‘Saw him having sex’: New bombshell rocks one of Donald Trump’s key nominees
Controversy continues to swirl around Donald Trump’s pick for one of America’s most important jobs – and it’s only getting worse.
A lawyer representing multiple women who claim Donald Trump’s nominee to become America’s chief law enforcement officer, Matt Gaetz, paid them for sex has told the media one of those women also witnessed him having sex with a minor.
Mr Gaetz was unveiled, last week, as Mr Trump’s pick to be attorney-general. If he’s confirmed by the Senate, he will become head of the Justice Department, which oversees all federal law enforcement.
Before his nomination was announced, Mr Gaetz was a newly re-elected congressman representing Florida’s first district. He abruptly resigned from that role on Wednesday in what was interpreted, even by his fellow Republicans, as an effort to avoid the release of a report into his conduct by the House Ethics Committee.
The committee had been investigating whether Mr Gaetz “engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, accepted improper gifts, and dispensed special privileges and favours to people with whom he had a personal relationship”. He denies any wrongdoing.
Its report was due to be released within days; now however, given the commitee’s remit only covers sitting members of Congress, it may never be published.
Politicians on both sides of the partisan divide are nevertheless pushing for the report’s release, believing it could contain relevant information as they consider whether or not to confirm Mr Gaetz as attorney-general.
The committee is reportedly set to meet, at some point this week, to decide what to do about the Gaetz report.
Joel Leppard is a lawyer representing two women, both adults, who told the Ethics Committee Mr Gaetz had paid them for sex. That is strictly illegal in Florida.
Speaking to America’s ABC News network, Mr Leppard said one of his clients also told the committee she had witnessed Mr Gaetz having sex with her friend, who was 17 at the time, at a house party.
Florida’s age of consent is 18. When the alleged incident happened Mr Gaetz, who is currently 42 years old, would have been 36.
“She testified that in July of 2017, at this house party, she was walking out to the pool area, and she looked to her right, and saw Mr Gaetz having sex with her friend, who was 17,” said Mr Leppard.
He said the Ethics Committee had sifted through evidence supporting the allegation that Mr Gaetz had paid his two clients for sex.
“They essentially put the Venmo payments on the screen and asked about them, and my clients repeatedly testified. ‘What was this payment for?’ ‘That was for sex,’” he said.
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Mr Leppard also spoke to CBS News, recounting the same testimony from one of his clients. He stressed that neither of them were motivated by politics; indeed neither had even voted in the most recent presidential election. They did not come forward willingly. Instead, they were compelled by subpoenas to testify.
“She arrived at the party. She had sex with Representative Gaetz within minutes of her arrival,” Mr Leppard claimed, echoing his client’s testimony.
“Later on, when she was walking to the pool area, she observed Rep Gaetz having sex with her friend, who was 17 at the time.”
“And on this question, she is absolutely sure?” the interviewer asked.
“She is absolutely certain she observed her friend and Representative Gaetz having sex against what she described as a game table of some sort,” said Mr Leppard.
“My clients want people to know that this happened, and it’s real. They didn’t vote in the last two elections, they do not care one way or another. But they do want the public to know that they’re not lying.
“They did not come forward willingly. They’ve never spoken to anyone without the force of a legal subpoena.
“The testimonies of her and the other 11 individuals who testified would show that this actually did happen, and then the American people would know, and they could decide whether that’s the person they actually want to be the next attorney-general.”
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In a statement, Mr Trump’s presidential transition team expressed confidence that Mr Gaetz would be confirmed as attorney-general.
“Matt Gaetz will be the next attorney-general. He is the right man for the job, and will end the weaponisation of our justice system,” a spokesman said.
“These are baseless allegations intended to derail the second Trump administration. The Biden Department of Justice investigated Gaetz for years and cleared him of wrongdoing. The only people who went to prison over these allegations were those lying about Matt Gaetz.”
That statement was referring to a criminal sex trafficking investigation, conducted by the Department of Justice, which actually started when Mr Trump was president and Bill Barr, whom he’d appointed, was attorney-general.
Mr Gaetz was not its primary target; his name merely surfaced during the investigation, with prosecutors examining whether he was involved in the scheme.
Another individual, Joel Greenberg, pleaded guilty to sex trafficking and other related charges in 2021, which included an admission that he had paid the aforementioned 17-year-old for sex and introduced her to other men. The investigation was eventually closed without any charges being brought against Mr Gaetz.
‘He made it very clear’: Gaetz pick not a bluff
Yesterday Reince Priebus, who served as Mr Trump’s first White House chief of staff, shot down suggestions that the President-elect’s selection of Mr Gaetz was a gambit, designed to grant Congress cover to confirm other potentially controversial nominees.
The theory here is that, by rejecting Mr Gaetz, Mr Trump’s fellow Republicans could earn themselves enough political capital, and enough of an impression of independence, to affirm other nominees like Tulsi Gabbard, Robert F. Kennedy Jr and Pete Hegseth.
Mr Trump has tapped those three to become the director of national intelligence, secretary of health and human services and secretary of defence, respectively, despite their lack of relevant experience, among other potentially thorny issues.
“Reince, you told me you talked to Donald Trump, just yesterday, about some of these more controversial nominees. Is he going to double down, is he backing off at all?” the ABC host Martha Raddatz asked Mr Priebus, on the show This Week.
“No,” Mr Priebus replied.
“He made it very clear to me that the Matt Gaetz pick is not three-dimensional chess to help another nominee get through. That this was what he wanted to have happen.
“A couple of quick things. Number one, you have to remember Donald Trump spent the last couple of years going in and out of courtrooms, getting Mar-a-Lago raided. I mean, part of the reason why the (former and future) first lady, Melania Trump, didn’t go meet with Jill Biden was, ‘Hey, you raided, you know, my bedroom. You want me to have tea with you?’
“So, he feels like he has gone to hell and back ten times. So, this is also a big middle finger to the DOJ and the FBI.
“The Gaetz play, and all these other administration nominees, come after four years of being through the gauntlet.”
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Originally published as ‘Saw him having sex’: New bombshell rocks one of Donald Trump’s key nominees
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