Oh, Matty. Have you been a naughty boy?

[scombrid]

Calm down. Trippin all up in here like something good going to come out of this. Yawl remember Trump right? All the accusations and evidence, remember all that? Did anything happen? Acting as if we can just handcuff a congressman and toss him in jail to await tried. This is a republican we're talking about. Even with evidence, nothing is going to happen.

If there is something to this, yes, something will definitely happen, and that is because Gaetz has almost zero support from Republicans, he doesn't have the wide base of voters that Trump has, and doesn't likely have the connections to organized criminals like Trump. There are people around the world willing to send money to support Trump. Nobody gives a flying shit about Gaetz. He's toast.

He is also in a super safe district where they can just swap him out for some other lickspittle. He is very expendable. Somebody tried to give him some kind of cover and veneer of "goodness" with his arranged engagement when there were whisperings about other things awhile back. Don't think his engagement to be married in 2024 can wash off this latest taint. Unless he or his daddy have some good dirt he could possibly find himself under a bus.

 

[Angry Floof]

I hope you're right, for the sake of the 17-year-old girl (if this is all true), I hope you're right.

The GQP is already in the process of throwing him under the bus. Well, he threw himself under and they're not stopping it. His only supporters are Jim Jordan and the QAnon conspiracy lady.

Calm down. Trippin all up in here like something good going to come out of this. Yawl remember Trump right? All the accusations and evidence, remember all that? Did anything happen? Acting as if we can just handcuff a congressman and toss him in jail to await tried. This is a republican we're talking about. Even with evidence, nothing is going to happen.

If there is something to this, yes, something will definitely happen, and that is because Gaetz has almost zero support from Republicans, he doesn't have the wide base of voters that Trump has, and doesn't likely have the connections to organized criminals like Trump. There are people around the world willing to send money to support Trump. Nobody gives a flying shit about Gaetz. He's toast.

He is also in a super safe district where they can just swap him out for some other lickspittle. He is very expendable. Somebody tried to give him some kind of cover and veneer of "goodness" with his arranged engagement when there were whisperings about other things awhile back. Don't think his engagement to be married in 2024 can wash off this latest taint. Unless he or his daddy have some good dirt he could possibly find himself under a bus.

He's one of the most transparently phony and hypocritical of right wing authoritarian morons ever, and that's saying a lot because smooth cleverness doesn't exactly pool on the right.

 

[barbos]

Assuming they can't prove underage thing, how illegal is the rest?

 

[Elixir]

He's one of the most transparently phony and hypocritical of right wing authoritarian morons ever, and that's saying a lot because smooth cleverness doesn't exactly pool on the right.

Right? He absolutely did throw himself under the bus (thanks for the imagery! ). Born into privilege, he probably thought the bus could never hurt him. But then Trump got the dirt on him...

Assuming they can't prove underage thing, how illegal is the rest?

That will depend a lot on how far Trump will go to keep Joel Greenberg's mouth shut.

 

[Rhea]

Assuming they can't prove underage thing, how illegal is the rest?

Here's a good run-down:
https://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2021/Pres/Maps/Apr02.html#item-2

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) was in trouble enough when news broke that he was being investigated for allegedly having a multistate sexual relationship with a 17-year-old. If true, he'd be guilty of statutory rape and sex trafficking, which both carry hefty criminal penalties. If untrue (or true, but unproven), he's still likely to suffer serious political damage.

Things have not gotten better for the Representative since that news first broke. First of all, approximately nobody is buying his story that he's the victim of an extortion attempt, and that he and his father are working with the FBI to trap the guilty parties. And The Washington Post has now added more detail to the story that, if correct, would mean that Gaetz was indeed being dishonest. It appears that the truth is that someone did try to get money from the Gaetzes, but the money was to be used to continue the search for Robert A. Levinson, who was taken hostage in Iran in 2007 (and is widely presumed dead). The proposition, in essence, was that if Matt Gaetz' father Don found the money, and Levinson was located and repatriated, the positive press would help distract from the Congressman's legal woes. So Don did indeed wear a wire for the FBI, but he did so because the Bureau hoped to find information about its missing agent. That is rather different from what Matt Gaetz said (or, at least, strongly implied), namely that he was being blackmailed over his sexual past, and his father was helping to entrap the blackmailers.

