Matt Gaetz Under Investigation

[GMDino]

(04-03-2021, 09:40 AM)Nately120 Wrote: I fear it's going to be an absurdly effective defense.  

Al Franken took an inappropriate picture once and years later it was seen as a bad joke...he resigned.
Cuomo faces multiple accusations...his own party wants him to resign.

Trump faces multiple accusations and refuses to give DNA that would exonerate him.  Fake news.
Kavanaugh faces accusations...where the accuser goes under oath.  She couldn't remember.

There is zero chance the gop turns it's collective back on Gaetz unless there is solid proof and even then they will try and spin it because he is one of them.

[GMDino]

I was just thinking that with the new allegations that he was showing others naked photos of the women/girls who claimed to have had sex with it Gaetz will pull out the "locker room talk" defense".  He didn't REALLY have access to these girls or have sex with underage girls...he was just trying to impress his fellow republicans.  

[GMDino]

They think they are smarter than everyone else.

All these crooks/criminals do.

And then they do the dumbest things to get caught.

https://news.yahoo.com/text-messages-led-feds-matt-132534243.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=fb&tsrc=fb

Quote:These Text Messages Pointed the Feds to Matt Gaetz

Jose Pagliery
Fri, April 2, 2021, 9:25 AM·7 min read



Getty
In late January 2020, U.S. Secret Service agents received information that Rep. Matt Gaetz had accompanied a Florida county tax official they were already investigating on an unusual nighttime visit to a government office—where the local official was allegedly making fake IDs, a source close to the investigation told The Daily Beast.
That tip to the feds came in a text message conversation that Seminole County Tax Collector Joel Greenberg had with an employee explaining why they were both in the office one weekend two years earlier, according to this person.

A timestamp visible in the text message thread indicated the conversation took place on Monday, April 16, 2018.

The Creepy, Disturbing Case That Ensnared Matt Gaetz
[/url]
According to three people with direct knowledge of the incident: Greenberg visited the Lake Mary, Florida branch of his tax collection agency that weekend. Grainy surveillance footage captured Greenberg standing near a manager’s desk with another man. Greenberg forgot to set the alarm on the way out, which concerned the assistant branch manager when she walked into the office Monday morning. That employee was surprised to find that drivers' licenses—which are normally turned in when expired at the tax office for shredding—were scattered all over the desk instead of in the appropriate disposal basket. She reviewed the camera footage and alerted her boss, who in turn contacted Greenberg via text.

“Did you happen to visit the Lake Mary Office on the weekend?” the text message read.

The image obtained by The Daily Beast shows that Greenberg allegedly responded, “Yes I was showing congressman Gaetz what our operation looked like. Did I leave something on?”

handout
The Daily Beast obtained images of additional text messages that purport to show Greenberg helping Gaetz get duplicate IDs—outside of proper channels on a Sunday afternoon. On Sept. 2, 2018, Greenberg directly asked an employee to quickly create a new card that complies with the heightened security standards of “REAL ID,” a process that would normally require providing additional documentation, according to the images.

“Amy- is there anyway to assist one of our Congressmen in getting an emergency replacement ID or DL by Tuesday 2pm? His was lost yesterday and he’s got a flight Tuesday. Doesn’t have any other form of ID currently on him. Sorry to bother you on Sunday,” Greenberg wrote.

Greenberg then confirmed that the favor was for “Matthew Louis Gaetz II,” born on May 7, 1982.

handout
When Greenberg later came under investigation by the Secret Service for identity theft and stalking, agents approached former employees at the tax office to obtain proof of the public official’s activities. That’s when they were suddenly directed to Gaetz.

According to the source who provided the text message conversation, who spoke on condition of anonymity to guarantee their safety, Secret Service agents directed them in the final days of January 2020 to print out the full text message conversation with Greenberg from online AT&T records. That source said those text messages were delivered to the Secret Service, Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and most recently, another federal agency.

Gaetz, a Florida Republican, is now the target of a Justice Department investigation that is focusing on allegations that the Republican congressman and Greenberg recruited young women and paid them for sex, [url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/01/us/politics/matt-gaetz-justice-department.html]according to The New York Times.

CNN first reported the existence of text messages on Thursday. The Orlando Sentinel confirmed their existence as well.

