January 10, 2025 • 30 mins
Brace yourself for the explosive revelations surrounding former Congressman Matt Gaetz, a saga that challenges the very fabric of political ethics. With allegations of sex trafficking and misuse of funds, we unpack how a once-promising career spiraled into controversy. Join us alongside lawyer Liz Dye as we scrutinize the House Ethics Committee's shocking findings, detailing how Gaetz allegedly paid over $90,000 to women, including a minor, for illicit activities. We dissect the political chess game that ensued, forcing the release of this damning report despite initial Republican resistance, and the dramatic aftermath that saw Gaetz resign from Congress after a short-lived nomination as Attorney General by Donald Trump.
But the story doesn't end there. Unravel the legal entanglements involving Gaetz's father and a high-profile extortion attempt, as well as Gaetz's bold political ambitions that defy the odds. From the courtroom drama with Judge Ahmed Mehta to Gaetz's audacious plans to disclose congressional secrets, he continues to stir the political pot with talk of a possible gubernatorial run in Florida. As we explore these developments, we invite you to consider the lasting implications on Gaetz's career and the broader landscape of political accountability. Tune in for an episode that lays bare the complexities and consequences of one of the most scandalous chapters in recent political history.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Former Congressman Matt Gaetz oh, that has a nice
ring to it tried like hell toprevent the congressional report
of his misdeeds from coming out, including filing a lawsuit
that went nowhere, but now thereport of his sexcapades is out,
for better or worse.
Yes, it's only been about onemonth since Gaetz withdrew his
appointment as America's top lawenforcement officer, and now
(00:21):
the House Ethics Committee justreleased a disturbingly graphic
report of his behavior, whichdetails the accounts of 12 women
that Gates paid a combinedtotal of over $90,000 in
exchange for sex and illegaldrugs, including, allegedly, a
17-year-old minor.
What happens next?
Well, here to break down thisinsane story of lust lies, and
the law is chaos.
(00:41):
Lawyer Liz Dye.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Thanks, devin.
On November 13, donald Trumpannounced his intention to
nominate Florida CongressmanMatt Gaetz as attorney general.
Gaetz immediately resigned fromCongress, despite having just
run for and won re-election tohis seat.
The move was seen as atransparent attempt to head off
the release of a report by theHouse Ethics Committee on
allegations that Gaetz hadparticipated in sex trafficking,
(01:03):
including of a minor Republican.
House Speaker, mike Johnson,vocally opposed releasing the
report to the public, even asits conclusions were pretty
clearly relevant to Gaetz'sfitness to be the top law
enforcement officer in the land.
But Gaetz's notoriouslyobnoxious behavior, including
his habit of whipping out hisphone to show off nude pictures
of his sex partners, was nosecret in DC.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
This is a guy that didn't have that the media
didn't give a time of day toafter he was accused of sleeping
with an underage girl.
There's a reason why no one inthe conference came and defended
him, because we had all seenthe videos he was showing on the
house floor that all of us hadwalked away of the girls that he
had slept with.
He'd brag about how he wouldcrush ED medicine and chase it
(01:48):
with an energy drink so he couldgo all night.
This is obviously before he gotmarried.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
For the record, that was then-Congressman, now
Oklahoma Senator, mark WayneMullen, who said he might still
consider voting for Gates asAttorney General.
But Mullen aside, it becameclear almost immediately that
the Senate would never vote toconfirm Gates.
So, November 21, he withdrewhis nomination and now he's
headed to One American NewsNetwork to read the news to its
dozens of viewers every day.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
And bringing on a firebrand of a talk show host to
our primetime lineup.
May I announce Matt Gates andthe Matt Gates Show coming next
month to OAN.
Hey, Matt.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Initially, the committee voted against
releasing the report, with allRepublicans opposed, but at a
closed-door meeting on December5th, two Republican members
switched their vote and agreedto make it public on the 23rd.
The report is now out and it'swell, it's icky.
Gaetz defended himself bysaying that my 30s were an era
of working very hard and playinghard too.
(02:44):
It's embarrassing, though notcriminal, that I probably
partied, womanized, drank andsmoked more than I should have
earlier in life, which soundsconveniently like he was just a
kid blowing off steam in anage-appropriate
boys-will-be-boys way, they said.
Representative Gates tookadvantage of the economic
vulnerability of young women tolure them into sexual activity,
for which they received anaverage of a few hundred dollars
(03:06):
after each encounter.
In fact, the committee foundthat the 42-year-old congressman
paid very young women for sexand drugs, including one girl
who was 17 at the time.
That is statutory rape as amatter of Florida law.
They also noted that he votedagainst the Frederick Douglass
Trafficking Victims Preventionand Protection Reauthorization
Act of 2022 and was the lone novote in 2017 on legislation to
(03:29):
establish an advisory committeethat would coordinate efforts to
prevent human trafficking, avote he defended by pointing to
his work in the Floridalegislature to broaden the
definition of duress in thestate's trafficking laws to
include economic duress.
The committee also found thathe violated multiple house rules
about disclosure of gifts andservices to women who were not
(03:50):
his constituents.
Many people have insisted thatGates should have been
prosecuted by the JusticeDepartment.
Friend of the channel, MitchellEppner, suggests that the real
failure was that of localFlorida prosecutors.
To understand what reallyhappened here, we'll have to
first talk about a bunch ofdrifters and weirdos, several of
whom wound up in jail.
It's a wild story that involvespublic Venmo transactions, a
(04:13):
kidnapped Iranian hostage andthe love hotel emoji which is
apparently a thing on all ourphones.
Who knew?
Okay, SPF up, because it's timeto meet some spectacular
Florida men.
First up, Joel Greenberg, theformer tax collector for
Seminole County.
Under Florida law, taxcollectors are elected officials
responsible for collectingtaxes, obviously, but also for
(04:35):
issuing various permits andgovernment documents, including
driver's licenses.
Greenberg is currently in jailfor committing a truly wild
array of crimes.
He once caused a fire in acounty building where he
commandeered the county serversto mine bitcoins.
He doled out three and a halfmillion dollars in state
government contracts to variousfriends and acquaintances,
including the groomsman at hiswedding, and he sent letters to
(04:58):
the school where his politicalopponent worked, impersonating
students and falsely accusinghis rival of being a pedophile.
But what brought him into theambit of federal investigators
and eventually ensnared Gateswas Greenberg's habit of
generating fake state IDs forhimself and for the women he was
sleeping with.
On Monday, april 16th 2018, anemployee at the Lake Mary branch
(05:19):
of the tax collector's officeopened up shop and discovered
that the alarm wasn't on.
