Credit: Fox News
The Justice Department has decided to not pursue charges against Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), after a yearslong investigation into sex trafficking allegations.
Gaetz’s office wrote in a statement to Fox News Digital that “the Department of Justice has confirmed to Congressman Gaetz’s attorneys that their investigation has concluded and that he will not be charged with any crimes.”
Gaetz has consistently maintained his innocence in the matter since it was first reported in March 2021 that he was under investigation for having an alleged sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl and that he paid her to travel with him.
The New York Times was the first to report the investigation after sources said investigators were looking into whether Gaetz violated federal sex trafficking laws.
According to the report, the investigation was opened in the last months of the Trump administration under Attorney General Bill Barr.
After the Times came out with the report in 2021, Gaetz wrote on Twitter that the investigation was fake and that he was a victim of “organized criminal extortion.”
“Over the past several weeks my family and I have been victims of an organized criminal extortion involving a former DOJ official seeking $25 million while threatening to smear my name. We have been cooperating with federal authorities in this matter,” Gaetz said.
He mentioned that former DOJ employee David McGee was the man attempting to extort him.
“My father has even been wearing a wire at the FBI’s direction to catch these criminals. The planted leak to the FBI tonight was intended to thwart that investigation,” he continued.
“No part of the allegations against me are true, and the people pushing these lies are targets of the ongoing extortion investigation.”
“I demand the DOJ immediately release the tapes, made at their direction, which implicate their former colleague in crimes against me based on false allegations,” he said.
Back when the allegations first arose, Gaetz said his lawyers were told by the DOJ that “I was not a target but a subject of an investigation regarding sexual conduct with women.”
He showed Axios screenshots of text messages and emails in the alleged extortion scheme.
Gaetz was asked what the charges might relate to and he said, “I have definitely, in my single days, provided for women I’ve dated. You know, I’ve paid for flights, for hotel rooms. I’ve been, you know, generous as a partner. I think someone is trying to make that look criminal when it is not.”
Sources told The New York Times that the investigation into Gatez was part of a larger investigation into Gaetz’s ally, former Seminole County tax collector Joel Greenberg, who was facing various charges including sex trafficking of a child.
However, the DOJ’s investigation is wrapping up and there will be no charges brought against Congressman Gaetz.
The Department of Justice has declined to comment on the matter.