But wait, there's more. It would seem that the investigation into Gaetz is also looking into the possibility that the Congressman used campaign funds to pay for his sexual adventures. If true, that would be one or more additional felonies. He's innocent until proven guilty, of course, but given that his salary was just $29,697 annually before being elected to Congress (and $174,000 annually thereafter), it would certainly explain how he had the means to lavish gifts on his paramours (something that he admits to doing, even while insisting that none of them was underage). If convicted of improper use of campaign funds, Gaetz would be the second Trump-loving Republican member of the House to get caught with his hand in that particular cookie jar, following in the footsteps of Duncan Hunter.

And it does not end there. News also broke on Thursday that Gaetz was in the habit of whipping out his...phone, and showing Republican colleagues in the house nude photos of the women he'd slept with. That's not a crime (unless the women were underage, in which case add production and distribution of underage pornography to the list). However, if true, it does speak to a certain arrogance, and to a habit of peacocking that is consistent with a belief that "laws about sexual conduct do not apply to me" (consider the parallels to Donald "Grab 'em by the pu**y" Trump). And, true or not, this is another thing that will not play well in the court of public opinion.

There's more at the link

 

[barbos]

Rhea, I mean what do we have on him in terms of prison sentencing.
Prostitution is illegal but it's not much. Greenberg is a toast, I think, with ID fraud at the very least.

 

[Rhea]

Rhea, I mean what do we have on him in terms of prison sentencing.
Prostitution is illegal but it's not much. Greenberg is a toast, I think, with ID fraud at the very least.

The felonies are going to be a prison sentence-level problem. And with multiple felonies, it will be hard to ask for minimums.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

Rhea, I mean what do we have on him in terms of prison sentencing.
Prostitution is illegal but it's not much. Greenberg is a toast, I think, with ID fraud at the very least.

prostitution, campaign funds, id shenanigans, illegal drug use, underage sex, enticing a minor with money, getting them to cross state lines...

I think the underage stuff could be prison worthy.

 

[barbos]

Rhea, I mean what do we have on him in terms of prison sentencing.
Prostitution is illegal but it's not much. Greenberg is a toast, I think, with ID fraud at the very least.

campaign funds, id shenanigans, illegal drug use, underage sex, enticing a minor with money, getting them to cross state lines...

If they can prove all that, then yes. But I am afraid that the dumbass is not that dumb, he can't be?
He is a lawyer after all.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

Rhea, I mean what do we have on him in terms of prison sentencing.
Prostitution is illegal but it's not much. Greenberg is a toast, I think, with ID fraud at the very least.

campaign funds, id shenanigans, illegal drug use, underage sex, enticing a minor with money, getting them to cross state lines...

If they can prove all that, then yes. But I am afraid that the dumbass is not that dumb, he can't be?
He is a lawyer after all.

He's an entitled brat who is used to getting his way and much of that success comes from privileged advantages. While he continues to have some of those advantages, it also gives him a huge blindspot. That could play a role in his undoing. We will have to see what happens.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

Rhea, I mean what do we have on him in terms of prison sentencing.
Prostitution is illegal but it's not much. Greenberg is a toast, I think, with ID fraud at the very least.

campaign funds, id shenanigans, illegal drug use, underage sex, enticing a minor with money, getting them to cross state lines...

If they can prove all that, then yes. But I am afraid that the dumbass is not that dumb, he can't be?
He is a lawyer after all.

Yes, Gaetz is indeed that dumb. Anybody that would pay prostitutes with easily traced apps is dumb as a box of rocks. Under aged women across state lines? Dumb. He is going down. It is a matter of when, not if.

 

[ZiprHead]

Feds' investigation of Matt Gaetz includes whether campaign funds were used to pay for travel and expenses

Some new info from this article:

In the meeting, which has not been previously reported, a witness provided evidence linking Gaetz to Greenberg, the former tax collector in Seminole County, Florida, who was arrested last year on charges that include sex trafficking of a minor and fabricating fake IDs.

Greenberg is set to go to trial later this year on the ID and sex trafficking charges, as well as charges that he stalked a former political rival.

News of the meeting offers details about the Justice Department's early awareness of the congressman's relationship with Greenberg.

According to one of the people familiar with the matter, an employee at the tax collector's office saw Greenberg and Gaetz on internal office surveillance video looking through driver licenses on a weekend evening.

In a text message exchange shared with CNN that the source said was between Greenberg and the employee, Greenberg confirmed he was in the office "showing congressman Gaetz what our operation looked like."