She also found a bunch ofexpired driver's licenses which
were supposed to be shredded,strewn all over Greenberg's desk
.
She reviewed the securitycamera footage, where she saw
that Greenberg had been in theoffice with an unidentified man,
and when the employee texted,greenberg responded that he'd
(05:40):
been showing Congressman Gateswhat our operation looked like,
you know, on the weekend, in themiddle of the night, as one
does.
When Greenberg got picked up bythe feds in 2020 for stalking
his political opponent online,he had at least five fake IDs on
him, which is why the cops wentand talked to the people at the
Lake Mary office, and that'show they got to Gates, because
(06:00):
as soon as the FBI startedpulling at the threads of
Greenberg's nasty personal life,they found that he was
inextricably tied in with Gates'own sordid stuff.
Greenberg recruited very youngwomen off the Sugar Daddy
website seeking arrangement,paying them to spend time with
Greenberg, gates and their malefriends.
The arrangement included sexand often drugs, and one of
(06:22):
those girls turned out to be a17-year-old high school junior,
which meant that she could notlegally consent to sex with an
adult over the age of 24 underFlorida law.
In June of 2020, greenberg wascharged with stalking and
identity theft, and in August of2020, the Justice Department
filed a superseding indictmentagainst him for child sex
trafficking, which meant thatthe feds had a very sleazy
(06:45):
person in custody with a verystrong incentive to say
absolutely anything that mightsave his skin.
In early 2021, the New YorkTimes reported that Gates was
under federal investigation forsex trafficking in relation to
the 17-year-old girl.
Gates insists that this was apolitically motivated act by Joe
Biden's henchmen, but thereality is that the
investigation began during thewaning days of the last Trump
(07:07):
administration, when Bill Barrwas still the Attorney General,
and while the investigation wasstill going on behind closed
doors.
Reporters were hot on the trail,although, to be fair, they
didn't have to dig very deep,since Gates and Greenberg both
left their Venmo history publicuntil well into 2021.
The Daily Beast reported thatin May of 2018, gates Venmoed
(07:28):
Greenberg $900, writing in thememo line hit up with the name
of the 17-year-old girl.
The next morning, greenbergVenmoed the girl and two other
women in three separatetransactions, denominated as
school, school and tuition,totaling $900.
Gates denied paying women forsex, telling the Daily Beast the
last time I had a sexualrelationship with a 17-year-old
(07:50):
I was 17.
But before it dawned on himthat he would be wise to make
his Venmo, private reportersJose Pagliari and Roger
Sullenberger clocked thousandsof dollars Gates sent to
Greenberg, including onetransaction for $300 on November
1, 2018, with the love hotelemoji in the memo line.
The Daily Beast confirmed thatGreenberg did indeed book a
(08:10):
hotel for that evening in WinterPark, florida.
And that turned out to be justthe tip of the iceberg.
According to the House report,using personal checks, venmo and
Cash App, gates sent more than$90,000 to 12 women in exchange
for sex and drugs.
Gates denied ever paying forsex, telling Axios in March of
2020, I have definitely, in mysingle days, provided for women.
(08:32):
I've dated, you know I've paidfor flights, for hotel rooms.
I've been, you know, generousas a partner.
I think someone is trying tomake that look criminal when
it's not here.
He is on Tucker Carlson tryingto remind the former Fox host of
the fun dinner Matt and one ofhis generous partner dates
shared with him and his wife.
Speaker 4 (08:50):
I can say that actually you and I went to
dinner about two years ago.
Your wife was there and Ibrought a friend of mine, you'll
remember her and she wasactually threatened by the FBI,
told that if she wouldn't cop tothe fact that somehow I was
involved in some pay for playscheme, that she could face
trouble.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Awkward.
Now, obviously, if you're goingto engage in illegal
prostitution and recordeverything on Venmo, you're
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It's so important to talk to alawyer right away so you can
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So click below.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Gates claimed that he and his father had been victims
of an organized criminalextortion involving a former DOJ
official seeking $25 million.
While threatening to smear myname, he said that his father
had been cooperating withfederal authorities in this
matter and wearing a wire at theFBI's direction to catch these
criminals, and that part turnedout to be more or less true.
See, matt Gaetz has a littletouch of the Nepo baby about him
(10:03):
, if you can even believe it.
In fact, his daddy, don Gaetz,was a highly successful
businessman who served aspresident of the Florida State
Senate between 2012 and 2014.
On March 16, 2021, with rumorsswirling that Gates would be
indicted, his father got a textfrom a former Air Force
intelligence officer named BobKent, saying that his son, matt,
(10:23):
was about to be federallyindicted, but he, kent, had a
plan to make his future legaland political problems go away.
Now stick with me here, becausethis one's really crazy.
Kent and his backer, floridabusinessman Stephen Alford, were
obsessed with a former FBIagent named Robert Levinson, who
went missing in Iran in 2007.
Levinson was reportedly on aCIA mission, but he was in poor
(10:47):
health and in 2020, thegovernment told his family that
they should presume he was dead,which they did, filing a
wrongful death suit against theIranian government and securing
a $1.4 billion reward to be paidout of Iranian assets frozen in
US coffers since 1980.
But for reasons not entirelyclear, alfred and Kent thought
that Levinson was alive, or theysaid they did anyway.
(11:10):
So they texted Don Gates if youand your son are willing to
help us, privately andclandestinely, obtain the
release of Robert Levinson, Iwill ensure that Matt is on the
plane that delivers Levinson tohis family, thus making him the
most sought-after public figurein the world for his efforts to
obtain Levinson's release.
Then my partner will see to itthat Matt receives a
presidential pardon, thusalleviating all his legal
(11:33):
issues".
I think the theory here was thatif Gates was somehow the guy
who brought Levinson home, bidenwould have to pardon him,
because you're allowed to commitsex crimes if you're a national
hero.
All they wanted from Don Gateswas a $25 million loan to be
repaid out of the federal reward.
Alford and Kent dubbed the planProject Homecoming and laid out
(11:56):
the details in a memo whichthey delivered to Don Gates.
But of course, papa Gateswasn't an idiot.
He immediately called the FBIto report that he was being
extorted and was presumablywearing that wire the whole time
, as his son had said.
Alford was indicted in 2021 andpled guilty to one count of
wire fraud.
He's currently a guest of theUnited States government and
(12:17):
will be for a couple more yearsat least, none of which has
anything to do with whether ornot Matt Gaetz committed crimes,
but it doesn't make it easierto indict him.
What it did was allow him tothrow glitter in the air and
claim that he was being targetedby the DOJ.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
What is happening is an extortion of me and my family
involving a former Departmentof Justice official.
