Political Sex and Corruption Scandals

[LFC]

Sure I could have put "Republican" in the front of the subject line and included the lion's share of the stories but we'll just dump them all in here.

Leading off is Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FLucking Loudmouth Moron) who has been under investigation for an alleged cross state line affair with a 17-year old girl. This is a DOJ investigation and it was started under William Barr so he can't pull the usual "the Dems are after me because I'm so effective!" nonsense. So what's his defense. Well it's ... odd. Here he is on Tucker Carlson's show trying to convince us he's not guilty.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) further nuked himself on Tuesday night in a bizarre interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

Gaetz began the interview by repeating his earlier statement denying the New York Times article reporting that federal prosecutors are investigating the congressman over a possible relationship with a 17-year old girl, including whether he paid her to travel with him across state lines.

Gaetz invited anyone to “look at my travel records and see that that was not the case.”

He then launched into a timeline: on March 16, Gaetz said, a former DOJ official texted Gaetz’s father “demanding a meeting wherein a person demanded $25 million” in order to make “horrible sex trafficking allegations against me go away.”

Gaetz then said that he approached the FBI, who had his father “wear a wire” while with the supposedly extortionate former DOJ official. He then demanded that the FBI “release the recordings” to prove, once and for all, that the allegations were untrue.

The Florida congressman added that the article, published on Tuesday, came too early: it was tomorrow, Gaetz maintained, that Gaetz’s father had planned to contact the former DOJ official for instructions to wire $4.5 million as a “down payment on this bribe.”

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that somehow, tonight, the New York Times is smearing me and ruining the investigation that would likely result in one of the former colleagues of the DOJ being brought to justice,” he said. Gaetz later elaborated that the money transfer was supposedly part of a secret, QAnon-esque FBI plot to take down the extortionist only to be foiled by a New York Times bent on disrupting the investigation.

Throughout this, Carlson maintained his standard bewildered glare. He then asked who the former DOJ employee was.

Gaetz named the person as David McGee, a Florida attorney. McGee did not immediately return a request for comment from TPM. Gaetz accused McGee of offering a pardon from Biden in exchange for the bribe, bringing the absurdity of the story to a level not seen at least since Trump’s departure from office.

There's plenty more but then Gaetz blurted this out. Whaaaaaat?

Carlson then asked who the person was that Gaetz was accused of dating while she was underage. Gaetz denied that she existed or was underage, but then, when Carlson asked when Gaetz was first informed of the DOJ probe, the Florida congressman delivered the coup de grâce: denying that the 17-year old existed, while also denying furiously that there were photos taken of him with child prostitutes.

“People were talking about a minor, that there were pictures of me with child prostitutes, thats obviously false, there will be no such pictures because no such thing happened,” Gaetz said.

There have been no public allegations to date of Gaetz being photographed with child prostitutes.

David Magee was not having it.

David McGee, a onetime Justice Department prosecutor whom Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) has accused of extorting him, denied the congressman’s accusation on Tuesday night.

Gaetz is under investigation by the DOJ for possible sex trafficking law violations involving a 17-year-old girl.

McGee, who now works at a private law firm in Florida, told the Daily Beast on Tuesday that Gaetz’s evidence-free claims were “completely, totally false.”

“This is a blatant attempt to distract from the fact that Matt Gaetz is apparently about to be indicted for sex trafficking underage girls,” the attorney said.

It sounds like Gaetz is in some seriously deep shit.

[LFC]

We may have the answer to why Gaetz was melting down about photographs of him with underage prostitutes from earlier coverage of the story.

The probe, reportedly opened in the final months of the Trump administration under Attorney General Bill Barr, was said to be part of a larger investigation into Gaetz’s political ally Joel Greenberg, the former tax collector in Seminole County, Florida, who was indicted last summer on sex trafficking and other charges.

[LFC]

To add to this pile of slime and sleaze we also have the fact that in 2017 Matt Gaetz was literally the only one to vote against an anti-human trafficking bill. This guy sounds more and more like a Jeffrey Epstein wannabe.

[LFC]

Some of the other characters in GaetzGate. This sounds like a widening investigation in a story that's brimming with crook

[LFC]

Now we know the money motive for Gov. Andrew Cuomo's cover-up of actual COVID death figures. Bonus points for improper use of state resources for personal gain (allegedly).

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) managed to seal a book deal that offered him more than $4 million to detail his pandemic leadership, while his administration worked to revise a potentially damaging Health Department report that would expose staggering COVID-19 nursing home deaths, The New York Times reported late Wednesday.

