This has been a wild ride today. The news came out earlier that Rep. Matt Gaetz has been considering departing congress and joining cable news, specifically Newsmax.
Not long after, the New York Times broke a big story claiming that he is the target of an investigation by the Justice Department into accusations that he “had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old and paid for her to travel with him,” which is a sex trafficking charge at least.
But a short time ago, via Twitter, Gaetz pushed back, claiming that in fact what he is a target of is HARASSMENT and EXTORTION by a former gov’t official. And he called on the Justice Department to release the audio tapes he says were recorded at their behest.
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…
— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) March 30, 2021
…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…
— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) March 30, 2021
…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.
— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) March 30, 2021
Here’s a Fox News report from a short time ago on the subject.
This is amazing and terrible. I’ll try to keep up to date with this rapidly moving story.