“The Justice Department has added two top prosecutors from Washington to the child sex trafficking investigation of Representative Matt Gaetz, according to two people briefed on the matter, a sign of the complex and high-stakes nature of the inquiry into Gaetz, a Florida Republican who is one of former President Donald J. Trump’s closest congressional allies. The prosecutors – one a public corruption investigator with an expertise in child exploitation crimes, and the other a top leader of the public corruption unit – have been working on the Florida-based investigation for at least three months, the people said. It is not unusual for prosecutors from the Justice Department in Washington to be added to local teams of federal investigators in high-profile cases that require a deep and specific expertise like sex crimes. The Washington prosecutors have joined a group of federal authorities in Florida who have been investigating accusations of sex trafficking, fraud and corruption by several people connected to Republican politics in Florida, including Gaetz.”

“The authorities have been examining whether Gaetz violated a federal child sex trafficking law by providing goods or payments to a 17-year-old girl in exchange for sex. Despite the wide-ranging nature of the case, only one person has been publicly charged, a former local tax collector named Joel Greenberg. He has pleaded guilty to sex trafficking the same 17-year-old girl and other corruption and fraud charges. Greenberg agreed to cooperate with the government’s investigation, telling authorities that he saw Gaetz and others have sex with the girl. In a sign of the ongoing nature of the investigation, the judge overseeing the case granted a motion on Monday filed by Greenberg’s lawyer to have his client’s sentencing delayed until March” – New York Times.