According to the Times, revisions by Cuomo’s top aides to an impending Health Department report overlapped with the governor securing the lucrative book deal and served to temporarily preserved his image as a leader amid the pandemic while guarding him from criticism.

The governor’s secretary Melissa DeRosa and another aide, Linda Lacewell, had shown concern about the higher death toll which had appeared in the second sentence of the report and was deleted from the final version, according to drafts of the report reviewed by the Times.

According to the Times, Cuomo also used the resources of his office to help with the manuscript for “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the Covid-19 Pandemic,” using aides and junior staffers for tasks like editing and clerical work that potentially violated state laws prohibiting use of public resources for personal gain.

[LFC]

[LFC]

The insane gift that keeps on giving. I read several opinions that said the "extortion" plot was unlikely to be a straight up lie but was rather likely to have been based on something, just probably not what Gaetz said it was. Sure enough a long-term and well respected reporter on intelligence and spy issues has apparently figured out what this plot really was. Here's the short version but the long version is worth it for its craziness.

["Levinson" is an FBI agent investigating organized crim who disappeared on a clandestine mission in Iran.]
["Kent is former Air Force intelligence obsessed with finding Levinson who is highly likely dead.]

Three years later, according to reports this week, Kent went looking for funding for another Levinson rescue mission, this time from Matt Gaetz’s father, a wealthy Florida businessman. According to copies of messages obtained by the conservative Washington Examiner newspaper, Kent told Don Gaetz that he could make his son’s “future legal and political problems go away” if he backed a rescue plan that would end up wrapping his son in wreaths of glory. Kent allegedly told the elder Gaetz that he would give his congressman son “credit for the operation” and help arrange “a presidential pardon for unnamed legal issues” if he put up $25 million for the operation, according to the newspaper.

“Our strategy for Congressman Gaetz to mitigate his legal, and political, troubles would be for him, or someone else, to arrange for the funds required to obtain the immediate release of Robert Levinson from captivity in Iran,” the proposal said. “. . . In exchange for the funds being arranged, and upon release of Robert Levinson, Congressman Gaetz shall be given credit for facilitating the release of Mr. Levinson.”

[LFC]

Congressional Republicans had long since figured out that Gaetz was a ticking time bomb and it was just a matter of time before a scandal exploded.

Gaetz—the Trump-loving, Fox News-grinning, 38-year-old Florida Republican—has a less-than-sterling reputation among his congressional colleagues. More than a half-dozen lawmakers have spoken to these reporters about his love of alcohol and illegal drugs, as well as his proclivity for younger women. It’s well-known among Republican lawmakers that Gaetz was dating a college student—one over the age of consent—in 2018. She came to Washington as an intern.

In response to these allegations and a question about whether he had ever had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old while in Congress, Gaetz told The Daily Beast late Wednesday night:
“The last time I had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old, I was 17. As for the Hill, I know I have many enemies and few friends. My support generally lies outside of Washington, D.C., and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
As for his few friends in Washington, The Daily Beast found that to be true. One former GOP staffer said Wednesday that their office had an informal rule to not allow their member to appear next to Gaetz during TV hits, fearful of the inevitable scandal that would come out one day.

On Tuesday, it might finally have dropped.

He's not completely friendless, though.

Now, Gaetz may be finding generosity in short supply among his colleagues. Only two House Republicans jumped to his defense on Wednesday: Judiciary Committee ranking Republican Jim Jordan (R-OH), who himself has been accused of turning a blind eye to sexual assault; and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who has repeatedly boosted the QAnon conspiracy theory accusing Democrats of abusing children.

While Greene compared the Gaetz allegations to a “witch hunt” and the “conspiracy theories and lies like Trump/Russia collusion,” Jordan was more muted. “I believe Matt Gaetz,” he said in a statement to CNN.

So he has the man who protected a serial sexual predator of students he was responsible for protecting and a married woman who banged a bunch of random guys sticking up for him. Awesome!

[Bact PhD]

Apr 1, 2021 16:30:44 GMT LFC said:

Congressional Republicans had long since figured out that Gaetz was a ticking time bomb and it was just a matter of time before a scandal exploded.

Gaetz—the Trump-loving, Fox News-grinning, 38-year-old Florida Republican—has a less-than-sterling reputation among his congressional colleagues. More than a half-dozen lawmakers have spoken to these reporters about his love of alcohol and illegal drugs, as well as his proclivity for younger women. It’s well-known among Republican lawmakers that Gaetz was dating a college student—one over the age of consent—in 2018. She came to Washington as an intern.