Tonight, I am demanding thatthe Department of Justice and
the FBI release the audiorecordings that were made under
their supervision and at theirdirection, which will prove my
innocence.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
On April 9th 2021, the House Ethics Committee
announced that it wasinvestigating public allegations
that Representative Matt Gaetzmay have engaged in sexual
misconduct and or illicit druguse, shared inappropriate images
or videos on the House floor,misused state identification
records, converted campaignfunds to personal use and or
accepted a bribe, impropergratuity or impermissible gift
(13:14):
in violation of house rules,laws or other standards of
conduct.
That investigation gotsidelined for two years after
the Justice Department asked theEthics Committee to back off
and let the criminalinvestigation take precedence.
And that's look.
It's not crazy.
If you're a prosecutor, youdon't want your witnesses
destroying their credibility bysaying one thing in
congressional testimony andanother to you.
(13:36):
But that delayed thecongressional investigation
until 2023, when the Republicanstook back the House.
Now, gates was known as ablowhard and a bomb thrower
among Republicans, but he wasTrump's guy and he figured that
meant Republicans would go tobat for him, including then
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Mccarthy was incrediblyvulnerable because Republicans
(13:58):
had won by the slimmest ofmargins in 2022.
It took 15 rounds of votes toconfirm him as speaker, and that
only happened after he grantedhuge concessions to some of the
most aggressive members of hisown caucus, including Gates.
Essentially, mccarthy gave themthe ability to call a snap vote
on his leadership at any time.
Gates seemed to think thatMcCarthy owed it to him to put a
(14:22):
stop to the ethicsinvestigation, or at least Gates
figured that McCarthy'sprecarious position gave him
leverage to make the demand.
But McCarthy refused to playball.
Matt is upset about an ethicscomplaint.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
I don't care what they threaten against me.
I am not going to interjectinto an independent committee
like Athens.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Meanwhile, behind the scenes, gates was stonewalling
the committee.
After McCarthy made thosecomments, gates wrote a letter
in September accusing thecommittee of doing McCarthy's
bidding, after he publiclysignaled to you to put the heat
on and instructed you to shootyour shot.
In October, gates led asuccessful effort to push
McCarthy out of the job, afterwhich Gates switched to claiming
(15:05):
that the ethics committee'sRepublicans were on a mission to
avenge McCarthy.
It was an attempt to injectpolitics into the process by
accusing the committee ofplaying politics.
In reality, the committee wasdoing its job and the stuff that
it uncovered while it was doingits job was awful.
Okay, top line.
The committee found substantialevidence that Representative
(15:26):
Gates had sex with victim A inJuly 2017, when she was 17 years
old and he was 35.
Representative Gates's actionswere in violation of Florida's
statutory rape law.
So there you go.
That's who Trump wanted to putin charge of the Justice
Department.
But aside from that, it's clearthat Gates and Greenberg paid at
least 12 young women for sexand drugs.
(15:48):
One of those women included hisgirlfriend of two years, whom
Gates met through seekingarrangement when she was 21 and
he was 35.
Their relationship was notexclusive and she seems to have
corralled other young women tosend Gates drugs and to
entertain him and his friends.
She's woman one on this tablereceiving almost $64,000.
Other women interviewed by thecommittee testified that woman
(16:11):
one would often provide drugs atparties, and woman one whose
lawyers were paid by Gatesrepeatedly took the fifth when
she was interviewed by thecommittee.
Gates himself also relied onthe girls to bring him drugs.
And okay, maybe you're of theopinion that sex work should be
legal and drug laws are stupidFair.
The problem is that these veryyoung women were plied with
(16:33):
drugs and alcohol in situationswhere it's not clear that they
were really able to consent tohaving sex with multiple men and
women in an evening.
The committee wrote.
While all the women that thecommittee interviewed stated
their sexual activity withRepresentative Gates was
consensual, at least one womanfelt that the use of drugs at
the parties and events theyattended may have impaired their
(16:53):
ability to really know what wasgoing on or fully consent.
Indeed, nearly every woman thatthe committee spoke with could
not remember the details of atleast one or more of the events
they attended withRepresentative Gates and
attributed that to drug oralcohol consumption.
The girl, who was 17 at thetime of her encounters with
Gates, testified to thecommittee that when I look back
(17:14):
on certain moments I feelviolated.
I thought all these people weremy friends.
I know now that they're not and, as exploitative as that was,
gates and Greenberg didn'talways pay up as promised.
Here's Gates's girlfriend womanone explaining that the guys
are a little limited in theircash flow this weekend.
So Matt was like if it can bemore of a customer appreciation
(17:36):
week, so if you had on yourbingo card guy most likely to
demand a freebie from a teenagesex worker, hey congrats.
Other texts show him dockingthe compensation for one woman
because he didn't think she'dstayed long enough, which kind
of undercuts the claim for mostof these women that this wasn't
prostitution or, as Gates put it, sending funds to women he
(17:57):
dated.
And in fact, the committee saidplainly that Gates enticed and
procured women to engage insexual activity for hire and
purchased the services of womenengaging in sexual activity for
hire, in violation of Floridastate law.
Note that's a state law and nota federal law.
The committee investigatedwhether Gates participated in
sex trafficking, particularlywith regard to a trip to the
(18:19):
Bahamas in 2018.
Gates and two other men spentthree days partying with six
women, the youngest of whom was18.
Gates is reported to have takenecstasy and had sex with at
least four of the women on thattrip.
At other times, he paid forwomen to come from Florida to DC
or New York, including inJanuary of 2019, when Gates
appeared as a guest host on theFox News show Outnumbered.
(18:42):
After he went on air to callSenator Elizabeth Warren a sack
of Jueya, the group went to aBroadway show.
A lawyer for one of the womentold ABC that the show was
Pretty Woman, which is honestlya little too on the nose.
Ultimately, the committeeconcluded that they did not find
sufficient evidence to concludethat Representative Gates
violated the federal sextrafficking statute.
(19:02):
Although Representative Gatesdid cause the transportation of
women across state lines forpurposes of commercial sex, the
committee did not find evidencethat any of those women were
under 18 at the time of travel.
Nor did the committee findsufficient evidence to conclude
that the commercial sex actswere induced by fraud, force or
coercion.
They did, however, find thatGates violated House rules on
(19:23):
accepting gifts.
He failed to disclose that heflew back from the Bahamas on a
private plane a gift valued inexcess of the $250 limit under
the House gift rule.
Gates tried to hide this byindignantly pointing to his
travel itinerary, which showedhim flying out of Washington
Dulles Airport on a commercialflight.
