Matt Gaetz getting the Trump treatment

Former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) is now taking on the greatest challenge of his life. President-elect Donald J. Trump nominated him yesterday to become Attorney General of the United States. Every warmonger, enemy of American liberty, and servant of (or shill for) the Deep State is making hay over false allegations of inappropriate relations with a minor girl – allegations that even Merrick Garland’s Department of Political Justice found they could never substantiate. (Let no one say that the case would come before Judge Aileen Cannon, who would dismiss it out of hand. She’s in the Southern District of Florida; Gaetz’ district is in the Northern.) Herewith a review, not so much of the allegations as of their coverage, by media outlets of varying reliability.

Matt Gaetz in the political spotlight

Matt Gaetz represents Florida’s First District, which is the extreme western end of the Florida Panhandle. He won reelection 2-1 over his Democratic opponent.

Matt Gaetz has been in the House of Representatives since 2017, and throughout his tenure he has been a troublemaker. He once cosponsored a bill to forbid Members of Congress to trade common stock and other securities. Among the other sponsors: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). But the subject matter, not the lead sponsor, incurred his colleagues’ rage. Many Republicans are just as guilty of profiting through insider trading as, say, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the Poster Lady.

After the Midterms in which Republicans barely captured the House, Gaetz filed the Motion to Vacate the Chair. It carried, and that is why Kevin McCarthy is not even a member of the House of Representatives anymore. (When they told him he couldn’t be captain anymore, he gathered up his marbles and slunk home.) Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) became Speaker after a series of contentious votes.

More recently, Gaetz wrote a scathing critique of a “pep rally” at the Justice Department after the Trump-Harris debate. In it he accused the Attorney General of multiple violations of law, not only in the prosecutions of Trump but in DOJ’s treatment of its own staff. But Gaetz said nothing about the shameful way the DOJ, and the House Ethics Committee, has treated him.

What about that 17-year-old girl?

In March of 2021 – the first year of the Biden-Harris administration – Matt Gaetz suddenly faced a fearsome allegation. Allegedly, he once met a 17-year-old girl, paid her for sex, and even arranged for her to cross State lines. That, if it happened, would constitute sex trafficking under federal law.

The report came from The New York Times. Apparently the congressman’s name turned up in the investigation of another person: Florida tax collector Joel Greenberg. Greenberg has faced trial on solicitation and sex-with-underage-girls charges of his own, according to The Hill.

For more than a year, Gaetz was subject to a federal investigation. He has consistently denied any such wrongdoing, and suggested someone tried to extort $25 million from him and his family. The New Republic filed its own breathless story about Gaetz. But even they had to admit that they couldn’t prove that Gaetz was about to come under indictment.

Ultimately the Justice Department dropped the case. CNN reports why: they couldn’t be sure their witness could convince a jury that she was telling the truth. The history of Merrick Garland’s Justice Department is one of repeated political prosecutions that would make Lavrentiy Beria envious.

Show me the man and I’ll show you the crime. Lavrentiy Beria

So if they dropped the case, they had none and couldn’t even fabricate one.

Matt Gaetz still a target

And Gaetz remains a target. Cassidy Hutchinson, of “Trump grabbing the wheel” fame, accused Gaetz of sexual harassment during a 2020 Camp David trip. More recently, someone accused him of being at a “drug-fueled sex party” that a 17-year-old girl also attended. That came out allegedly in a court filing that NOTUS reported last September. But everyone but the fringe leftist media forgot about that at the time. A little matter of two hurricanes that struck Florida and other States distracted the public’s attention. But evidently the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct – the Ethics Committee – opened an investigation into that wild-party rumor.

On Tuesday (November 12), rumors circulated that someone – no one would say who – would nominate a challenger to Speaker Johnson in the Republican House Leadership elections. Nothing came of that, especially after Trump resoundingly endorsed Johnson’s staying on as Speaker. Then yesterday, Trump nominated Matt Gaetz to be his Attorney General.