On Wednesday, The Daily Beast attempted to file a public records request to obtain a copy of the video surveillance that is believed to show Gaetz with Greenberg on that weekend in April 2018. However, a Seminole County representative indicated that the video is unavailable because the government agency has a policy of deleting all surveillance footage after 60 days. County officials would not comment on what exactly employees have told federal investigators about their recollection of the incident.

The Daily Beast also attempted to reach the former employee who interacted with Greenberg via text message, but was unsuccessful. That employee eventually signed a $50,000 settlement with the Office of the Seminole County Tax Collector over claims of unfair retaliation at work after Greenberg allegedly used a circle of personal friends he hired at the agency to harass and intimidate her and her family. That settlement bars her from “false or defamatory statements” about her former employer but importantly does not prevent her from speaking to government investigators, according to a copy obtained by The Daily Beast.

Republicans Have Been Waiting for a Matt Gaetz Scandal to Break

Her attorney, Daniel A. Pérez, declined to comment on any current efforts to assist federal law enforcement.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida would not confirm the existence of an ongoing investigation into Gaetz.

Prosecutors there do have an ongoing case against Greenberg, who came under federal scrutiny after he repeatedly angered fellow county officials with his bizarre, erratic behavior.

According to people familiar with the investigation, Secret Service agents were initially interested in Greenberg’s failed attempt to allow Seminole County residents to pay their taxes in Bitcoin. Attorneys have revealed in court that the federal probe quietly began by April 2019. That began to heat up when Greenberg ran for re-election and faced political opposition from a fine arts teacher at Trinity Preparatory School.

Federal agents arrested him at his Lake Mary home on June 17, 2020, and the case initially hinged on accusations that Greenberg had set up fake online profiles to defame the teacher and had sent several letters to the school with lurid accusations that his opponent had engaged in sexual misconduct with a student.

As of Tuesday, that case has now vastly expanded to a 33-count indictment that includes a diverse list of crimes that range from wire fraud to sex trafficking. Investigators say Greenberg recruited at least one teenager between 14 and 17 years old to engage in a “commercial sex act” between May and November 2017 in Central Florida and elsewhere.

Matt Gaetz Keeps Digging Deeper Holes for Himself

Investigators also say that Greenberg used his privileged access to Florida’s drivers' license database to look up private information on “individuals” with whom he “was engaged in ‘sugar-daddy’ relationships.”

Additionally, Greenberg is also accused of making fake IDs—potentially explaining why the 2018 surveillance footage raised concerns that led to that text message conversation handed to investigators.

The Daily Beast obtained text messages handed to federal investigators that allegedly show Greenberg acknowledging that he visited the office on the weekend of August 4, 2018, where there were drivers' licenses “scattered across the desks and not put away in an organized manner.”

Greenberg has maintained a close relationship with Gaetz for several years. Both were rising stars in Florida’s Republican Party in 2016. They have taken selfies together with political operative Roger Stone in 2017, at AIPAC in 2018, and at the White House in 2019. Gaetz publicly lent his support to Greenberg, cheering him as “a disrupter” who should run for Congress.

They were also together in the Florida panhandle region on July 5, 2019 when they called a state legislator, Rep. Anna V. Eskamani, and left her a peculiar voicemail that has been obtained by The Daily Beast.

“My dear Anna, this is your favorite tax collector. I’m up in the panhandle with your favorite U.S. congressman, Mr. Gaetz,” Greenberg starts to say.

“Hi Anna!” Gaetz jumps in.

“And, uh, we were just chatting about you, and talking about your lovely qualities,” Greenberg continued.

“We think you’re the future of the Democratic Party in Florida!” Gaetz said.

On Thursday, Eskamani told The Daily Beast that she kept Greenberg at arm’s length for years. Their interactions started when she called him out over Islamaphobic comments and then helped him connect with the Muslim community to recover from that. Eskamani said she cautiously entertained “weird” contacts from Greenberg and Gaetz that made her uncomfortable.

“We were not friends. We never hung out. We didn't talk ever, really. I just played nice. For so many women you're either very blunt and be called a *****, or you try to play nice and pivot and deflate,” she said.

