I was going to skip over the scandal suddenly enveloping Rep Matt Gaetz (R-FL), partly because of a lack of time, and, quite honestly, an inclination to apply the legal axiom Innocent until proven guilty in the case of sex crimes, the pleasures of salacious gossip notwithstanding. For those not aware of it, The New York Times reports:
Representative Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida and a close ally of former President Donald J. Trump, is being investigated by the Justice Department over whether he had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old and paid for her to travel with him, according to three people briefed on the matter. Investigators are examining whether Mr. Gaetz violated federal sex trafficking laws, the people said.
But Gaetz himself touches on my suspicions on the matter, which what little I’ve read seems to be mostly ignored,, as reported in WaPo:
[Gaetz] appeared on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show to explain his side of the story.
Here’s what he said, in full.
“What is happening is an extortion of me and my family involving a former Department of Justice official. On March 16th, my father got a text message demanding a meeting, wherein a person demanded $25 million in exchange for making horrible sex-trafficking allegations against me go away. Our family was so troubled by that, we went to the local FBI, and the FBI and the Department of Justice were so concerned about this attempted extortion of a member of Congress that they asked my dad to wear a wire, which he did with the former Department of Justice official.
“Tonight, I am demanding that the Department of Justice and the FBI release the audio recordings that were made under their supervision and at their direction, which will prove my innocence and that will show that these allegations aren’t true. They’re merely intended to try to bleed my family out of money.
“This former Department of Justice official tomorrow was supposed to be contacted by my father so that specific instructions could be given regarding the wiring of $4.5 million as a down payment on this bribe. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that tonight, somehow, the New York Times is leaking this information, smearing me and ruining the investigation that would likely result in one of the former colleagues of the current DOJ being brought to justice for trying to extort me and my family.”
Or, Someone’s out to get me!
And this would not surprise me. The Republican Party is in its end game, and while it’d make sense it’s filled with those outside of society’s norms as well as out on the edge zealots, this is also the time where the knives come out among the power players, fighting over the crumbs that look to get smaller and smaller as the Republicans become less and less relevant, RINOing out competitors with abandon – or besmirching their reputations with hints of sex crimes.
So if Gaetz thinks someone is out to get him – especially in view of the fact that the investigation began during the Trump Administration – I’m willing to keep an open mind and look at this as more evidence of internecine elite warfare.
At least until more evidence comes in.
