The woman at the center of the DOJ's probe of Matt Gaetz testified to the House Ethics Committee that he had sex with her when she was 17 years old, sources say.
The president-elect has no idea what Gaetz looks like. The president-elect doesn’t even know Gaetz. The president-elect has never considered Gaetz for AG. The president-elect and Gaetz have never met.
For the uninformed, this is funny (and sarcasm) because there's mountains of evidence of them together. Besides, you know, picking him for AG. But he tries this defense all the time anyway, and people actually believe it.
Just like explicitly Trump calling up members of Congress to kill the bipartisan border bill, and then blaming the Democrats for not passing a border bill. They sold that one on the campaign trail too, and it worked.
Nor should it! It's a wonderful thing no one will be so outraged by the utter lack of even a semblance of justice that they take matters into their own well-armed hands.
The article mentions that he paid her to have sex with him at a party. That also makes it a sex trafficking crime. Also, IANAL but if the jurisdiction had an age of consent lower than 18, the sex trafficking part might negate that.
Also, Gaetz, who was born in 1982, was 35 at the time -- double her age and well outside the limits of any potential Romeo & Juliet laws.
Why would having sex at a party make it trafficking.
It's just paid for underage sex at a party.
Unless she was trafficked at the party by someone else, but I don't think that gets the person paying charged with trafficking? That would get the person who trafficked her that charge.
These parties were also said to be full of drugs (in addition to alcohol), which one could argue blurs any consent, especially when your looking at a 35/yr old man wanting to pay a 17/yr girl for sex. He was also a congressman by then, which also makes this a very lopsided power dynamic when arguing consent with a possibly intoxicated underage girl.
The woman's allegation regarding Gaetz became part of the investigation following claims by Greenberg, a former friend of Gaetz who is currently serving an 11-year prison sentence after reaching a deal with investigators in May 2021 in which he pleaded guilty to multiple federal crimes, including sex trafficking of the woman when she was a minor and introducing her to other "adult men" who also had sex with her when she was underage.
This part also make one more inclined to believe this has something to it, and probably more women that aren't coming forward because of all the death threats and toxicity projected at victims.
Florida started investigating him for this crime, which occurred in 2016, in 2019. In 2021 the House Ethics Committee started investigating, but they paused because the justice department was already investigating.
So, we are going to have an actual child-fucker as AG.
Republicans, "the party of law and order".
🤣
Btw, if there is anyone that I would believe would feed on adrenochrome....just look at Gaetz. Sure, the adrenochrome thing is just rehashed antisemitic blood libel bullshit, but I could see Gaetz maybe trying it out to see....
Pointed out last night that a sexually active 17-yo isn't anything like a "child" or "kid". Got buried. She also started an OF site at 18. Magically crossed a calendar date and went from "child" to "full grown woman who can do whatever the fuck she pleases". Weird how that works. In any case, I'm glad she did as she pleased and finally testified.
Been following Gaetz because he was my Congressman. Simple history, he's a rich frat boy that got lucky. Should have never hit the national stage when he did, or ever. Explains much. My god, he was showing nudies around the House floor!
NONE of that changes the fact that he's guilty as fuck of all the charges leveled at him. Or at least I think so, barring a court date or the release of the House investigation. But facts are dead around here, he's a "child fucker". Whatever.
I went to look at your comment. I'll be polite and summarize it instead of sharing the exact quote.
I was 18 and had a 17 year old girlfriend and we had a ton of sex. That's what 17 year olds do.
If you don't understand how the power dynamics are different between 2 nobodies of similar age vs a 17 year old and a 38 year old federal representative and his local gov buddy, you may want to read some things written about consent written in the last decade.
When I was 17, someone almost 40 was considered old as hell.
They had her out of state, where she likely didn't really know where she was, likely had no one to get help from if she felt she was in a bad situation, and was there with very much more adult authority figures, and there were drugs at the party, so she may have also been under the influence.
You also can't fault someone for taking time to want to testify. She probably felt at least partially responsible, and he is a national figure. It takes time to get up courage to open yourself up to the whole world getting a chance to say things like you must have wanted it or did something to deserve it.