[GMDino]

https://www.jacksonville.com/news/20190814/republican-rep-matt-gaetz-uses-singer-bebe-rexhas-tweet-to-suggest-new-florida-welcome-signs 

[Nati#1]

HAHA Did you see where Gaetz explained how they were trying to frame him and force him to pay 25M? You didnt mention that?

[TheUberHuber]

(04-04-2021, 01:43 AM)Nati#1 Wrote: HAHA Did you see where Gaetz explained how they were trying to frame him and force him to pay 25M? You didnt mention that?

They are not mutually exclusive. 

[Belsnickel]

(04-04-2021, 01:43 AM)Nati#1 Wrote: HAHA Did you see where Gaetz explained how they were trying to frame him and force him to pay 25M? You didnt mention that?

Someone, supposedly, tried to extort him to make the investigation go away. That doesn't mean he is innocent. That could just mean there is an ex DoJ official that was apparently up for sweeping things under the rug for money.

I, for one, am willing to let the investigation play out before really casting aspersions. I trust Gaetz about, well, not at all, really. He is garbage. But these are serious accusations and it is still an ongoing investigation.

[Dill]

This thread is a fine example of the newest Dem disease--GDS!

Seriously, what has this man done to make you all hate him so much?

[fredtoast]

Gaetz hitched his star to Trump.  Trump followers don't care that much about sexual assault.  So Hh will not lose his base,

[Dill]

(04-04-2021, 12:45 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Gaetz hitched his star to Trump.  Trump followers don't care that much about sexual assault.  So Hh will not lose his base,

The followers don't care what the Great and unfairly persecuted leader is accused of.

But Gaetz is, after all, just another follower. Not a mini Trump. 

I think it likely he is going down, and there will be little to no penalty paid by fellow Republican Congressmen
who decide to cut themselves loose from him.  

Same for Fox News commentators. 

[GMDino]

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/qanon-matt-gaetz-sex-trafficking-investigation-1149484/

Quote:QAnon Community Outraged by Matt Gaetz Sex Trafficking Investigation … Except for the Wrong Reason
It’s almost as if the conspiracy theorists aren’t actually that concerned about child trafficking
By 
RYAN BORT 
[/url]



[url=https://www.rollingstone.com/t/qanon/]QAnon is a baseless conspiracy theory predicated on the idea that the government is run by a cabal of sex-trafficking pedophiles. It stands to reason that adherents might feel a little vindicated — celebratory, even — when news breaks that a prominent politician is under investigation for sex trafficking. Such news broke last night, when The New York Times reported that the FBI is looking at Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) for a possible sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl, whom he may have “trafficked” by paying for her to travel across state lines.


But alas, the QAnon community doesn’t seem to be calling for Gaetz to be removed from Congress, arrested, or worse, as they have for countless other politicians who are not under investigation for sex trafficking. Instead, the QAnon crowd appears to be defending Gaetz by alleging that the media and the Justice Department are persecuting one of former President Trump’s most fervent supporters.

For some reason, QAnon people are refusing to take their dream scenario coming true — a sitting congressman being investigated for child trafficking — at face value. They love Gaetz’s inscrutable double agent story because it sounds like 5D chess.

— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) March 31, 2021

 

Q followers voice their support of Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz, who has been accused of sex trafficking a minor.

Supporters of the Q theory often defend their conspiracy-based movement by claiming that they are anti-pedophilia and anti-sex trafficking activists. pic.twitter.com/E2e90nkUer

— allie mezei (@pinealdecalcify) March 31, 2021

 
Gaetz has made it easy for them. His defense centers around the idea that the allegations are tied to a crooked ex-Justice Department official’s attempt to extort his family, and there isn’t much the QAnon community loves more than the idea that the Justice Department is filled with “deep state” actors trying to sabotage Trump and his supporters.




What else is Gaetz claiming? It’s complicated.

In a statement released Tuesday night, Gaetz said that an ex-DOJ official and others have “organized” in an attempt to extort his family for $25 million, threatening to smear his name if they don’t pay up. His family went to the FBI, he says, and has since been cooperating with an investigation into the extortion attempt. Gaetz says that as part of this investigation, his father wore a wire, and Gaetz now wants the FBI to release any relevant tapes. Gaetz says the FBI’s investigation into his possible relationship with a 17-year-old was leaked to the Times in an attempt to somehow “thwart” this extortion investigation.