That witness shared the information with prosecutors from the local US attorney's office and US Secret Service agents investigating Greenberg's case in January 2020, the person familiar with the matter said.

 

[Angry Floof]

If they can prove all that, then yes. But I am afraid that the dumbass is not that dumb, he can't be?
He is a lawyer after all.

Yes, Gaetz is indeed that dumb. Anybody that would pay prostitutes with easily traced apps is dumb as a box of rocks. Under aged women across state lines? Dumb. He is going down. It is a matter of when, not if.

It's not so much dumbness, though I wouldn't call him an Einstein, but hubris and vanity in the belief that he would suffer no consequences. Given how our government has been running for the last four years and how right wing obedience machines also think they can do as they please without accountability, it's no wonder.

 

[ideologyhunter]

On the Dem side (and going back to the 70s) there was the Cincinnati councilman who paid prostitutes with personal checks -- one of which bounced, and was pinned to a whorehouse wall as a deadbeat notice, which is where a cop spotted it. The councilman was Jerry Springer.
Jerrrry!
Jerrrry!
etc.

 

[Ford]

If they can prove all that, then yes. But I am afraid that the dumbass is not that dumb, he can't be?
He is a lawyer after all.

Yes, Gaetz is indeed that dumb. Anybody that would pay prostitutes with easily traced apps is dumb as a box of rocks. Under aged women across state lines? Dumb. He is going down. It is a matter of when, not if.

It's not so much dumbness, though I wouldn't call him an Einstein, but hubris and vanity in the belief that he would suffer no consequences. Given how our government has been running for the last four years and how right wing obedience machines also think they can do as they please without accountability, it's no wonder.

Why not both? Most people can walk and chew gum at the same time, and Matt can be both stupid and arrogant. What kinda scares me is this:

Someday, possibly even in the near term, a right wing politician will come along who actually understands that things like...oh, your tweets and receipts never go away. Did you take a photo with that redhead who turned out to be a Russian spy? It's never going away. Did you pay hush money to some porn star? She'll make more money by spilling the beans. Did you pay with anything other than cash? There's a record of it that's permanent.

Hell, there were originally only two people in the world that knew about Monica blowing Bill in the Oval Office, but one of them kept the...um...receipts.


We're living in a magical time where people like Gaetz haven't quite figured out that simply scrubbing something from your Twitter doesn't make it go away. They're not going to stop this sort of behavior, but at least some of them are eventually going to figure out how to hide it far more effectively. Then they're going to really cause trouble.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

Not sure if this was posted...

Matt Gaetz's communications director resigns as congressman faces allegations of sexual misconduct

Luke Ball, the communications director for Congressman Matt Gaetz, resigned from his position on Friday amid allegations that Gaetz had an inappropriate sexual encounter with a minor and a reported investigation into alleged violations of federal sex trafficking laws.

An impossible job at this point.

 

[Elixir]

If they can prove all that, then yes. But I am afraid that the dumbass is not that dumb, he can't be?
He is a lawyer after all.

Yes, Gaetz is indeed that dumb. Anybody that would pay prostitutes with easily traced apps is dumb as a box of rocks. Under aged women across state lines? Dumb. He is going down. It is a matter of when, not if.

Yup.
But I suspect it will be a looong time. His inability to even conceive of negative consequences accruing to him after an entire life of exceptional privilege, can be seen in his recent display of unbridled panic.
The Donald (not his dad) is probably assuring him that it will be decades before he has to actually appeal a sentence, assuming he plays his cards right. And more decades before he has to flee or do time. Right now he's probably just worried about losing the prestige of being 'in government'.

Not sure if this was posted...

Matt Gaetz's communications director resigns as congressman faces allegations of sexual misconduct

Luke Ball, the communications director for Congressman Matt Gaetz, resigned from his position on Friday amid allegations that Gaetz had an inappropriate sexual encounter with a minor and a reported investigation into alleged violations of federal sex trafficking laws.

An impossible job at this point.

He should hire The Swedish Chef from the Muppet Show.

 

[untermensche]

These are serious criminal charges that Gaetz can't delay.

And his partner in crime might turn on him.

Wouldn't that be a shame.

 

[barbos]

So there is a payment to a 17 year old. And do we have her and his signed explanation for the payment?
Do they agree and make sense?
Maybe he bought a car from her? or painting?

He's innocent until proven guilty, of course, but given that his salary was just $29,697 annually before being elected to Congress

$29,697 at a law firm???