Investigators on the House Ethics Committee have obtained 2017 texts sent by credibly suspected statutory rapist Matt Gaetz to at least one woman – who was 21 at the time – his former bro Joel Greenberg had been paying for sex with himself and other men, ABC News reports on the walls not really closing in on Gaetz so much legally as maybe eventually ending up being a case for expulsion.
“Hey – any interest in flying on a private plane to the keys May 19-21? 2 guys, 4 girls. A very high-quality adventurous group,” Gaetz wrote in 2017. The woman accepted and then Gaetz wrote “Fantastic. As is true with all time you spend w me, it’ll be fun and chill… You have a passport?”
Sources said the woman ended up backing out after that, but per ABC the texts are significant because it’s the first proof of contact with a woman who Greenberg – the former Seminole County tax collector and now a convicted felon serving a lengthy sentence for all sorts of shit – had been pimping out to other men, a line of inquiry House Ethics are interested in seeing if Gaetz may have traded political favors for sexual ones. Again this is a political/HR investigation retracing a criminal one that ultimately did not meet the burden of proof to bring charges but a burden the House doesn’t have to meet if they want to push forward on trying to expel Gaetz.