Matt Gaetz

[GreyhoundFan]

[GreyhoundFan]

More shady crap involving the Gaetz gang: "Florida man charged in connection with overture to Matt Gaetz’s father about the investigation of his son"

Quote

The Justice Department on Tuesday arrested a Florida man over a scheme that involved seeking money from Florida Republican Don Gaetz to help halt the sex-trafficking investigation of his son, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), according to court records and a person familiar with the matter.

Stephen M. Alford, 62, was charged with wire fraud in connection with the alleged $25 million plot, which famously came to light months ago — shortly after the revelation that Matt Gaetz was under investigation.

In response to the reporting on that probe in March, the congressman said his family had been cooperating with an FBI investigation of people trying use the investigation of his alleged conduct to extort his father. His father, Matt Gaetz said, had even been wearing a wire for investigators.

The Justice Department indictment names only Alford, identifying Don Gaetz and others by their initials or short descriptors. But people familiar with the matter confirmed the case and said those referred to in it are the same individuals who have long been publicly tied to the effort to get money from the elder Gaetz.

“Don came forward with credible information that he was being extorted. He brought that information to the FBI’s attention. And it is clear today that based upon that credible information, after careful consideration, charges were brought against at least one individual responsible for this fraud scheme,” said Jeffrey Neiman, Don Gaetz’s lawyer.

Matt Gaetz, who is known for his fierce allegiance to former president Donald Trump, had been under Justice Department investigation for months before Alford and another man allegedly approached his father this year, people familiar with the matter have said.

The men, people familiar with the matter have said, had no apparent connection to the sex-crimes investigation — other than having somehow learned about it before it was publicly reported.

The people spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe an ongoing investigation.

Though the investigation into Matt Gaetz has stretched for months, the congressman has not been charged with any crimes, and he has consistently denied wrongdoing.

According to the indictment and people familiar with the matter, Alford and another man, Bob Kent, got in touch with Don Gaetz, referencing the investigation into his son and asking to discuss their effort to locate Robert A. Levinson — the longest-held American hostage in Iran, whose family has said they were told he is dead.

The men wanted $25 million to fund a bid to rescue Levinson as part of an effort they called “Project Homecoming.” Alford, according to the indictment, “falsely represented” that his team had been assured by President Biden that he would “strongly consider” a pardon — or a direction to the Justice Department to end any investigations involving Matt Gaetz — if the rescue effort was successful.

At Alford’s behest, according to the indictment, Don Gaetz met with an attorney to discuss how the money could be transferred to a trust account of his firm. People familiar with the matter have said the attorney is David McGee, a former federal prosecutor in Florida now at the firm Beggs & Lane who has long represented the Levinson family.

The indictment alleges that Alford texted Don Gaetz after that meeting to say he could secure Levinson’s release for a “significantly lower amount.” According to the indictment, he also promised to take Don Gaetz “by the hand” to see the president, and said he could “guarantee” that Matt Gaetz would not go to prison if Don Gaetz gave him money.

Neither McGee nor Kent were charged with any crimes. McGee declined to comment, and Kent could not be reached.

Harlan Hill, a spokesman for Matt Gaetz, said in an email: “Five months ago today Rep. Gaetz asserted — after baseless allegations about him — that he was the victim of an extortion attempt. One of the men involved in that attempt, Stephen Alford, was today indicted. But Alford wasn’t acting alone.”

Hill said that McGee and Kent “must now also face justice,” and asserted that the eventual release of recordings made while Don Gaetz was wearing a wire for the FBI “will further exculpate Rep. Gaetz and implicate those with long-standing links to the federal government.”

Efforts to identify an attorney for Alford were not immediately successful. In addition to the wire fraud charge, prosecutors alleged Alford tried to prevent the government from searching and seizing an iPhone during the investigation.

According to court records and local media reports, Alford has previously been convicted in local and federal fraud cases and spent significant time in prison.

 

[fraurosena]

The mills of justice* grind slowly.

Does anyone have a status update on the investigation into his conduct?

 

*Yes, I know what the actual quote is, but it’s just as applicable to justice. Not that sure about how ‘fine’ the grinding is, so I left that bit out purposely. 

[SPHASH]

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/09/matt-gaetz-investigation-defense-team

 

Tristan Snell, a former assistant New York attorney general, told The Daily Beast that the lineup suggests the congressman is “anticipating a trial.”