What’s missing from all of this is an explanation of why Gaetz was under investigation for sex trafficking in the first place. Gaetz told the Times the investigation is the result of people trying to “recategorize my generosity to ex-girlfriends as something more untoward,” and that the allegations are false. But who are these people? Are some of them currently working at the DOJ? Who is the girl in question and what was the nature of Gaetz’s relationship with her? It’s unclear.

Gaetz went on Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight to defend himself after the Times published its story. It didn’t go great, in part because he did not offer anything resembling a coherent explanation for what’s going on, and in part because of a few bizarre attempts to rope Carlson into his defense.

Q followers voice their support of Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz, who has been accused of sex trafficking a minor.

Supporters of the Q theory often defend their conspiracy-based movement by claiming that they are anti-pedophilia and anti-sex trafficking activists. pic.twitter.com/E2e90nkUer

— allie mezei (@pinealdecalcify) March 31, 2021

 

“If you just saw our Matt Gaetz interview, that was one of the weirdest interviews I’ve ever conducted,” Carlson said after coming back from commercial break. “I don’t think that clarified much,” Carlson added. “I don’t quite understand it.”

The main thing Gaetz seems to want everyone to understand is not what happened, but that he’s being treated unfairly and people are out to get him. It’s just the kind of paranoid conspiracy theorizing that continues to fuel QAnon as their prognostications fall flat over and over again, and which seems to have brought many in the community to Gaetz’s defense. “I’m a well-known, outspoken conservative, and I guess that’s out of style in a lot of parts of the country right now,” Gaetz told Carlson in explaining why he’s been wrong by … the FBI? The same FBI he’s also cooperating with to catch the former DOJ official trying to extort him? Again, it’s unclear.

Regardless of whether Gaetz is intentionally trying to muddy the waters around whatever is actually going on here, the situation has become so confusing that the QAnon community has been able to fill in the gaps with whatever they feel suits the movement, which — surprise! — doesn’t seems as concerned with sex trafficking as it does with defending Trump and his allies at all costs.

[BigPapaKain]

(04-04-2021, 02:01 PM)GMDino Wrote: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/qanon-matt-gaetz-sex-trafficking-investigation-1149484/

Cult members defend cult leader's boot licker.

[Sociopathicsteelerfan]

(04-03-2021, 09:49 AM)GMDino Wrote: Al Franken took an inappropriate picture once and years later it was seen as a bad joke...he resigned.

I really like Al Franken, and I don't think he needed to resign.  That being said there was far more to his accusations than one picture.  You're already in the untruthful column here.

Quote:Cuomo faces multiple accusations...his own party wants him to resign.

Also untrue.  Some people in his own party want him to resign, not all.  Honestly, I haven't heard much about him at all lately, I guess his "own party" is content now that it's out of the news cycle?  In any event, he's still in office and shows no signs of resigning.  How many accusers now?  How recently?

Quote:Trump faces multiple accusations and refuses to give DNA that would exonerate him.  Fake news.

For some.  I was on record before he was POTUS talking about a friend who was personally groped by him.  Clinton stayed in office after taking advantage of an intern, and he was also accused of rape.  No one apparently believes that survivor.

Quote:Kavanaugh faces accusations...where the accuser goes under oath.  She couldn't remember.

Eh, the Kavanaugh thing had a lot of problems.  I really don't want to pick scabs, but let's suffice to say that the case against him wasn't exactly rock solid.

Quote:There is zero chance the gop turns it's collective back on Gaetz unless there is solid proof and even then they will try and spin it because he is one of them.

Is that right?

https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2021/04/02/no-defense-gaetz-finds-few-republican-allies-amid-investigation-1371471

It's constantly amusing how blindly partisan you are, yet you, and others, "don't see it".

(04-04-2021, 07:20 AM)Belsnickel Wrote: Someone, supposedly, tried to extort him to make the investigation go away. That doesn't mean he is innocent. That could just mean there is an ex DoJ official that was apparently up for sweeping things under the rug for money.

A good point on both ends.

Quote:I, for one, am willing to let the investigation play out before really casting aspersions. I trust Gaetz about, well, not at all, really. He is garbage. But these are serious accusations and it is still an ongoing investigation.

