perhaps the DOJ are master strategists far beyond the capabilities of the undersigned. Or perhaps the DOJ is like Nero fiddling away as Rome burns."

Why indeed.

[malchior]

It's almost like the powerful experience a different justice system.

[stessier]

[hepcat]

Ouch. I laughed though.

[Smoove_B]

Well, I guess we can turn out the lights for this thread:

The Justice Department has informed lawyers for at least one witness that it will not bring charges against Florida GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz after a years-long federal sex-trafficking investigation, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Senior officials reached out to lawyers for at least one witness on Wednesday, the source tells CNN, to inform them of the decision not to prosecute Gaetz.

The final decision was made by Department of Justice leadership after investigators recommended against charges last year.

[Smoove_B]

I will continue to believe in the Pat Robertson clogged toilet of karma theory because:

The House Ethics Committee has quietly reopened a probe into Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz, Punchbowl News reports, citing sources familiar with the investigation.

The outlet reports that the committee's investigators have begun re-examining allegations surrounding the controversial lawmaker, months after it deferred an investigation into 41-year-old Gaetz following a request from the Department of Justice, which was conducting its own investigation.

...

According to Punchbowl, the Ethics Committee is now reexamining allegations against him, but hasn't yet decided whether it will move forward with a special investigative subcommittee, but if it does, the move would be publicly disclosed.

Gaetz’s office declined to comment, and requests for comment from members of the House Ethics Committee and Speaker Kevin McCarthy were not immediately returned.

[Alefroth]

It's fitting you turned on the lights since you turned them off.

[Freyland]

My money is on McCarthy punishing Gaetz for recent issues, or attempting to eliminate him entirely.

[Smoove_B]

What a strange, strange tale:

A Florida Republican lobbyist’s attempt to sue the young woman at the center of the Rep. Matt Gaetz underage sex trafficking scandal has backfired in spectacular fashion, with the woman filing a response that repeatedly accuses the lobbyist of raping her.

...

Despite his stature and influence in Florida, Dorworth was a side-character in most of the reporting about the investigation. The sparse news stories about him mostly focused on his alleged scheme to run a spoiler candidate that would unfairly tilt a local election. Unexplored were the details that several sources briefed on the investigation had told The Daily Beast: that federal agents were also exploring whether they could target Dorworth for alleged sexual interactions with the same underage teen girl.

...

Dorworth is seeking $1 million, according to a court docket, claiming that his career was destroyed by the investigation and bad press, which he blames on the defendants’ allegedly coordinated lies to protect Greenberg. One problem with that theory: Greenberg is now serving an 11-year prison sentence, stemming from a conviction that A.B.’s attorneys believe was thanks in large part to her testifying against Greenberg.

And now the tables have turned.

The young woman has taken the opportunity to lump the lobbyist in with Greenberg. Her motion to dismiss, which her lawyers filed in federal court on June 16, contains a half dozen passages that directly or indirectly accuse Dorworth of having sex with her when she was underage. The response asks the judge to toss Dorworth’s claims against her, portraying his lawsuit as a thinly disguised attempt to shield himself from his own accountability.

...

The phrasing also makes clear that Dorworth is indeed being accused of having sex with her when she was still underage, with lawyers describing “A.B.’s experiences being sex trafficked and statutorily raped by plaintiff.”

Still cannot process how Gaetz managed to skate on all this. Maybe Jack Smith should put together a team?

[Smoove_B]

Not sure how or why, but there's another probe pending:

The House Ethics Committee investigating Rep. Matt Gaetz has reached out to the woman whom the congressman allegedly had sexual relations with when she was a 17-year-old minor, according to a source familiar with the committee’s work.

The outreach, which has not previously been reported, is a sign that the GOP-led committee’s investigation into the Florida Republican has recently expanded to include questioning around allegations of sex crimes.

Sources said the committee also has reached out to the Justice Department requesting materials from its investigation into Gaetz, which included allegations of lobbying violations, sex-trafficking and possible obstruction of justice. The federal probe, which also included allegations he had sex with a minor, concluded in 2023 with no charges brought against the congressman.

Gaetz has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, including ever having sex with a minor or paying for sex.

[Kurth]

I have to believe Gaetz will one day get his just desserts.

It may not happen, but I have to believe it.

[Pyperkub]

I have to believe Gaetz will one day get his just desserts.

It may not happen, but I have to believe it.

And Dorworth, and the rest. Disgusting.

[Smoove_B]

New article on Gaetz:

When ABC News reported on Wednesday that the House Ethics Committee had acquired text messages between a young woman involved in the sex trafficking investigation and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), a Gaetz spokesperson told ABC that the congressman “does not know anything about the woman you’re referencing.”

That seems extraordinarily unlikely.