When the committee pointed outthat he'd forgotten to say how
(19:44):
he got home, he got very snotty.
He said my travel to theBahamas was a result of my
purchase of American Airlinestickets with my personal funds,
and it goes without saying thatI was not reimbursed by anybody.
Does the committee also have aninterest in every dollar I
spent in the Bahamas on food,refreshments and other travel
provisions, such as sunscreen?
That was one of the reasons thecommittee found that Gates
(20:05):
obstructed the investigation,violating his duty of candor as
a member of Congress.
They also found that he violatedcongressional rules with
respect to constituent services,using official resources to
help a woman he was having sexwith expedite her passport
renewal.
In fact, she wasn't hisconstituent at all.
It was incredibly damning, andthe committee members also had
(20:26):
some very harsh words for theJustice Department.
Remember how the EthicsCommittee delayed its own
investigation by two years toavoid interfering with the DOJ's
criminal inquiry.
That inquiry was closed withoutcharge, which Gates pointed to
as evidence of his completeexoneration.
That's not what that means, butlet's come back to that one in
a minute.
The committee said that many ofthe women it interviewed also
(20:47):
gave statements to DOJ and urgedthe committee to rely on those
statements in lieu of requiringthem to relive their experience.
They were particularlyconcerned with providing
additional testimony about asitting congressman in light of
DOJ's lack of action on theirprior testimony.
The report complained that DOJrefused to provide the relevant
statements and other significantevidence to the committee.
(21:07):
Doj cited internal policiesabout protecting uncharged
suspects like RepresentativeGates, general concerns about
how DOJ's cooperation with thecommittee may deter other
victims in other matters andvarious inapposite policies
relating to congressionaloversight of DOJ itself.
But that's mostly part of a forlack of a better term ongoing
pissing match between Congressand the executive branch,
(21:29):
because Congress always wants toget its hands on investigative
materials in high profile casesand the DOJ never wants to give
it to them.
In some cases that's because itcan't.
It's illegal to disclose grandjury materials without
permission of the court, but itwould be terrible public policy
for Congress to be able to seizeand publish internal police
(21:49):
investigations of people whowere never charged.
Who would ever talk to the FBIif that were a possible outcome
and there's just no way to makean exception to this rule that
only covers villains like MattGaetz exception to this rule
that only covers villains likeMatt Gaetz.
So yeah, you can sympathizewith the women here who would
have preferred not to beinterviewed again by Congress,
but you kind of have to put thatcriticism in context.
(22:10):
But let's come back to Gaetz'sclaim of exoneration, because a
lot of people have said that theJustice Department screwed up
by not indicting him, and thatincludes the committee which
accused the DOJ of not doingright by the 17-year-old girl
who cooperated with the DOJ'sinvestigation for years and was
let down by the justice systemwhen reports circulated that the
DOJ would be unlikely to pursuecharges against Representative
(22:32):
Gates.
First of all, we have no ideawhy Gates wasn't charged Again,
we haven't seen the internalinvestigative materials, but we
can make some educated guesses.
We haven't seen the internalinvestigative materials, but we
can make some educated guesses.
For one thing, the Fed's keywitness is Joel Greenberg, who
did all the cooperating hepossibly could have done,
delaying his sentence multipletimes and he's still got 11
years.
When Judge Gregory Presnellsentenced him, he said he'd
(22:55):
never seen a defendant who hascommitted so many different
types of crime within arelatively short period, like
those crimes committed by MrGreenberg.
To say that Greenberg hascredibility problems is a
massive understatement, and thecommittee itself said that it
would not rely exclusively oninformation provided by Mr
Greenberg in making any findings.
Second, the Mann Act, whichprohibits transporting
(23:17):
individuals across state andnational lines for the purposes
of prostitution, is aproblematic statute for a whole
host of reasons.
Let's start with the fact thatit was originally known as the
White Slave Traffic Act of 1910,and one of the first successful
prosecutions was of heavyweightchampion boxer Jack Johnson,
who was black and faced repeatedarrests under the Mann Act for
(23:37):
traveling in the company ofwhite women.
It's historically been used tocriminalize sexual relationships
that society finds unacceptable, by characterizing them as
prostitution and or sextrafficking.
And although the law has beenamended, it's still so broad
that the Justice Departmentcharges under the Mann Act only
where there is evidence of avictim of severe forms of
(23:58):
trafficking in persons.
And whatever you think of Gates, this is clearly not that.
Third, the ethics report itselfdidn't find that Gates violated
any federal laws.
The youngest woman who traveledwith him to the Bahamas was 18,
so there was no trafficking ofa minor.
And if you can't charge underthe Mann Act, then the only
thing left was violation ofFlorida state laws.
(24:19):
I mean, okay, sure, maybe thefeds could have indicted him for
the molly or for having thewomen mail him marijuana
cartridges.
But come on, as the ethicscommittee concluded, gates
violated House rules which arenot prosecutable, and he
violated Florida statutory rapeand prostitution laws.
So maybe the real question hereisn't why didn't Attorney
(24:40):
General Merrick Garland indictGates, it's why didn't Florida
prosecutors do it, since theyhad access to the same media
reports suggesting that he paida 17-year-old girl for sex that
Congress and the DOJ did.
There was nothing stoppingstate's attorneys in Florida
from stepping up to the platehere, and they don't even appear
to have investigated.
So while you're looking atpeople to be mad at, maybe
(25:02):
direct your age a little furthersouth.
Matt Gaetz had at least a week'snotice that this thing was
going to drop on Monday, the23rd, but he still waited until
that morning to file a motion infederal court in DC demanding
that the committee not releasethe report.
The case was always doomed tofail.
The courts really do not get totell Congress how to conduct
its business.
(25:22):
It's kind of fundamental to theConstitution, but the way it
went down was exceptionallysilly.
The case was immediatelyflagged for being procedurally
defective in three differentways.
At about 10.30 am, the reportwent live on the Ethics
Committee website, at whichpoint Judge Ahmed Mehta demanded
that Gates explain why thismatter should not be dismissed
with prejudice for lack ofsubject matter jurisdiction.
(25:44):
Insofar as the case appears tobe moot.
In light of the House EthicsCommittee's public disclosure of
the report whose releaseplaintiff seeks to enjoin, gaetz
was forced to admit that hiscomplaint was indeed moot and
Judge Mehta dismissed the casebefore close of business.
Gaetz spent that Mondaytweeting through it and has
since reposted messages fromhundreds of supportive fans.
He's also floating a plan totake the oath of office on
(26:07):
January 3rd, offer a resolutionto expose all congressional
sexual harassment settlementsand then resign to start his new
gig at OAN.
