February 16, 2024 10:38 AM UTC

Things Suddenly Look Skeezy Again For Boebert's Bestie Matt Gaetz

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• by: Colorado Pols

ABC News reports on new and potentially damning information obtained by the House Ethics Committee validating longstanding allegations against Rep. Matt “Giggity” Gaetz of Florida of sex trafficking and payment of women both above and below the age of consent for sexual favors. Gaetz’s alleged partner in sex crime, former Florida tax collector Joel Greenberg, has reportedly continued to work with the Ethics Committee building a case against Gaetz after the Justice Department opted not to prosecute Gaetz while Greenberg was sentenced to 11 years of involuntary celibacy in federal prison.

And it looks like Greenberg has given the Ethics Committee, as they say on crime shows, the goods:

Congressional House Ethics investigators have obtained text messages allegedly showing that a few months after first joining Congress, Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz asked a young woman, who at the time had received payments for sex from Gaetz’s then-close friend Joel Greenberg, to join him and others on a three-day trip to the Florida Keys in May 2017, multiple sources tell ABC News.

In the alleged text messages described exclusively to ABC News, the then-freshman congressman appeared to message a woman, who ABC News is not identifying, asking if she would fly on a private plane to the Florida Keys for a trip with Gaetz, three other women, and one other man…

The messages, if accurate, mark the first known example of alleged direct private communication between the Florida congressman and a woman who his one-time close associate Joel Greenberg told investigators he had been paying to have sex with other men, according to documents and interviews with multiple sources.

Through a spokesperson Gaetz issued his usual denials of any knowledge of Greenberg’s scheming or the woman in question, but there’s a problem:

A photo of Gaetz and the woman has also been turned over to the committee, [Pols emphasis] according to sources briefed on the matter. According to the sources, the photo, which is dated May 19, 2017, shows the woman smiling in a selfie next to Gaetz, who is wearing a shirt that reads, “If you think research is expensive, try disease,” a quote from health activist Mary W. Lasker.

The first moral of this story of course is that you shouldn’t do sex trafficking. Having established that, the second moral of the story should the first for whatever reason fall through is to never take selfies with the people you are trafficking for sex–call it the Prince Andrew rule or whatever you want. This seems like a very rudimentary precaution when doing crime, right up there with not bringing your trackable cell phone with you when you storm the U.S. Capitol. But we digress.

Today, the Daily Beast reports that there’s a lot more coming soon:

The Daily Beast can now report that this woman told prosecutors in 2021 that she had sex with Gaetz at a drug-fueled party that she was paid to attend, according to the woman’s attorney.

This attorney told The Daily Beast on Thursday that the woman, in fact, received payments in connection with multiple sex parties with people in Gaetz’s circle. Her lawyer said that, in response to a subpoena, she testified about her experiences to the U.S. Attorneys investigating Gaetz. And she turned over text messages, photos, and other evidence to the Justice Department as part of its child sex trafficking inquiry into the Florida congressman, the lawyer said.

The next step is for the Ethics Committee to release their report, after which the House could vote to expel Gaetz. Gaetz’s leading role in the ouster of ex-Speaker Kevin McCarthy last year, an event from which the narrow House majority still has not recovered, left him with precious few friends–one fewer after the expulsion of fellow backbencher George Santos. One person Gaetz has always had in his corner is Colorado’s Rep. Lauren Boebert, who sit together regularly in the House and have each campaigned in the other’s district. Before the Justice Department announced Gaetz would not be prosecuted, Boebert awkwardly avoided questions about some guy “from Florida,” and after Gaetz was “in the clear” they became more or less inseparable.

But as it turns out, Gaetz wasn’t in the clear at all. With Boebert now far back in the pack in a GOP primary for a different district, Boebert’s erstwhile bestie is just another liability she can’t afford.