That evening, Gaetz resigned from Congress, effective immediately. He explained to Speaker Johnson that the Republican Conference couldn’t afford “too many vacancies.” And he’s right; Rep. Michelle Steel (R-Calif.) is hanging onto her seat by a 300-vote thread. By resigning now, Gaetz gives Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) time to call a special election to fill his seat. If he can’t do it by January 3, he can at least do it by January 20, when three other House seats would fall vacant by reason of Presidential appointments.

Detractors – and exculpatory evidence

Donald Trump’s announcement of his nomination of Matt Gaetz has electrified the right – and horrified the left. CNN’s Jake Tapper cried out that this was “Trump without the guardrails.” He then saw fit to try Gaetz’ House Ethics case on his show:

Gaetz is currently facing a House Ethics Committee investigation over whether he may have — and I should note, before I even outline the charges, Gaetz denies at all — but the House Ethics Committee in a statement earlier this year said they’re looking into whether he may have, quote, “engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, accepted improper gifts, dispensed special privileges and favors to individuals with whom he had a personal relationship and sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct,” unquote. Again, Gaetz denies at all. Jake Tapper

By resigning when and as he did, Gaetz removes himself from the personal jurisdiction of the Ethics Committee. So anything the Ethics Committee was going to release, they must keep under seal. Jake Tapper violates ethical canons of his own by mentioning anything that, otherwise, might never see the light of day.

Geraldo Rivera used a literally nauseating metaphor to describe his own reaction to the nomination. The Gateway Pundit’s Cassandra MacDonald provided a transcript of his interview with NewsNation’s Leland Vittert– which, suitably Bowdlerized, follows:

Rivera: I think it is a horrible, creepy choice. I have no idea why he did it.

Vittert: The fact that all Democrats are doing, yourself included, is talking about how terrible Matt Gaetz is means they’re not talking about the things that actually the American people told us in this election they care about.

Rivera: Well, as I understand it, President Trump, President-elect Trump, was absolutely keen on ending the weaponization of the Justice Department. That guy is the weapon that Trump will use to destroy his enemies in the DOJ, wreck its independence.

Vittert: Hold on. Hold on. I have not heard him say once that he is going to use the Department of Justice or that he believes the Department of Justice should go after the enemies of Donald Trump.

Rivera: Matt Gaetz is the epitome of everything that is rotten in Washington. He is someone who is a privileged, entitled, backstabbing. There’s no way the Republicans in the Senate will confirm this man. He’ll make the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearing look like a walk in the park. They will dig up everything about him.

In fact, at about the time of the “court filing” about the “drug-fueled party,” Gaetz dropped a five-post thread embedding photographs of his last letter to the Committee, and evidence he shared with them – evidence that the other person of interest, Joel Greenberg, had taken part in a plot to frame the congressman. Herewith the most relevant texts from the thread:

The Committee’s star witness, Joel Greenberg, is a felonious liar who involves others in his lies.

On July 10, 2024, I provided the Committee dispositive evidence of my innocence by producing a “smoking gun” contemporaneous, jailhouse writing, documenting the plot to frame me, which includes both Joel Greenberg and his victim. This was authenticated by two former federal agents who interviewed the jailhouse informant who revealed the plot against me.

This wasn’t the first – or even second – time Greenberg coordinated false smears of others in this manner.

Greenberg was initially indicted for attempting to falsely smear a teacher at a local high school as a pedophile. Thereafter, he was separately found by federal law enforcement to have possessed child pornography that he intended to use to frame his OWN attorney.

Greenberg had arranged for his victim to meet with an attorney of Greenberg’s choosing to orchestrate the plan to get Greenberg’s victim to lie about me. Greenberg texted another person that he was paying for his victim’s attorneys.

After the text messages admitting Greenberg was paying for his victim’s attorneys, he confessed his lies to a jailhouse informant, who he was sharing a holding cell with in 2021. This jailhouse informant sent a letter to my attorneys confirming Greenberg:

· ADMITTED authorities found records that he gave money to a 17-year-old on AND that he was charged with sex trafficking a minor.

· ADMITTED to fabricating NUMEROUS EVENTS that he told investigators, including claiming that he arranged for a minor to “hook up” with other people.