In response to these allegations and a question about whether he had ever had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old while in Congress, Gaetz told The Daily Beast late Wednesday night:
“The last time I had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old, I was 17. As for the Hill, I know I have many enemies and few friends. My support generally lies outside of Washington, D.C., and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
As for his few friends in Washington, The Daily Beast found that to be true. One former GOP staffer said Wednesday that their office had an informal rule to not allow their member to appear next to Gaetz during TV hits, fearful of the inevitable scandal that would come out one day.

On Tuesday, it might finally have dropped.

He's not completely friendless, though.

Now, Gaetz may be finding generosity in short supply among his colleagues. Only two House Republicans jumped to his defense on Wednesday: Judiciary Committee ranking Republican Jim Jordan (R-OH), who himself has been accused of turning a blind eye to sexual assault; and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who has repeatedly boosted the QAnon conspiracy theory accusing Democrats of abusing children.

While Greene compared the Gaetz allegations to a “witch hunt” and the “conspiracy theories and lies like Trump/Russia collusion,” Jordan was more muted. “I believe Matt Gaetz,” he said in a statement to CNN.

So he has the man who protected a serial sexual predator of students he was responsible for protecting and a married woman who banged a bunch of random guys sticking up for him. Awesome!

Wait a minute, what’s that old saw about being judged by the company one keeps? Hmmm.

[LFC]

Elain Chao, Trump's transportation secretary and Moscow Mitch McConnell's wife, had a number of ethical lapses reported by the inspector general. In the meantime her families shipping business suddenly flourished. The DOJ under Wilhelm Barr, of course, buried the report. And Moscow Mitch was there to help in the coverup.

With that background, here are some telling examples of Elaine Chao using the Transportation Department as a promotional arm to build the profile and reputation of her family's Sino-American shipping empire. The report focused on 14 events the secretary attended or planned to attend with her father between 2017-2018, including the 50th anniversary of the Dept. of Transportation, among other instances of mixing family matters with her official duties:

The inspector general's investigators interviewed transportation ethics lawyers, who revealed that "they had no record of a request to provide ethics advice" for a number of the specific events listed above. More often than not, Chao's top staff failed to bring potential conflicts to the attention of the ethics lawyers, as required by longstanding policy.

The Inspector-General Act requires that an inspector general be appointed "without regard to political affiliation and solely on the basis of integrity and demonstrated ability." The act was intended to, but in this case failed to, insulate inspectors general "from political retribution," a common Trump administration theme.

Behm was one of five inspectors general whom Trump attempted to remove as their staffs were digging into corruption in his administration. Trump was unable to remove Behm but had to wait for the Senate to confirm Trump's nominee to take over.

Trump's nominee as the new inspector general at transportation was the head of its pipelines safety office. The nominee was to retain his pipeline job while also becoming inspector general, an unusual arrangement putting a subordinate in a post that is supposed to be independent.

Still in his acting position, seven months after Trump had tried to remove him, Behm sent Chao's file to Justice with a referral for a criminal investigation. It was sent to the Justice Department on Dec. 16, 2020. After one justice office declined to open an investigation, the inspector general's report was sent to a different part of justice the next day.

The reaction was swift. That same day, Dec. 17, McConnell, Chao's husband, abruptly brought to the Senate floor a vote to confirm Trump's nominee to be the new Transportation inspector general.

The first vote failed but ultimately on Dec. 21, the nominee was confirmed on a party-line vote of 48 to 47. That ended Behm's acting role. Of the five inspectors general that Trump tried to fire, the only one removed was the one investigating McConnell's wife. Behm has since returned to his previous position as deputy inspector general at transportation.

On the last week Trump held office, Attorney General Barr declined to prosecute Chao. Whether the Biden administration will review that under Attorney General Merrick Garland is unknown.

[Bact PhD]

B-b-but Hillary’s e-mails! Benghazi!

[LFC]

Campaign funds may have been used to pay for sex.

Federal investigators who are probing allegations that Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) made payments to multiple women who were recruited online for sex have also looked into whether any federal campaign money was involved in paying for travel and expenses for the women, CNN reported late Thursday.

The development comes after a separate revelation that investigators have focused on payments Gaetz made using the Cash App and Apple Pay in his encounters with the women. The women told friends that the payments were for sex. Sometimes, they said they were paid in cash from ATMs located in Florida hotels.

How long before Matt jumps in front of a camera, tears streaming down his face, and claims to have a sex addiction? Then cries how he has sinned but he hopes to recover (his political / right-wingnut media career) with the help of his family and God(tm).

[LFC]

Here's a Matt Gaetz timeline from TPM.

[Bact PhD]

Apr 4, 2021 13:38:22 GMT LFC said:

Campaign funds may have been used to pay for sex.

