Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) said Tuesday that he is under investigation by the Department of Justice (DOJ) over “sexual conduct with women,” but denied reports of a relationship with a teenage girl or any criminal wrongdoing.
His remarks follow a New York Times report that claims Gaetz, who represents parts of western Florida, had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl and paid for her to travel with him. That report cited three unnamed sources briefed on the matter.
The sources suggested that Gaetz, 38, may have violated federal sex trafficking laws that prohibit an individual from inducing someone under the age of 18 to cross state lines to engage in sex in exchange for money or something of value.
The probe into the matter was opened by William Barr’s DOJ during the final months of the Trump administration.
Gaetz, a prominent conservative in Congress, pushed back against the allegations Tuesday in an interview with Axios, claiming that he was the subject of an investigation “regarding sexual conduct with women” but that he was not a target of the probe.
A subject is conventionally thought of as someone whose actions fall within the scope of a criminal investigation, whereas a target is someone whom prosecutors have gathered evidence linking to a crime. But during the course of an investigation, a subject can become a target.
“The allegations against me are as searing as they are false,” Gaetz said in a phone interview with the news outlet. “I believe that there are people at the Department of Justice who are trying to criminalize my sexual conduct, you know when I was a single guy.”
“I have definitely, in my single days, provided for women I’ve dated,” Gaetz added. “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.”
He said that he was “absolutely” confident none of the women with whom he’d had sexual relations were minors.
Gaetz told The Epoch Times in a statement that he believes the allegations are rooted in an “organized criminal extortion involving a former DOJ official seeking $25 million while threatening to smear my name.”
He didn’t specify who could be behind the plot.
Gaetz provided Axios with screenshots of text messages, emails, and documents outlining the alleged extortion effort by a former DOJ staffer.
The DOJ didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment by The Epoch Times.
Gaetz told The Epoch Times that his family has been cooperating with the FBI and said his father was wearing a recording device, at the FBI’s direction, “to catch these criminals.”
He demanded the DOJ release the recordings “which implicate their former colleague in crimes against me based on false allegations.”
“No part of the allegations against me are true, and the people pushing these lies are targets of the ongoing extortion investigation,” he said.
The Associated Press contributed to the report.
From The Epoch Times