· Said investigators leaked the charges to the media.

· Wanted to “help the feds” to get his time reduced.

However, NONE of this has been enough for the Committee. It seems the fix is in. Their investigation exists to do what the voters of my district won’t – remove me from office. Therefore, I will no longer voluntarily participate in this regrettable abuse of the Committee. Fmr. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.)

My final response to the Ethics Committee: pic.twitter.com/iCBR3fyB6D— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) September 26, 2024

Greenberg had arranged for his victim to meet with an attorney of Greenberg’s choosing to orchestrate the plan to get Greenberg’s victim to lie about me.

Greenberg texted another person that he was paying for his victim’s attorneys. pic.twitter.com/BS5UlBPXaC— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) September 26, 2024

However, NONE of this has been enough for the Committee. It seems the fix is in.

Their investigation exists to do what the voters of my district won’t – remove me from office.

Therefore, I will no longer voluntarily participate in this regrettable abuse of the Committee.— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) September 26, 2024

This, then, is why he resigned, in addition to giving Gov. DeSantis a pretext to call a special election immediately.

More of the silly season

Erick-Woods Erickson spun a wild theory that Trump can appear to be rewarding Matt Gaetz, knowing the Senate will never confirm him. He named six Senators whom he confidently expects to vote against confirming Gaetz:

• Susan Collins (RINO-Maine),
• Lisa Murkowski (RINO-Alaska),
• Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.),
• Tom Tillis (R-N.C.),
• Bill Cassidy (R-La.), and
• Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.)

In fact, Senators Collins and Murkowski already said they would vote no. Jim Hoft noted that all six (except Markwayne Mullin, who is new) voted to confirm Merrick Garland. Confirming Gaetz would be the only way to wipe that stain off their respective escutcheons.

Dr. Steve Turley suggested that Trump has dared those Senators to vote against his nominee. The key: recess appointments were Trump’s price for staying out of yesterday’s Senate Leadership elections.

Indeed, Speaker Johnson gave a ringing endorsement of Gaetz today.

Matt and I were classmates. We came to Congress at the same time in the 115th Congress in January 2017. And alphabetically, we’re seated right next to one another in Judiciary Committee. We serve there together for seven years. Some of you all who cover Judiciary know those are long meetings. So I got to know Matt very well.

I’ll say this. Everyone who has served with him will tell you he’s one of the most intelligent members of Congress. He’s an accomplished attorney. He’s very concerned about the lawfare that has been occurring in the Department of Justice under the Biden administration, and the fact that the American people have lost their faith in our institutions of justice because of everything that you’ve seen. He’s a reformer in his mind and heart, and I think that he’ll bring a lot to the table on that.

I think out of deference to us, he issued his resignation letter effective immediately of Congress. That caught us by surprise a little bit, but I asked him what the reasoning was, and he said, Well, you can’t have too many absences. So under Florida state law, there’s about an eight-week period to select and fill a vacant seat.

By doing so today, that allows me… I’ve already placed a call to Governor DeSantis in Florida and said, “Let’s start the clock.” He’s in Italy at the moment, and so we’re going to talk first thing in the morning about this. If we start the clock now, if you do the math, we may be able to fill that seat as early as January 3rd when we take the new oath of office for the new Congress.

Matt would have done us a great service by making that decision as he did on the fly. We’re grateful for that. So we move forward.

Look, I’ll say this… People have asked me all day long, President Trump is poaching all of your talent. Yes, we have an embarrassment of riches here. The Republican Conference is full of talented people who are extraordinary leaders and have great expertise. Everyone in this conference could serve in a leadership position in the administration. Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.), Speaker of the House of Representatives

Erickson insists that Florida can’t make the January 3 date. But considering how little he knows how people (other than himself) feel about anything, we can discount that misgiving.

The debate on Gaetz’ nomination – and those of three other Republicans in the House – will not take place until January. By then, all members of the Senate Republican Conference will have had time to digest the implications of the nominations. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), incoming Senate Majority Leader, has pledged the swiftest possible confirmation process. Time will tell as to whether he means what he says.