And since his political actioncommittee is still fundraising,
it seems entirely plausible thathe'll go through with his plan
to run for Florida governor in2026.
And okay, yes, florida doeshave the opportunity to do the
(26:28):
craziest thing possible here,but maybe just this once don't.
Former Congressman Matt Gaetz oh, that has a nice
ring to it tried like hell toprevent the congressional report
of his misdeeds from coming out, including filing a lawsuit
that went nowhere, but now thereport of his sexcapades is out,
for better or worse.
Yes, it's only been about onemonth since Gaetz withdrew his
appointment as America's top lawenforcement officer, and now
(00:21):
the House Ethics Committee justreleased a disturbingly graphic
report of his behavior, whichdetails the accounts of 12 women
that Gates paid a combinedtotal of over $90,000 in
exchange for sex and illegaldrugs, including, allegedly, a
17-year-old minor.
What happens next?
Well, here to break down thisinsane story of lust lies, and
the law is chaos.
(00:41):
Lawyer Liz Dye.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Thanks, devin.
On November 13, donald Trumpannounced his intention to
nominate Florida CongressmanMatt Gaetz as attorney general.
Gaetz immediately resigned fromCongress, despite having just
run for and won re-election tohis seat.
The move was seen as atransparent attempt to head off
the release of a report by theHouse Ethics Committee on
allegations that Gaetz hadparticipated in sex trafficking,
(01:03):
including of a minor Republican.
House Speaker, mike Johnson,vocally opposed releasing the
report to the public, even asits conclusions were pretty
clearly relevant to Gaetz'sfitness to be the top law
enforcement officer in the land.
But Gaetz's notoriouslyobnoxious behavior, including
his habit of whipping out hisphone to show off nude pictures
of his sex partners, was nosecret in DC.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
This is a guy that didn't have that the media
didn't give a time of day toafter he was accused of sleeping
with an underage girl.
There's a reason why no one inthe conference came and defended
him, because we had all seenthe videos he was showing on the
house floor that all of us hadwalked away of the girls that he
had slept with.
He'd brag about how he wouldcrush ED medicine and chase it
(01:48):
with an energy drink so he couldgo all night.
This is obviously before he gotmarried.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
For the record, that was then-Congressman, now
Oklahoma Senator, mark WayneMullen, who said he might still
consider voting for Gates asAttorney General.
But Mullen aside, it becameclear almost immediately that
the Senate would never vote toconfirm Gates.
So, November 21, he withdrewhis nomination and now he's
headed to One American NewsNetwork to read the news to its
dozens of viewers every day.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
And bringing on a firebrand of a talk show host to
our primetime lineup.
May I announce Matt Gates andthe Matt Gates Show coming next
month to OAN.
Hey, Matt.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Initially, the committee voted against
releasing the report, with allRepublicans opposed, but at a
closed-door meeting on December5th, two Republican members
switched their vote and agreedto make it public on the 23rd.
The report is now out and it'swell, it's icky.
Gaetz defended himself bysaying that my 30s were an era
of working very hard and playinghard too.
(02:44):
It's embarrassing, though notcriminal, that I probably
partied, womanized, drank andsmoked more than I should have
earlier in life, which soundsconveniently like he was just a
kid blowing off steam in anage-appropriate
boys-will-be-boys way, they said.
Representative Gates tookadvantage of the economic
vulnerability of young women tolure them into sexual activity,
for which they received anaverage of a few hundred dollars
(03:06):
after each encounter.
In fact, the committee foundthat the 42-year-old congressman
paid very young women for sexand drugs, including one girl
who was 17 at the time.
That is statutory rape as amatter of Florida law.
They also noted that he votedagainst the Frederick Douglass
Trafficking Victims Preventionand Protection Reauthorization
Act of 2022 and was the lone novote in 2017 on legislation to
(03:29):
establish an advisory committeethat would coordinate efforts to
prevent human trafficking, avote he defended by pointing to
his work in the Floridalegislature to broaden the
definition of duress in thestate's trafficking laws to
include economic duress.
The committee also found thathe violated multiple house rules
about disclosure of gifts andservices to women who were not
(03:50):
his constituents.
Many people have insisted thatGates should have been
prosecuted by the JusticeDepartment.
Friend of the channel, MitchellEppner, suggests that the real
failure was that of localFlorida prosecutors.
To understand what reallyhappened here, we'll have to
first talk about a bunch ofdrifters and weirdos, several of
whom wound up in jail.
It's a wild story that involvespublic Venmo transactions, a
(04:13):
kidnapped Iranian hostage andthe love hotel emoji which is
apparently a thing on all ourphones.
Who knew?
Okay, SPF up, because it's timeto meet some spectacular
Florida men.
First up, Joel Greenberg, theformer tax collector for
Seminole County.
Under Florida law, taxcollectors are elected officials
responsible for collectingtaxes, obviously, but also for
(04:35):
issuing various permits andgovernment documents, including
driver's licenses.
Greenberg is currently in jailfor committing a truly wild
array of crimes.
He once caused a fire in acounty building where he
commandeered the county serversto mine bitcoins.
He doled out three and a halfmillion dollars in state
government contracts to variousfriends and acquaintances,
including the groomsman at hiswedding, and he sent letters to
(04:58):
the school where his politicalopponent worked, impersonating
students and falsely accusinghis rival of being a pedophile.
But what brought him into theambit of federal investigators
and eventually ensnared Gateswas Greenberg's habit of
generating fake state IDs forhimself and for the women he was
sleeping with.
On Monday, april 16th 2018, anemployee at the Lake Mary branch
(05:19):
of the tax collector's officeopened up shop and discovered
that the alarm wasn't on.
She also found a bunch ofexpired driver's licenses which
were supposed to be shredded,strewn all over Greenberg's desk
.
She reviewed the securitycamera footage, where she saw
that Greenberg had been in theoffice with an unidentified man,
and when the employee texted,greenberg responded that he'd
(05:40):
been showing Congressman Gateswhat our operation looked like,
you know, on the weekend, in themiddle of the night, as one
does.
When Greenberg got picked up bythe feds in 2020 for stalking
his political opponent online,he had at least five fake IDs on
him, which is why the cops wentand talked to the people at the
Lake Mary office, and that'show they got to Gates, because
(06:00):
as soon as the FBI startedpulling at the threads of
Greenberg's nasty personal life,they found that he was
inextricably tied in with Gates'own sordid stuff.
Greenberg recruited very youngwomen off the Sugar Daddy
website seeking arrangement,paying them to spend time with
Greenberg, gates and their malefriends.
