“Florida GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz’s congressional campaign paid $25,000 in June for ‘legal consulting’ fees to a Manhattan criminal defense attorney, new campaign finance records show. Gaetz’s latest filing shows that he paid the sum to attorney Marc Fernich, who lists among his ‘notable clients’ the accused child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman Loera, and convicted crime family boss John ‘Junior’ Gotti” Business Insider reports.

“The legal payments from Gaetz’s campaign came after reports surfaced in late March that the third-term congressman was under investigation for sex trafficking. The New York Times reported that the Justice Department was investigating whether Gaetz had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old and paid for her to travel with him. Gaetz has denied any wrongdoing. Fernich’s practice, according to his website, ‘centers on criminal defense, mainly sophisticated appeals and legal motions that can toss charges at the trial level or pave the way for future appeals.’ The Florida congressman’s campaign also spent $25,000 for ‘legal consulting’ from the law firm Zuckerman Spaeder LLP, the filings show. And Gaetz’s campaign paid a whopping $825,000 to the Logan Circle Group for advertising and ‘strategic campaign consulting’ between April 8 and May 14, the records show. Harlan Hill, the president of the DC-based Logan Circle Group and an ally of Donald Trump, has been responding to reporters’ inquiries about Gaetz since the scandal broke in the spring.”

Harlan Hill took a beating in his client list last fall after he called Kamala Harris an “insufferable lying bitch” on Twitter. The tweet’s still up too, for whatever reason. Hill also reneged on a vow to publicly eat his shoe if Trump lost, opting for the chickenshit “he really did win” excuse.