“The feds were closing in. And Rep. Matt Gaetz’s friend, Joel Greenberg, was in a panic. The Florida county tax collector was five days away from a federal indictment for sex trafficking involving a 17-year-old – the same one Gaetz is now being investigated over – so Greenberg reached out to mutual friends on Aug. 14 last year and tried to enlist them in his defense, according to a WhatsApp chat shared with federal investigators and obtained by Politico. He fumed that the prosecutor should be fired. He suspected that a political consultant ‘was the rat here.’ He fretted that investigators had combed through his Venmo cash app history, fearing it led them to the former teen at the center of the case.”

“Greenberg also said he was paying the legal fees for the woman, who is now 20 years old. The WhatsApp messages shed light on key aspects of the scandal consuming the Florida Republican congressman and close ally of President Donald Trump – and on the state of mind of the man Gaetz once called his ‘wingman’ as he sought to manage the fallout. Greenberg went so far as to push Gaetz to use his influence with Trump for a pardon, according to two sources familiar with the discussions, including one who heard Greenberg say it repeatedly. Asked about the request from Greenberg, Gaetz previously declined to confirm or deny that it occurred. But the congressman said he did not ask Trump to pardon Greenberg. Gaetz couldn’t be reached this weekend to discuss the WhatsApp messages that are the subject of this story” – Politico.