The arrangement included sexand often drugs, and one of
(06:22):
those girls turned out to be a17-year-old high school junior,
which meant that she could notlegally consent to sex with an
adult over the age of 24 underFlorida law.
In June of 2020, greenberg wascharged with stalking and
identity theft, and in August of2020, the Justice Department
filed a superseding indictmentagainst him for child sex
trafficking, which meant thatthe feds had a very sleazy
(06:45):
person in custody with a verystrong incentive to say
absolutely anything that mightsave his skin.
In early 2021, the New YorkTimes reported that Gates was
under federal investigation forsex trafficking in relation to
the 17-year-old girl.
Gates insists that this was apolitically motivated act by Joe
Biden's henchmen, but thereality is that the
investigation began during thewaning days of the last Trump
(07:07):
administration, when Bill Barrwas still the Attorney General,
and while the investigation wasstill going on behind closed
doors.
Reporters were hot on the trail,although, to be fair, they
didn't have to dig very deep,since Gates and Greenberg both
left their Venmo history publicuntil well into 2021.
The Daily Beast reported thatin May of 2018, gates Venmoed
(07:28):
Greenberg $900, writing in thememo line hit up with the name
of the 17-year-old girl.
The next morning, greenbergVenmoed the girl and two other
women in three separatetransactions, denominated as
school, school and tuition,totaling $900.
Gates denied paying women forsex, telling the Daily Beast the
last time I had a sexualrelationship with a 17-year-old
(07:50):
I was 17.
But before it dawned on himthat he would be wise to make
his Venmo, private reportersJose Pagliari and Roger
Sullenberger clocked thousandsof dollars Gates sent to
Greenberg, including onetransaction for $300 on November
1, 2018, with the love hotelemoji in the memo line.
The Daily Beast confirmed thatGreenberg did indeed book a
(08:10):
hotel for that evening in WinterPark, florida.
And that turned out to be justthe tip of the iceberg.
According to the House report,using personal checks, venmo and
Cash App, gates sent more than$90,000 to 12 women in exchange
for sex and drugs.
Gates denied ever paying forsex, telling Axios in March of
2020, I have definitely, in mysingle days, provided for women.
(08:32):
I've dated, you know I've paidfor flights, for hotel rooms.
I've been, you know, generousas a partner.
I think someone is trying tomake that look criminal when
it's not here.
He is on Tucker Carlson tryingto remind the former Fox host of
the fun dinner Matt and one ofhis generous partner dates
shared with him and his wife.
Speaker 4 (08:50):
I can say that actually you and I went to
dinner about two years ago.
Your wife was there and Ibrought a friend of mine, you'll
remember her and she wasactually threatened by the FBI,
told that if she wouldn't cop tothe fact that somehow I was
involved in some pay for playscheme, that she could face
trouble.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Awkward.
Now, obviously, if you're goingto engage in illegal
prostitution and recordeverything on Venmo, you're
going to want a good lawyer, butif you want a great lawyer, my
law firm, the Eagle Team, canhelp.
If you've gotten in a car crash, suffered a data breach,
especially got one of those databreach letters saying that your
information might have beenleaked, or are dealing with a
workers' comp or social securityissue, we can represent you or
help find you the right attorney.
It's so important to talk to alawyer right away so you can
(09:28):
maximize your recovery.
And, by the way, we don't getpaid unless you do so.
There's nothing up front.
So just click on the link inthe description or call the
phone number on screen for afree consultation with my team,
because you don't just need alegal team, you need the Eagle
Team.
So click below.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Gates claimed that he and his father had been victims
of an organized criminalextortion involving a former DOJ
official seeking $25 million.
While threatening to smear myname, he said that his father
had been cooperating withfederal authorities in this
matter and wearing a wire at theFBI's direction to catch these
criminals, and that part turnedout to be more or less true.
See, matt Gaetz has a littletouch of the Nepo baby about him
(10:03):
, if you can even believe it.
In fact, his daddy, don Gaetz,was a highly successful
businessman who served aspresident of the Florida State
Senate between 2012 and 2014.
On March 16, 2021, with rumorsswirling that Gates would be
indicted, his father got a textfrom a former Air Force
intelligence officer named BobKent, saying that his son, matt,
(10:23):
was about to be federallyindicted, but he, kent, had a
plan to make his future legaland political problems go away.
Now stick with me here, becausethis one's really crazy.
Kent and his backer, floridabusinessman Stephen Alford, were
obsessed with a former FBIagent named Robert Levinson, who
went missing in Iran in 2007.
Levinson was reportedly on aCIA mission, but he was in poor
(10:47):
health and in 2020, thegovernment told his family that
they should presume he was dead,which they did, filing a
wrongful death suit against theIranian government and securing
a $1.4 billion reward to be paidout of Iranian assets frozen in
US coffers since 1980.
But for reasons not entirelyclear, alfred and Kent thought
that Levinson was alive, or theysaid they did anyway.
(11:10):
So they texted Don Gates if youand your son are willing to
help us, privately andclandestinely, obtain the
release of Robert Levinson, Iwill ensure that Matt is on the
plane that delivers Levinson tohis family, thus making him the
most sought-after public figurein the world for his efforts to
obtain Levinson's release.
Then my partner will see to itthat Matt receives a
presidential pardon, thusalleviating all his legal
(11:33):
issues".
I think the theory here was thatif Gates was somehow the guy
who brought Levinson home, bidenwould have to pardon him,
because you're allowed to commitsex crimes if you're a national
hero.
All they wanted from Don Gateswas a $25 million loan to be
repaid out of the federal reward.
Alford and Kent dubbed the planProject Homecoming and laid out
(11:56):
the details in a memo whichthey delivered to Don Gates.
But of course, papa Gateswasn't an idiot.
He immediately called the FBIto report that he was being
extorted and was presumablywearing that wire the whole time
, as his son had said.
Alford was indicted in 2021 andpled guilty to one count of
wire fraud.
He's currently a guest of theUnited States government and
(12:17):
will be for a couple more yearsat least, none of which has
anything to do with whether ornot Matt Gaetz committed crimes,
but it doesn't make it easierto indict him.
What it did was allow him tothrow glitter in the air and
claim that he was being targetedby the DOJ.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
What is happening is an extortion of me and my family
involving a former Departmentof Justice official.