The Daily Beast can now report that this woman told prosecutors in 2021 that she had sex with Gaetz at a drug-fueled party that she was paid to attend, according to the woman’s attorney.

This attorney told The Daily Beast on Thursday that the woman, in fact, received payments in connection with multiple sex parties with people in Gaetz’s circle. Her lawyer said that, in response to a subpoena, she testified about her experiences to the U.S. Attorneys investigating Gaetz. And she turned over text messages, photos, and other evidence to the Justice Department as part of its child sex trafficking inquiry into the Florida congressman, the lawyer said.

The Daily Beast has obtained some of those messages and photos, which match the documents described by ABC News.

I guess Madison Cawthorn was right.

Of note:

The woman’s attorney also told The Daily Beast that, when it became apparent Gaetz was being investigated in 2021, she was contacted by another male party attendee—a Gaetz associate—who pressed her to see if she was speaking to anyone about the congressman or the parties. She felt this meeting was an effort to intimidate her into not describing any of the events related to Gaetz, the lawyer said.

The woman, whose name The Daily Beast is withholding, was older than 21 at the time of the encounters, the attorney said, noting that she emphasized to prosecutors that the sex was consensual.

“She told them that she and lots of girls were provided all kinds of controlled substances at these parties,” the lawyer said, confirming a number of news reports about the gatherings. The heavy use of drugs and alcohol was a hurdle for investigators, he said, since it muddled memories of the events.

“The availability of vast amounts of alcohol and controlled substances gave rise to the lack of control of the hormonal imperative,” this lawyer continued, “which inspired people to engage in intimate behavior that may or may not have been because they were financially remunerated.”

So probably exactly it was in the 1970s and 80s but now there are text messages and Venmo.

[hepcat]

What are the odds that McCarthy is behind all these discoveries? If so, more power to him.

[Alefroth]

Gaetz is pretty free with taxpayer money.

https://www.legistorm.com/pro_news/3146 ... enses.html

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who cited the federal government's "reckless spending" as a justification for bringing a motion to vacate against then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), led the House in 2023 office spending - thanks, in part, to new reimbursement rules that allowed the congressman to receive more than $40,000 for housing and meals.

[Daehawk]

He has a serious case of resting bitch face.

[Isgrimnur]

Backpfeifengesicht

[hepcat]

Candy for the van ain’t cheap, people.

[Carpet_pissr]

Candy for the van ain’t cheap, people.

LOL!!

[Smoove_B]

You can't explain this:

As the House Ethics Committee probes allegations that Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) paid for sex with an underage teen, congressional investigators are hitting a wall: the Department of Justice.

The DOJ is “stonewalling” the committee and refusing to turn over relevant information about its own sprawling criminal probe into Gaetz, frustrating the pace of the congressional investigation and leading the committee to seriously consider issuing subpoenas to the feds, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Currently, the committee has authorized multiple subpoenas to the DOJ for the information but has not served them yet, according to one source. Another source added that it is unusual for the DOJ to push back against the committee to this extent, especially when the relevant investigation isn’t active.

The feds have in the past been willing to pass information to the committee so long as it doesn’t interfere with an active and ongoing investigation—which the Gaetz investigation is not.

Still, it’s not clear whether talks have broken down entirely—or what DOJ’s refusal could ultimately mean for the House probe—but the source indicated that the committee still holds hope that the feds will be more cooperative.

[GreenGoo]

"we are in the middle of an investigation and you will leak sensitive information all over the internet. The answer is no, you can't have any of it. We dare you to issue subpoenas"

[Smoove_B]

I mean, if there was an active DoJ investigation going on, sure, I'd expect problems. But there isn't, so what's the problem?

[Pyperkub]

"we are in the middle of an investigation and you will leak sensitive information all over the internet. The answer is no, you can't have any of it. We dare you to issue subpoenas"

Yes, but the DoJ declined to charge him and (publicly) closed the case. Per the article:

The feds have in the past been willing to pass information to the committee so long as it doesn’t interfere with an active and ongoing investigation—which the Gaetz investigation is not....

...The DOJ, of course, ultimately declined to prosecute Gaetz. In February 2023—after a 30-month investigation into allegations that Gaetz paid to have sex with a minor half his age—federal prosecutors informed the congressman’s attorneys that they were declining to charge him with any crimes.

[GreenGoo]

"we are in the middle of an investigation and you will leak sensitive information all over the internet. The answer is no, you can't have any of it. We dare you to issue subpoenas"

Yes, but the DoJ declined to charge him and (publicly) closed the case. Per the article:

Ah. My bad.

Maybe they just don't want to be part of the making of political hay. Or give more weight to the viewpoint that they are a political arm of whichever party is in power.

Obviously I have no idea.