Federal investigators who are probing allegations that Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) made payments to multiple women who were recruited online for sex have also looked into whether any federal campaign money was involved in paying for travel and expenses for the women, CNN reported late Thursday.

The development comes after a separate revelation that investigators have focused on payments Gaetz made using the Cash App and Apple Pay in his encounters with the women. The women told friends that the payments were for sex. Sometimes, they said they were paid in cash from ATMs located in Florida hotels.

How long before Matt jumps in front of a camera, tears streaming down his face, and claims to have a sex addiction? Then cries how he has sinned but he hopes to recover (his political / right-wingnut media career) with the help of his family and God(tm).

How long? I’m giving it less than a week. And only that long because the Powers That Be will need to line up someone to run in the special election.
I also give it less than six months before his TV commentator debut.

[LFC]

As if it wasn't bad enough that Gaetz voted to protect sex trafficking it turns out he was also a protector of revenge porn. The way the Dems reacted to Cuomo compared to the utter silence of Republicans on Gaetz really shows the difference in morality.

Former Florida state Rep. Tom Goodson (R) described on Monday how the embattled Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) was the primary opponent of his bill outlawing “revenge porn,” aka pornographic images of the victim distributed by a former sex partner without consent, when the now-U.S. congressman served in his home state’s House of Representatives.

“Matt was absolutely against it,” Goodson told the Orlando Sentinel. “He thought the picture was his to do with what he wanted. He thought that any picture was his to use as he wanted to, as an expression of his rights.”

Gaetz was one of the two votes against the legislation once it reached a final vote in the state House in 2015.

[goldenvalley]

Remember Katie Hill the California Congressperson who resigned after her sleazy ex-husband shared around nude pics of her and she had an affair with a staffer? Well she and Gaetz were sort of friends and he stood up for her over those photos. Now she learns that he was sharing nude photos of women.  Hill's mom had some comments about that:

When the news about Matt Gaetz broke, my mom once again called to ask if I was okay. She knew about our friendship and didn’t like it. From the very beginning she’d told me to be careful and not to trust him. When he defended me, she raised her eyebrows and told me I’d better not sleep with him (I did not, for the record).

“Yeah, I’m okay,” I replied. “I just don’t really know what to say. I really hope it’s not true.”

“I’m sure it’s true.”

“Jeez, Mom, why??”

“Because it’s always true. Hopefully this time a man actually takes the fall.”

We’ll see.

www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/04/katie-hill-on-matt-gaetz-needing-to-resign#intcid=recommendations_vf-trending-legacy_f6b5211a-9e8b-4366-83f8-a83ed88f377d_popular4-1

[LFC]

Gaetz, who asked for a blanket pardon from Trump, is fundraising off of the "fake news."

He's also scheduled to speak at Trump's Doral property in front of the same group that organized the January 6 Trump rally/insurrection. Scumbag traitors of a feather...

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) will appear at one of Donald Trump’s properties on Friday night to speak at an event hosted by the group that held the Jan. 6 pro-Trump rally in Washington, D.C. that turned into the insurrection.

Women for America First announced that Gaetz would be speaking at their “Save America Summit” at the Trump National Doral in an email Tuesday. The event is scheduled to take place from Thursday through Sunday, and Gaetz will speak Friday night, according to the email.

[LFC]

Did Gaetz take his crimes international?

Federal investigators are examining a Bahamas trip Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) allegedly took as part of an inquiry into whether he violated sex trafficking laws, according to multiple reports.

CBS News reported that investigators are trying to determine if alleged paid female escorts on the trip –which reportedly took place in late 2018 or early 2019– were illegally trafficked across state or international lines for the purpose of sex with the congressman.

Sources told CBS News that Gaetz was joined on the trip by Jason Pirozzolo, a marijuana entrepreneur and hand surgeon, who allegedly paid for the company of the women, in addition to travel expenses and accommodations.

NBC News also confirmed that the trip was under scrutiny and noted investigators were also looking into whether Gaetz and one of his associates used the internet to search for women they could pay for sex.

[goldenvalley]

This whole Gaetz thing is comical. A cartoon figure engaged in crime novel activity.

[andydp]

Get your programs here !!  Can't tell the slimeballs apart without a program !!

A GOP congressman, a sex-trafficking probe, and a $25 million extortion plot: Here's everything we know about 'Gaetzgate'
Rep. Matt Gaetz is the focus of a wide-ranging federal sex crimes investigation.

Gaetz claims the investigation is part of an elaborate scheme to extort his family for $25 million.

Both things could be true: Gaetz is under investigation, and someone later tried to extort him.

See more stories on Insider's business page.

Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz said on March 25 that if he was ever the subject of a scandal, he wanted it to be called "Gaetzgate."



