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Photo via Instagram/Matt Gaetz
We're not legal experts and we're certainly not public relations scholars, but it seems like sharing a document that contains the phrase "involved in a sexual orgy of underage prostitutes" is a bad look for a congressman facing
sex trafficking allegations.
But that's exactly what Florida representative Matt Gaetz did last night. The troubled Congressman put the spotlight on a tweet from Emily Brooks, a reporter for the
conservative publication The Washington Examiner. In the tweet, Brooks shared a photo of a document she received from Gaetz, detailing"Project Homecoming." That's the name of an alleged extortionate proposal pitched to Gaetz's father, Don. A screenshot of a text to the elder Gaetz also shared by the congressman is being pointed to as further evidence of the scheme.
The document makes reference to Gaetz and an unnamed Floridian official, purportedly captured taking part in an orgy with underage sex workers. This likely connects to the unprompted revelation of such photos that Gaetz shared during his
deeply weird interview with Tucker Carlson shortly after the news broke.
The tweet came after the
New York Times shared a report claiming Gaetz
sought blanket, preemptive pardons for potential crimes from the Trump administration before Donald Trump left office. The
Times' unnamed sources said the request didn't get far, with Trump lawyers and aides viewing a pardon before-the-fact as a bad precedent.
The initial allegation against Gaetz, that he may have enticed a 17-year-old across state lines for the purposes of sex, gets more plausible by the day.
Politico shared that three anonymous sources, including one who testified to a grand jury, say that
Gaetz associate Joel Greenberg bragged about having sex with a then 17-year-old who became an adult actress. The
Times has reported that
the same minor is at the root of investigations into both men.
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