Matt Gaetz’s Legal Woes Keep Mounting. And He Still Won’t Shut Up, Which Is Pretty Hilarious.

By now we’ve all heard that GOP House member and Trump acolyte Matt Gaetz is under investigation for child sex trafficking, after allegations that he paid for a 17-year-old girl to accompany him on trips. With the lens of law enforcement focused on Gaetz, a host of additional problems have now surfaced. To enjoy this moment of schadenfreude properly, let’s walk through some of them.

Ironic Photo Courtesy of Facebook

When the story first broke, Gaetz pulled an instant “But look over there!” that in hindsight may have been a disastrous move that could amount to a charge of obstruction of justice. Here’s the bizarre narrative that Gaetz tweeted out as soon as the story broke about the 17-year-old girl:

“Over the past several weeks my family and I have been victims of an organized criminal extortion involving a former DOJ official seeking $25 million while threatening to smear my name.

We have been cooperating with federal authorities in this matter and my father has even been wearing a wire at the FBI’s direction to catch these criminals. The planted leak to the FBI tonight was intended to thwart that investigation.

No part of the allegations against me are true, and the people pushing these lies are targets of the ongoing extortion investigation. 

I demand the DOJ immediately release the tapes, made at their direction, which implicate their former colleague in crimes against me based on false allegations.”

If it were actually true that there is an ongoing federal investigation into extortion, and that this father wore a wire as part of that, then publicly exposing this investigation—and compromising sources, undercover investigators, and the fact of the investigation itself—could be considered obstruction of justice. Not smart of him.

In any event, it turns out, according to Politico, that this supposed extortion attempt wasn’t against Matt Gaetz but rather against his father, Don Gaetz, a former Florida Senate president. It also has nothing to do with the allegations against Gaetz today. The sex-trafficking investigation arose out of an ongoing case against a close friend and associate of Gaetz named Joel Greenberg, the former tax collector for Seminole County. 

And here’s where it gets even creepier. Per the Washington Post, Gaetz has long boasted to others of meeting women introduced to him through Greenberg, who finds women willing to “accompany” men in exchange for perks like travel and fine dining. Gaetz even purportedly showed nude pictures and videos of these women to others on the House floor. (This wildly inappropriate act feels remarkably similar to what his idol Donald Trump reportedly did when he showed off nude photos of women on his yacht…while attending the funeral shivah of his CFO Allen Weisselberg’s mother on Long Island.)

While there isn’t yet evidence that any of these women in Gaetz’s shared photos and videos were underage, the actions would still be in violation of House ethics rules, not to mention workplace laws and regulations against hostile work environments. This alone could be grounds for censure or removal from Congress.

It also seems that every time Gaetz opens his mouth to speak publicly, he digs himself a deeper hole and loses more friends and allies. His recent interview with Tucker Carlson of Fox News, on which Gaetz has been a regular guest, is a fine example. In one moment, Gaetz adamantly denies that the 17-year-old girl even exists. Yet later in the interview, he throws Carlson under the bus, asserting that the Fox News host and his wife were actually present with Gaetz and the girl during a dinner—an accusation made Tucker Carlson outright livid, according to a CNN source. These inconsistencies and off-the-cuff comments are not just bad-boy theatrics. They are potentially powerful evidence that can be used for impeachment purposes later by prosecutors. If Gaetz had any competent lawyers advising him, they would tell him to stop taking interviews.

Here’s another example. In speaking with Axios, Gaetz claimed in his defense, “You know, I've paid for flights, for hotel rooms. I’ve been, you know, generous as a partner. I think someone is trying to make that look criminal when it is not.” Those payments, however, are under investigation as well. Did Gaetz improperly use campaign funds to finance lavish hotel room stays and flights for his female companions? The Justice Department may start to look into that.

There is also now evidence that Gaetz may have been using illicit drugs such as ecstasy and supplying the same to his companions, even while he held office in Congress. His associate Joel Greenberg also stands accused of creating fake IDs using the state DMV database, and this could tie into wider allegations of sex trafficking of minors. The farther the investigation goes, it seems the more lurid the details.

The GOP has been largely silent on Gaetz, even while “scandals” such as those involving former Rep. Katie Hill and Sen. Al Franken led to their quick resignations for far less. Only Rep. Jim Jordan and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene so far have spoken out in his defense, which isn’t exactly great company for his legal and political future. Meanwhile, Rep. Ted Lieu has called for Gaetz to be removed from the powerful House Judiciary Committee while the investigation continues, and Speaker Pelosi has called for the House Ethics committee to begin an investigation into Gaetz’s behavior, per reporting by The Hill. 

A few more interesting developments: Joel Greenberg is now charged with 33 federal counts, including child sex trafficking, and he is said to be cooperating readily with authorities, which is very bad news for anyone caught in his network of travel companion introductions. That network includes one as-yet-unnamed Florida politician, leading to widespread speculation as to how high up it goes. Prosecutors will lean heavily on Greenberg to cough up names, records and other evidence of who else may have been involved. It is likely only a matter of days or weeks until Gaetz himself is indicted, and we will need to wait and see who else might be implicated.