The Matt Gaetz Investigation: What We Know
The Justice Department is said to be investigating the
congressman’s encounters with women recruited online for sex and whether he had
sex with a 17-year-old girl.
Representative Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida, said
that he had no plans to resign from Congress.
Nicholas
Fandos
By Nicholas
Fandos
April 2,
2021
The Justice
Department is investigating whether Representative Matt Gaetz, Republican of
Florida and a close ally of former President Donald J. Trump, broke federal sex
trafficking laws, focusing on his relationships with women recruited online for
sex and whether he had sex with a 17-year-old girl, The New York Times reported
this week.
Investigators
appear to be focused on at least two key questions, according to people briefed
on their work. The first is whether Mr. Gaetz, 38, had sex with the 17-year-old
and whether she received anything of material value. More broadly, federal
authorities are scrutinizing involvement by the congressman and an indicted
Florida associate with the women, who also received cash payments.
Mr. Gaetz,
a third-term congressman who represents the Florida Panhandle, has denied that he
paid for sex or had a sexual relationship with a minor. So far, he has not been
charged and the extent of his criminal exposure remains unclear. The
investigation is continuing.
Here is
what we know so far.
The
investigation includes an examination of payments to women.
Federal
scrutiny of Mr. Gaetz grew out of an open investigation into a close Republican
associate of the congressman’s: Joel Greenberg, the former tax collector in
Seminole County, Fla., who was indicted last year on a charge of sex trafficking
and other counts.
Investigators
believe that Mr. Greenberg connected with women online through websites meant
to facilitate dates in exchange for gifts, fine dining, travel and cash
allowances. Mr. Greenberg would then introduce the women to Mr. Gaetz, who also
had sex with them in Florida hotels, sometimes while taking ecstasy, an illegal
mood-altering drug, according to people familiar with the encounters.
The Times
also reviewed receipts from Apple Pay and another mobile payments app that show
Mr. Gaetz and Mr. Greenberg transferring funds to one such woman, and Mr.
Greenberg to another. The women told friends that the money was in exchange for
sex.
While it is
legal to pay for other adults’ hotel stays, meals and other gifts, prosecutors
could try to prove that the payments were really in exchange for sex, which
would be a crime.
Investigators
are also trying to determine whether Mr. Gaetz, or any other men connected to
him, had sex with the 17-year-old girl and gave her anything of value. Two
people briefed on the investigation said the sex trafficking count that Mr.
Greenberg is facing involved the same girl.
Federal law
prohibits giving a minor anything of value in exchange for sex, including
meals, hotel stays, drugs, alcohol or even cigarettes. A conviction under the
sex trafficking statute carries a 10-year mandatory minimum prison sentence.
Gaetz has
denied wrongdoing related to sex.
Mr. Gaetz,
an outspoken and combative fixture of conservative media, has repeatedly
dismissed the investigation as politically motivated and unfounded, defending
his past relationships with women.
“I have a
suspicion that someone is trying to recategorize my generosity to
ex-girlfriends as something more untoward,” Mr. Gaetz said in an interview on
Tuesday. He said he had not had a sexual relationship with a minor and called
other accusations of wrongdoing “unequivocally false.”
“Matt Gaetz
has never paid for sex,” his office said in a statement on Thursday, when asked
to comment on possible sexual arrangements with women. “Matt Gaetz refutes all
the disgusting allegations completely. Matt Gaetz has never ever been on any
such websites whatsoever. Matt Gaetz cherishes the relationships in his past
and looks forward to marrying the love of his life.”
Gaetz has
claimed his family is being extorted. Not exactly.
The
disclosure of a serious federal criminal investigation would typically prompt
carefully vetted statements and studied silence in Washington. Mr. Gaetz has
gone on a media tour instead, confirming the existence of the inquiry while
shifting attention to another attention-grabbing claim: that his family is
being targeted by two men trying to extort it for $25 million in exchange for
making potential legal problems “go away.”
The men
have denied that they were trying to extort the Gaetzes.
The men —
Robert Kent, a former Air Force intelligence officer, and Stephen Alford, a
real estate developer who has been convicted of fraud — did approach Mr.
Gaetz’s father, Don Gaetz, last month about funding efforts to find an American
hostage in Iran named Robert A. Levinson. Written records provided to The Times
and interviews with people involved show that the men were aware of at least
the prospect that Matt Gaetz could face legal jeopardy and suggested that Mr.
Levinson’s successful return could help win the congressman a presidential
pardon.
Don Gaetz
declined their proposal, but then reported the approach to the F.B.I. out of
concern it was possible extortion. The authorities now appear to be
investigating the matter.
Mr. Kent
said he had no intention of extorting the Gaetzes. By his account, he was
merely proposing a business deal and believed a rumor he had heard about Matt
Gaetz might help make it more attractive.
“I told him
I’m not trying to extort, but if this were true, he might be interested in
doing something good,” Mr. Kent said.
For now,
Gaetz doesn’t appear to be going anywhere.
Mr. Gaetz
told The Times in an interview this week that he had no plans to resign from
Congress. But as the investigation continues, he could face pressure either to
step down or temporarily relinquish his spot on the House committee that
oversees the Justice Department.
“He should
not be sitting on a Congressional Committee with oversight over the DOJ while
the Department is investigating him,” Representative Ted Lieu, Democrat of
California, wrote on Twitter.
Few
Republicans have stood up for Mr. Gaetz, whose brash style long ago alienated
many of his colleagues, but they do not appear to be trying to push him to the
exits either, at least before federal investigators complete their work.
“Those are
serious implications. If it comes out to be true, yes, we would remove him,”
Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the House Republican leader, told
Fox News this week. “But right now, Matt Gaetz says that it’s not true, and we
don’t have any information. So let’s get all the information.”
Still, Mr.
Gaetz himself may have other plans. Before the disclosure of the inquiry this
week, the congressman had been openly discussing leaving the House to take a
full-time job as a commentator at a conservative TV network, like Newsmax,
according to people familiar with the conversations. Mr. Gaetz has been a
fixture of conservative media, but his legal woes could complicate any plans he
may have had before they became public.
In the
meantime, nothing prevents Mr. Gaetz from continuing to do his regular
congressional work, attending hearings, voting on legislation and receiving
classified information every member of Congress is entitled to.
Nicholas
Fandos is congressional correspondent, based in Washington. He has covered
Capitol Hill since 2017, chronicling two Supreme Court confirmation fights, two
historic impeachments of Donald J. Trump, and countless bills in between. @npfandos
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