Less than a week later, the lawmaker got his wish.



It started with a bombshell New York Times story about a federal sex crimes investigation into Gaetz, which is said to be examining whether he had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old and violated sex-trafficking laws. Gaetz has not been charged in connection to the investigation.



But the saga has since morphed to include details of an alleged multimillion dollar extortion scheme Gaetz says was carried out by two former government officials who found out about the sex probe and tried to shake his family down.



Here's what you need to know about "Gaetzgate," beginning with the cast of characters:

(ed note: You thought I would make it easy for you ?  Go look for yourself !!)

www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/a-gop-congressman-a-sex-trafficking-probe-and-a-25-million-extortion-plot-here-s-everything-we-know-about-gaetzgate/ar-BB1fdjae?ocid=msedgntp

[LFC]

His buddy who is already up on sex trafficking charges is expected to cooperate.

Rep. Matt Gaetz’s (R-FL) friend Joel Greenberg will likely change his plea after facing four grand jury indictments alleging everything from sex trafficking to wire fraud, according to reports from a status hearing Thursday in Florida.

Greenberg has so far pleaded not guilty to the dozens of counts against him.

“We believe this case will be a plea,” one prosecutor told the court, CNN reported.

That spells potential trouble for Gaetz. The reported sex trafficking investigation into the congressman — authorities are said to be investigating whether he had sex with a 17-year-old girl, and whether anything of value was exchanged — stemmed from the investigation into Greenberg.

All I can say for Gaetz is...

[LFC]

The Gaetz scandal just keeps on getting more and more bizarre.

Matt Gaetz’s office on Thursday released a statement purportedly from female staffers defending the embattled MAGA lawmaker amid his ongoing sex scandal. Despite being signed by “The Women of the Office of U.S. Congressman Matt Gaetz,” not a single, actual woman was named.

“After the shocking allegations last week in the press, we, the women of Congressman Matt Gaetz’s office, feel morally obligated to speak out,” the letter began. “During Congressman Gaetz’s time in office, we have been behind the scenes every step of the way. We have staffed his meetings. We have planned his events. We have traveled with him. And we have tracked his schedule.”

Calling the MAGA congressman a “principled and morally grounded leader,” the unidentified women added that none of them had “experienced or witnessed anything less than the utmost professionalism and respect. No hint of impropriety. No ounce of untruthfulness.”

The letter continued: “In our office and under Congressman Gaetz’s leadership, women are not only respected, but have been encouraged time and time again to grow, achieve more, and ultimately, know our value.”

The nameless female staffers wrapped up the statement by saying they “uniformly reject these allegations as false” and that Gaetz has always treated every woman in his office with respect.

“Congressman Gaetz will continue to lead by example and stand for the people of America who have been maligned by the liberal elite,” the press release concluded. “And we will stand with him. While we recognize the scrutiny we will face for making this decision, we take comfort in the hope that more Americans and elected officials will stand up and refuse to remain silent.”

Refuse to remain silent but not necessarily refuse to stay anonymous like you supposed gals?

[goldenvalley]

Apr 8, 2021 21:08:07 GMT LFC said:

The Gaetz scandal just keeps on getting more and more bizarre.

Refuse to remain silent but not necessarily refuse to stay anonymous like you supposed gals?

Wonder who composed that letter?  While I am suspicious, I also think it's possible, not likely, but possible, that he didn't show this behavior with his staff.  He had plenty of girls already, he doesn't need staff to be his toys, and even he recognizes that hitting on his staff is bad optics.

[LFC]

I ... I ... I ... just can't even. I'm still smiling smirking. The subatomic particles that were once my schadenfreude meter have just been sucked up by a black hole. (Spoiler Alert: Matt Gaetz is a f***ing idiot.)

[LFC]

Details keep leaking oozing out.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) reportedly used Venmo to send $900 one night in March 2018 to his friend and alleged sex trafficker Joel Greenberg, who then Venmo’d the same amount of money to three young women, including an 18-year-old, the next day.

The Daily Beast reported on Wednesday night that it had obtained records of the transactions, which were reportedly public on the app until this week, showing that Gaetz sent the $900 in two payments. The GOP congressman reportedly wrote “Test” in the memo field of the first payment, and “Hit up [name of 18-year-old]” in the second (the Daily Beast withheld her name).

Greenberg reportedly wrote “Tuition,” “School,” and “School” in Venmo payments to the three women that added up to $900 the next morning.

Gaetz told the Daily Beast through PR firm Logan Circle Group that “[t]he rumors, gossip and self-serving misstatements of others will be addressed in due course by my legal team.”