Tonight, I am demanding thatthe Department of Justice and
the FBI release the audiorecordings that were made under
their supervision and at theirdirection, which will prove my
innocence.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
On April 9th 2021, the House Ethics Committee
announced that it wasinvestigating public allegations
that Representative Matt Gaetzmay have engaged in sexual
misconduct and or illicit druguse, shared inappropriate images
or videos on the House floor,misused state identification
records, converted campaignfunds to personal use and or
accepted a bribe, impropergratuity or impermissible gift
(13:14):
in violation of house rules,laws or other standards of
conduct.
That investigation gotsidelined for two years after
the Justice Department asked theEthics Committee to back off
and let the criminalinvestigation take precedence.
And that's look.
It's not crazy.
If you're a prosecutor, youdon't want your witnesses
destroying their credibility bysaying one thing in
congressional testimony andanother to you.
(13:36):
But that delayed thecongressional investigation
until 2023, when the Republicanstook back the House.
Now, gates was known as ablowhard and a bomb thrower
among Republicans, but he wasTrump's guy and he figured that
meant Republicans would go tobat for him, including then
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Mccarthy was incrediblyvulnerable because Republicans
(13:58):
had won by the slimmest ofmargins in 2022.
It took 15 rounds of votes toconfirm him as speaker, and that
only happened after he grantedhuge concessions to some of the
most aggressive members of hisown caucus, including Gates.
Essentially, mccarthy gave themthe ability to call a snap vote
on his leadership at any time.
Gates seemed to think thatMcCarthy owed it to him to put a
(14:22):
stop to the ethicsinvestigation, or at least Gates
figured that McCarthy'sprecarious position gave him
leverage to make the demand.
But McCarthy refused to playball.
Matt is upset about an ethicscomplaint.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
I don't care what they threaten against me.
I am not going to interjectinto an independent committee
like Athens.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Meanwhile, behind the scenes, gates was stonewalling
the committee.
After McCarthy made thosecomments, gates wrote a letter
in September accusing thecommittee of doing McCarthy's
bidding, after he publiclysignaled to you to put the heat
on and instructed you to shootyour shot.
In October, gates led asuccessful effort to push
McCarthy out of the job, afterwhich Gates switched to claiming
(15:05):
that the ethics committee'sRepublicans were on a mission to
avenge McCarthy.
It was an attempt to injectpolitics into the process by
accusing the committee ofplaying politics.
In reality, the committee wasdoing its job and the stuff that
it uncovered while it was doingits job was awful.
Okay, top line.
The committee found substantialevidence that Representative
(15:26):
Gates had sex with victim A inJuly 2017, when she was 17 years
old and he was 35.
Representative Gates's actionswere in violation of Florida's
statutory rape law.
So there you go.
That's who Trump wanted to putin charge of the Justice
Department.
But aside from that, it's clearthat Gates and Greenberg paid at
least 12 young women for sexand drugs.
(15:48):
One of those women included hisgirlfriend of two years, whom
Gates met through seekingarrangement when she was 21 and
he was 35.
Their relationship was notexclusive and she seems to have
corralled other young women tosend Gates drugs and to
entertain him and his friends.
She's woman one on this tablereceiving almost $64,000.
Other women interviewed by thecommittee testified that woman
(16:11):
one would often provide drugs atparties, and woman one whose
lawyers were paid by Gatesrepeatedly took the fifth when
she was interviewed by thecommittee.
Gates himself also relied onthe girls to bring him drugs.
And okay, maybe you're of theopinion that sex work should be
legal and drug laws are stupidFair.
The problem is that these veryyoung women were plied with
(16:33):
drugs and alcohol in situationswhere it's not clear that they
were really able to consent tohaving sex with multiple men and
women in an evening.
The committee wrote.
While all the women that thecommittee interviewed stated
their sexual activity withRepresentative Gates was
consensual, at least one womanfelt that the use of drugs at
the parties and events theyattended may have impaired their
(16:53):
ability to really know what wasgoing on or fully consent.
Indeed, nearly every woman thatthe committee spoke with could
not remember the details of atleast one or more of the events
they attended withRepresentative Gates and
attributed that to drug oralcohol consumption.
The girl, who was 17 at thetime of her encounters with
Gates, testified to thecommittee that when I look back
(17:14):
on certain moments I feelviolated.
I thought all these people weremy friends.
I know now that they're not and, as exploitative as that was,
gates and Greenberg didn'talways pay up as promised.
Here's Gates's girlfriend womanone explaining that the guys
are a little limited in theircash flow this weekend.
So Matt was like if it can bemore of a customer appreciation
(17:36):
week, so if you had on yourbingo card guy most likely to
demand a freebie from a teenagesex worker, hey congrats.
Other texts show him dockingthe compensation for one woman
because he didn't think she'dstayed long enough, which kind
of undercuts the claim for mostof these women that this wasn't
prostitution or, as Gates put it, sending funds to women he
(17:57):
dated.
And in fact, the committee saidplainly that Gates enticed and
procured women to engage insexual activity for hire and
purchased the services of womenengaging in sexual activity for
hire, in violation of Floridastate law.
Note that's a state law and nota federal law.
The committee investigatedwhether Gates participated in
sex trafficking, particularlywith regard to a trip to the
(18:19):
Bahamas in 2018.
Gates and two other men spentthree days partying with six
women, the youngest of whom was18.
Gates is reported to have takenecstasy and had sex with at
least four of the women on thattrip.
At other times, he paid forwomen to come from Florida to DC
or New York, including inJanuary of 2019, when Gates
appeared as a guest host on theFox News show Outnumbered.
(18:42):
After he went on air to callSenator Elizabeth Warren a sack
of Jueya, the group went to aBroadway show.
A lawyer for one of the womentold ABC that the show was
Pretty Woman, which is honestlya little too on the nose.
Ultimately, the committeeconcluded that they did not find
sufficient evidence to concludethat Representative Gates
violated the federal sextrafficking statute.
(19:02):
Although Representative Gatesdid cause the transportation of
women across state lines forpurposes of commercial sex, the
committee did not find evidencethat any of those women were
under 18 at the time of travel.
Nor did the committee findsufficient evidence to conclude
that the commercial sex actswere induced by fraud, force or
coercion.
They did, however, find thatGates violated House rules on
(19:23):
accepting gifts.
He failed to disclose that heflew back from the Bahamas on a
private plane a gift valued inexcess of the $250 limit under
the House gift rule.
Gates tried to hide this byindignantly pointing to his
travel itinerary, which showedhim flying out of Washington
Dulles Airport on a commercialflight.
When the committee pointed outthat he'd forgotten to say how
(19:44):
he got home, he got very snotty.
He said my travel to theBahamas was a result of my
purchase of American Airlinestickets with my personal funds,
and it goes without saying thatI was not reimbursed by anybody.