He doesn't inspire anything close to confidence in me, either.  But you're absolutely correct, let the investigation play out.

[fredtoast]

(04-04-2021, 10:49 PM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: Is that right?

https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2021/04/02/no-defense-gaetz-finds-few-republican-allies-amid-investigation-1371471

It's constantly amusing how blindly partisan you are, yet you, and others, "don't see it".

How totally dishonest of you.

Posting an article that only addresses half of the Republicans in one state and claiming it is indicative of the entire GOP.

And we ALL "see it" when it comes to  how desperate your spin is regarding partisan politics.

[GMDino]

(04-04-2021, 11:00 PM)fredtoast Wrote: How totally dishonest of you.

Posting an article that only addresses half of the Republicans in one state and claiming it is indicative of the entire GOP.

And we ALL "see it" when it comes to  how desperate your spin is regarding partisan politics.

Gaetz "not having friends", according to the article, is not near the same as any of them calling for his resignation...or even criticizing him.

Yet we are the partisans.  It's funny.

[Sociopathicsteelerfan]

(04-05-2021, 08:55 AM)GMDino Wrote: Gaetz "not having friends", according to the article, is not near the same as any of them calling for his resignation...or even criticizing him.

Yet we are the partisans.  It's funny.

It's still being investigated, you're assuming he's guilty.  If he's guilty he'll either have to resign or he'll be forced out.  Literally no one is leaping to his defense.  I suppose you and your buddy could actually back up your assertion by posting evidence of Gaetz being defended by members of the GOP.  Since you can't, your point is a bullshit one.  You know it and Fred, now trying to project his chronic dishonesty onto others, knows it.

[fredtoast]

(04-05-2021, 10:43 AM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote:  I suppose you and your buddy could actually back up your assertion by posting evidence of Gaetz being defended by members of the GOP.  Since you can't, your point is a bullshit one. 

This is just too easy.

This is from the article that YOU posted.  

Roger Stone, himself a longtime ally of Trump who knows Gaetz, did come to the defense of the congressman on Parler and called the allegations a "smear" intended to "destroy" the up-and-coming conservative leader.


State Rep. Alex Andrade, a Pensacola Republican and friend of Gaetz viewed as a potential successor to his northwest Florida congressional seat, also has stayed by his side.  “I’ve no reason not to believe Congressman Gaetz,” Andrade said in an interview Thursday before the latest Times story was published.


Another conservative Republican and fellow firebrand — State Rep. Anthony Sabatini — also quickly leaped to Gaetz's defense when news of the investigation broke. He tweeted earlier this week that “DOJ and the Media is a shady group of lying creeps—we’ve seen this movie before.”  Sabatini, who is running for Congress in 2022 against incumbent Rep. Daniel Webster (R-Fla.) but could switch to a newly-created seat, amplified that in a message to POLITICO.  “Anybody can be named in an 'investigation'—at any time, for any reason, without any evidence,” Sabatini said. “Also DOJ has lost the trust of the American people.”


And on Tuesday, before further details were revealed, Joe Gruters, the Republican Party of Florida chair, tweeted to Gaetz that he should "Stay strong and fight on!"

[TheUberHuber]

(04-04-2021, 10:49 PM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: I really like Al Franken, and I don't think he needed to resign.  

Me too. What he did was a serious lapse in judgment and super cringe,  but I don't think he needed to resign over it. Nowhere near as serious as all of the Cuomo accusations. I liked Frankens' radio show back in the day, but not really a fan of his comedy on SNL.

Oh look at this, two terrible people from both sides coming to an agreement lol... 

[Sociopathicsteelerfan]

(04-05-2021, 02:15 PM)TheUberHuber Wrote: Me too. What he did was a serious lapse in judgment and super cringe,  but I don't think he needed to resign over it. Nowhere near as serious as all of the Cuomo accusations. I liked Frankens' radio show back in the day, but not really a fan of his comedy on SNL.

Oh look at this, two terrible people from both sides coming to an agreement lol... 

What is the world coming to?!?! 

[CJD]

It's very likely that the charges will be dismissed due to lack of evidence and then he'll be re-elected in a landslide.

Doesn't really matter if he did it or not.