Rep. Matt Gaetz hires high-profile New York lawyers as sex trafficking probe heats up
Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz has hired a couple of high-powered New York lawyers to represent him as the Justice Department digs into allegations that the embattled Sunshine State Republican paid for sex with a teenager.
Gaetz, who vehemently denies the disturbing allegations, hired the lawyers, Marc Mukasey and Isabelle Kirshner, to mount a “fight” against the federal prosecutors investigating him, a spokeswoman for the lawmaker said Friday.
“Matt has always been a fighter. A fighter for his constituents, a fighter for the country, and a fighter for the Constitution. He’s going to fight back against the unfounded allegations against him,” the spokeswoman said, adding that Mukasey and Kirshner “will take the fight to those trying to smear his name with falsehoods.”
Mukasey, a former federal prosecutor in New York and the son of onetime Republican Attorney General Michael Mukasey, has extensive ties to former President Donald Trump and once worked at Rudy Giuliani’s law firm. He also represented Edward Gallagher, a NAVY Seal who received presidential clemency from Trump over allegations that he committed war crimes in Iraq.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/rep-matt-gaetz-hires-high-profile-new-york-lawyers-as-sex-trafficking-probe-heats-up/ar-BB1fu9ze
House InvestiGaetz: Florida Congressman’s Conduct Under Congressional Ethics Committee Microscope as Indicted Associate Seeks Plea Deal with Feds
Hours after we learned that Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) had lawyered up amid a Department of Justice investigation into sex trafficking, the House Ethics Committee announced an investigation of its own on Friday into various allegations about Gaetz’s conduct that have made headlines over the last days and weeks.
“The Committee is aware of public allegations that Representative Matt Gaetz may have engaged in sexual misconduct and/or illicit drug use, shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused state identification records, converted campaign funds to personal use, and/or accepted a bribe, improper gratuity, or impermissible gift, in violation of House Rules, laws, or other standards of conduct,” the statement from Committee Chairman Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.) and Ranking Member Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.) began. “The Committee, pursuant to Committee Rule 18(a), has begun an investigation and will gather additional information regarding the allegations.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/house-investigaetz-florida-congressmans-conduct-under-congressional-ethics-committee-microscope-as-indicted-associate-seeks-plea-deal-with-feds/ar-BB1fua2j
Matt Gaetz Is Getting Outed By His Own Venmo History
As a millennial, I’m guessing Matt Gaetz grew up getting the same warnings from parents and other adults that the rest of his generation had drilled into them: Be careful what you post online, remember that future employers can see your activity, etc. etc. But like the majority of that generation, Gaetz does not appear to have listened
According to an investigation by The Daily Beast, Gaetz used Venmo—the app that decided to turn financial transactions into public social media content—to pay his friend, accused sex trafficker Joel Greenberg, two payments totaling $900 late one night in May of 2018. The next morning, over a few minutes, Greenburg sent three young women various sums of money totaling $900.
Venmo transactions have a memo line to write what the payments are for. In the first payment, Gaetz wrote “test.” In the second, he wrote, “hit up” and the nickname for one of the young women, who had only turned 18 six months earlier.
The three payments Greenberg made to the young women had memo lines reading “Tuition,” “School,” and “School.”
Link to tweet
Until recently, Gaetz’s Venmo account, including his contacts and his transaction history, was public—the default setting on the app.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/matt-gaetz-is-getting-outed-by-his-own-venmo-history/ar-BB1ftXAE