Does the committee also have aninterest in every dollar I
spent in the Bahamas on food,refreshments and other travel
provisions, such as sunscreen?
That was one of the reasons thecommittee found that Gates
(20:05):
obstructed the investigation,violating his duty of candor as
a member of Congress.
They also found that he violatedcongressional rules with
respect to constituent services,using official resources to
help a woman he was having sexwith expedite her passport
renewal.
In fact, she wasn't hisconstituent at all.
It was incredibly damning, andthe committee members also had
(20:26):
some very harsh words for theJustice Department.
Remember how the EthicsCommittee delayed its own
investigation by two years toavoid interfering with the DOJ's
criminal inquiry.
That inquiry was closed withoutcharge, which Gates pointed to
as evidence of his completeexoneration.
That's not what that means, butlet's come back to that one in
a minute.
The committee said that many ofthe women it interviewed also
(20:47):
gave statements to DOJ and urgedthe committee to rely on those
statements in lieu of requiringthem to relive their experience.
They were particularlyconcerned with providing
additional testimony about asitting congressman in light of
DOJ's lack of action on theirprior testimony.
The report complained that DOJrefused to provide the relevant
statements and other significantevidence to the committee.
(21:07):
Doj cited internal policiesabout protecting uncharged
suspects like RepresentativeGates, general concerns about
how DOJ's cooperation with thecommittee may deter other
victims in other matters andvarious inapposite policies
relating to congressionaloversight of DOJ itself.
But that's mostly part of a forlack of a better term ongoing
pissing match between Congressand the executive branch,
(21:29):
because Congress always wants toget its hands on investigative
materials in high profile casesand the DOJ never wants to give
it to them.
In some cases that's because itcan't.
It's illegal to disclose grandjury materials without
permission of the court, but itwould be terrible public policy
for Congress to be able to seizeand publish internal police
(21:49):
investigations of people whowere never charged.
Who would ever talk to the FBIif that were a possible outcome
and there's just no way to makean exception to this rule that
only covers villains like MattGaetz exception to this rule
that only covers villains likeMatt Gaetz.
So yeah, you can sympathizewith the women here who would
have preferred not to beinterviewed again by Congress,
but you kind of have to put thatcriticism in context.
(22:10):
But let's come back to Gaetz'sclaim of exoneration, because a
lot of people have said that theJustice Department screwed up
by not indicting him, and thatincludes the committee which
accused the DOJ of not doingright by the 17-year-old girl
who cooperated with the DOJ'sinvestigation for years and was
let down by the justice systemwhen reports circulated that the
DOJ would be unlikely to pursuecharges against Representative
(22:32):
Gates.
First of all, we have no ideawhy Gates wasn't charged Again,
we haven't seen the internalinvestigative materials, but we
can make some educated guesses.
We haven't seen the internalinvestigative materials, but we
can make some educated guesses.
For one thing, the Fed's keywitness is Joel Greenberg, who
did all the cooperating hepossibly could have done,
delaying his sentence multipletimes and he's still got 11
years.
When Judge Gregory Presnellsentenced him, he said he'd
(22:55):
never seen a defendant who hascommitted so many different
types of crime within arelatively short period, like
those crimes committed by MrGreenberg.
To say that Greenberg hascredibility problems is a
massive understatement, and thecommittee itself said that it
would not rely exclusively oninformation provided by Mr
Greenberg in making any findings.
Second, the Mann Act, whichprohibits transporting
(23:17):
individuals across state andnational lines for the purposes
of prostitution, is aproblematic statute for a whole
host of reasons.
Let's start with the fact thatit was originally known as the
White Slave Traffic Act of 1910,and one of the first successful
prosecutions was of heavyweightchampion boxer Jack Johnson,
who was black and faced repeatedarrests under the Mann Act for
(23:37):
traveling in the company ofwhite women.
It's historically been used tocriminalize sexual relationships
that society finds unacceptable, by characterizing them as
prostitution and or sextrafficking.
And although the law has beenamended, it's still so broad
that the Justice Departmentcharges under the Mann Act only
where there is evidence of avictim of severe forms of
(23:58):
trafficking in persons.
And whatever you think of Gates, this is clearly not that.
Third, the ethics report itselfdidn't find that Gates violated
any federal laws.
The youngest woman who traveledwith him to the Bahamas was 18,
so there was no trafficking ofa minor.
And if you can't charge underthe Mann Act, then the only
thing left was violation ofFlorida state laws.
(24:19):
I mean, okay, sure, maybe thefeds could have indicted him for
the molly or for having thewomen mail him marijuana
cartridges.
But come on, as the ethicscommittee concluded, gates
violated House rules which arenot prosecutable, and he
violated Florida statutory rapeand prostitution laws.
So maybe the real question hereisn't why didn't Attorney
(24:40):
General Merrick Garland indictGates, it's why didn't Florida
prosecutors do it, since theyhad access to the same media
reports suggesting that he paida 17-year-old girl for sex that
Congress and the DOJ did.
There was nothing stoppingstate's attorneys in Florida
from stepping up to the platehere, and they don't even appear
to have investigated.
So while you're looking atpeople to be mad at, maybe
(25:02):
direct your age a little furthersouth.
Matt Gaetz had at least a week'snotice that this thing was
going to drop on Monday, the23rd, but he still waited until
that morning to file a motion infederal court in DC demanding
that the committee not releasethe report.
The case was always doomed tofail.
The courts really do not get totell Congress how to conduct
its business.
(25:22):
It's kind of fundamental to theConstitution, but the way it
went down was exceptionallysilly.
The case was immediatelyflagged for being procedurally
defective in three differentways.
At about 10.30 am, the reportwent live on the Ethics
Committee website, at whichpoint Judge Ahmed Mehta demanded
that Gates explain why thismatter should not be dismissed
with prejudice for lack ofsubject matter jurisdiction.
(25:44):
Insofar as the case appears tobe moot.
In light of the House EthicsCommittee's public disclosure of
the report whose releaseplaintiff seeks to enjoin, gaetz
was forced to admit that hiscomplaint was indeed moot and
Judge Mehta dismissed the casebefore close of business.
Gaetz spent that Mondaytweeting through it and has
since reposted messages fromhundreds of supportive fans.
He's also floating a plan totake the oath of office on
(26:07):
January 3rd, offer a resolutionto expose all congressional
sexual harassment settlementsand then resign to start his new
gig at OAN.
And since his political actioncommittee is still fundraising,
it seems entirely plausible thathe'll go through with his plan
to run for Florida governor in2026.
And okay, yes, florida doeshave the opportunity to do the
(26:28):
craziest thing possible here,but maybe just this once don't.
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Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com