“It looks like a scorched-earth approach,” Snell told The Daily Beast. “These are all big out-of-town lawyers. If your goal is to resolve something, you typically hire the top criminal defense attorney in the district, someone who’s a repeat customer there and has a good working relationship with that U.S. attorney’s office. But these attorneys can go down there, burn down the building, and not have to worry about going back in the next day.”

[GreyhoundFan]

Matt needs to STFU:

 

[AlmostSavedAtTacoBell]

18 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Matt needs to STFU:

 

Did Gas Mask Gaetz seriously just accuse someone else of "failing up"?  Duuuuuude.......

[fraurosena]

19 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Matt needs to STFU:

 

This pathetic and embarrassing display shows Matt up for the ignorant asshat he is on live tv. 

[smittykins]

He sounds like a petulant toddler.

”Did not!”

”Did too!”

[onekidanddone]

I’m surprised he didn’t say:

 I’m rubber you’re glue. Anything you say bounces off me and back on you. 
😜 

wow learn something new every day. I typed neener neener and this emoji popped up.  

[smittykins]

“I know you are, but what am I?”

[thoughtful]

I was wondering if Milley was from a military family, so, if Gaetz or another of these idiots resorted to a particular childish insult, he could lean into the microphone and calmly answer:

Spoiler

"As a matter of fact, my mother did wear Army boots, and I am proud of that fact."

Alas, his Mom served in the Navy, not the Army.

Darn.

 

 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

11 hours ago, thoughtful said:

I was wondering if Milley was from a military family, so, if Gaetz or another of these idiots resorted to a particular childish insult, he could lean into the microphone and calmly answer:

  Hide contents

"As a matter of fact, my mother did wear Army boots, and I am proud of that fact."

Alas, his Mom served in the Navy, not the Army.

Darn.

 

 

 

Back in the 1970s, Your mother wears combat boots was a common insult.”  My mother was in the Army, so I used to reply, “Yes, she does.” The idiots usually had no comeback.

[Cartmann99]

 

[Cartmann99]

 

[fraurosena]

1 hour ago, Cartmann99 said:

 

Why bless your heart, sweetie, but that belated and insincere 'apology' isn't going to change the fact that you had inappropriate relationships with underage girls. Nice try though.

[47of74]

The damn forehead got punked by patriottakes 

[GreyhoundFan]

Raskin smacks down!

 

I really love the line about how that would work on Bannon's podcast, but not in the house.

[GreyhoundFan]

One of the replies to that video made me laugh myself silly:

[onekidanddone]

3 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Raskin smacks down!

 

I really love the line about how that would work on Bannon's podcast, but not in the house.

I’m so proud of Raskin he is my congressman and it is an honor to vote for him. 

[onekidanddone]

4 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

One of the replies to that video made me laugh myself silly:

Gaetz is so stupid he doesn’t even know that he doesn’t know. 

[GreyhoundFan]

I so wish the investigations would complete and Matt be subjected to a perp walk away from the Capitol.

 

[47of74]

Delinquent in more ways than one

Quote

On Friday, The Daily Beast revealed that Gaetz had not paid the fees he owes to The Florida Bar, which regulates lawyers there. That mistake prompted the organization to deem him “delinquent” and “not eligible to practice law in Florida.”

Gaetz’s office initially chalked it up to a career change.

“Congressman Gaetz is no longer actively engaged in the practice of law. He is focused on representing his constituents in Congress, not the courtroom,” said his office’s communications director, Joel Valdez.

But after our story published, Gaetz on Friday morning rushed to file a signed petition to get reinstated and pay the $265 fee—plus another $200 in late fees, according to the professional association.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

This makes me hope that the perp walk is coming up soon: "Justice Dept. Adds Two Top Prosecutors to Matt Gaetz Case"

Quote

The Justice Department has added two top prosecutors from Washington to the child sex trafficking investigation of Representative Matt Gaetz, according to two people briefed on the matter, a sign of the complex and high-stakes nature of the inquiry into Mr. Gaetz, a Florida Republican who is one of former President Donald J. Trump’s closest congressional allies.

The prosecutors — one a public corruption investigator with an expertise in child exploitation crimes, and the other a top leader of the public corruption unit — have been working on the Florida-based investigation for at least three months, the people said.

It is not unusual for prosecutors from the Justice Department in Washington to be added to local teams of federal investigators in high-profile cases that require a deep and specific expertise like sex crimes.

The Washington prosecutors have joined a group of federal authorities in Florida who have been investigating accusations of sex trafficking, fraud and corruption by several people connected to Republican politics in Florida, including Mr. Gaetz. The authorities have been examining whether Mr. Gaetz violated a federal child sex trafficking law by providing goods or payments to a 17-year-old girl in exchange for sex.

Despite the wide-ranging nature of the case, only one person has been publicly charged, a former local tax collector named Joel Greenberg. He has pleaded guilty to sex trafficking the same 17-year-old girl and other corruption and fraud charges. Mr. Greenberg agreed to cooperate with the government’s investigation, telling authorities that he saw Mr. Gaetz and others have sex with the girl.

In a sign of the ongoing nature of the investigation, the judge overseeing the case granted a motion on Monday filed by Mr. Greenberg’s lawyer, Fritz Scheller, to have his client’s sentencing delayed until March.

One of the questions the prosecutors will have to wrestle with is whether to charge Mr. Gaetz with the same crime that Mr. Greenberg pleaded guilty to, sex trafficking a minor. The law is broadly written and carries a minimum mandatory sentence of 10 years in prison.

Under President Biden, the Justice Department has largely avoided having to directly take on Mr. Trump and his allies, leaving investigations of the previous administration to Congress and inspectors general. But moving forward with a case against Mr. Gaetz would directly pit the administration against one of Mr. Trump’s most vocal allies in a new way.

In August, the department indicted a Florida real estate developer on charges he tried to extort the Gaetz family of $25 million in exchange for a promise that he could get Mr. Gaetz a presidential pardon from Mr. Biden that would have ended the sex trafficking investigation.

One of the Washington prosecutors is Todd Gee, a deputy chief of the Public Integrity Section, which is part of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. The section, which oversees public corruption cases, is involved in nearly all major criminal investigations into alleged misconduct by federal, state and local officials.

Mr. Gee served as one of the lead prosecutors in the successful conviction in 2020 of a former Navy commander at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, who covered up a fight with a commissary worker who was found dead in the bay.

He also worked as the chief counsel to Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee during the George W. Bush administration.

During a congressional hearing on Thursday, Mr. Gaetz asked Attorney General Merrick B. Garland whether the department imposed any special vetting processes before it hired former lobbyists or former congressional staffers to work as federal prosecutors, specifically in the Public Integrity Section.

“Is there any prohibition against people who’ve been lobbyists, partisan committee staff or political consultants actually going in and serving in the Public Integrity Section, or is that allowed?” Mr. Gaetz asked. He later added, “If someone has been a political operative, to then put them in charge of election crimes, it’s kind of like having the fox guard the henhouse.”

Mr. Garland noted that it was against Justice Department policy to consider a person’s political affiliations or views during the hiring process for career civil servants.

“There is a requirement that, once somebody becomes a prosecutor, just like when somebody becomes a judge, that they get rid of whatever preconceptions they had before,” Mr. Garland said.

Mr. Gaetz asked Mr. Garland for a list of former lobbyists, former political consultants and former congressional staffers who now worked in the Public Integrity Section. Mr. Garland said that he did not intend to create a list of career officials and their previous jobs.

The Justice Department has a history of treating public corruption cases involving high-profile political figures with special care, so as to guard against the appearance of politically motivated prosecutions or other improprieties.

When prosecutors decline to bring charges in these matters, they often write detailed memos to defend their decisions should they be questioned by current and future politically appointed department leaders or Congress. In investigations that receive extensive media attention but ultimately do not result in charges, the department often puts out a short statement announcing the conclusion of the inquiry.

Sex trafficking cases come with their own complexities that involve issues typically not associated with traditional fraud and corruption investigations. One area of expertise that the Washington prosecutors are bringing to the Gaetz case is dealing with children who have been exploited but may not see themselves as having been victimized, which can complicate trials if they are called as witnesses.

Legally, the victim’s state of mind is not a factor that juries should consider when determining whether the law was violated, according to Amanda Kramer, a white collar defense lawyer at Covington and Burling and former federal prosecutor in Manhattan who supervised sex trafficking cases for a decade.

Technically, the government needs only to prove that the child was underage when the sexual activity occurred and that the child received something of value in exchange for it.

But, Ms. Kramer said, the defense could try to use such witness testimony to confuse the jury or sour the legitimacy of the prosecution, although many judges would most likely shut down such a line of questioning.

“It’s not uncommon for teens who have been trafficked to view themselves as willing participants and not as victims, often as a result of psychological manipulation by their traffickers,” Ms. Kramer said. “That’s one of many dynamics that make sex trafficking cases challenging for prosecutors, but it’s far from fatal to the case.”

 

[Cartmann99]

 

[Cartmann99]