Matt Gaetz being investigated for sex with 17 year old girl (DOJ declines to charge 2023-02-15)

With the installation of his adult braces, his transformation will be complete.

He’s a slimy douche that will not face any consequences because his bro is an equally slimy douche that can’t stop lying but happened to plead guilty for sex trafficking of a minor.

Also, remind me which political party is the sex trafficking one? :roll_eyes:

So, I’m feeling that if Greenberg’s testimony is garbage because he’s not credible, then he won’t get any brownie points for squealing.

That is crappy.

But the prosecutors knew going in that a witness like Greenberg, without corroborating evidence, is garbage. But they get his agreement to cooperate fully to see where it leads. If it leads nowhere (and Greenberg had no way of knowing it would lead nowhere), and Greenberg in good faith cooperated fully, I believe he would still get the consideration.

At least that’s what his attorneys would argue at sentencing, and the prosecution would typically be supportive. They want future witnesses to cooperate as well.

Sexual abusers rarely stop at one or two victims, regardless of the risk. It may take awhile, but Gaetz will do it again and then we will have a credible witness. Just a matter of time.

… and more victims piling up. :frowning_with_open_mouth:

Jeffrey Epstein was abusing young women for at least a decade and a half before it caught up to him. The first public accusation at least happened in 2005 when it was reported to police. He continued the abuse until 2019, the year the FBI arrested him and then he killed himself. I hope the time in this case is nowhere near that long.

I have my doubts that his life ended at his own hand. I think Epstein was filming a lot of ‘activities’ for blackmail. But I certainly could be wrong.

I hope there was other fucked up shit from Greenburg. Way too many people were going to make this about "only a technicality " because the girl was 17 and took money, and it was going to be awful. I’m okay if we just send him to jail for fraud and embezzlement.

Would like to note that the Gaetz story above has no sources from law enforcement, it’s all sourced by Gaetz’s people, and the reporter, Devlin Barrett, is one with a history of writing leaked “law enforcement isn’t going to prosecute” articles about people who eventually get prosecuted.

Here is an analysis of how Trumpworld leaks to Devlin was used to egg Cannon on:

And here Barrett is pushing the ‘FBI found no seditious conspiracy’ idea a week before the first arrest for seditious conspiracy.

Analysis here:

In short, the story is likely, but not certainly, a plant by Gaetz.

Crumb of hope, accepted! Thank you, @JohnT.

It could be true! Gaetz may, in fact, walk!

But… this guy has a couple of occurrences where he has been used as an obvious plant by the Right, so just want us to keep that in mind. For the record.

How does the government successfully prosecute any kind of serious crime? It’s not like the average criminal syndicate has nuns and Boy Scouts and such impeccably trustworthy witnesses positioned with an inside track to learn relevant facts about the organization’s misdeeds.

They use the witnesses to develop corroborating evidence. A shady eye witness becomes much more credible if his testimony is buttressed by independent evidence.

Same.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/01/politics/joel-greenberg-sentencing/index.html

Convicted fraudster Joel Greenberg, who cooperated extensively with prosecutors investigating GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz, was sentenced on Thursday to 11 years in prison by a federal judge in Orlando, Florida.

Greenberg, a former Seminole County tax collector, previously pleaded guilty to underage sex-trafficking, wire fraud, stalking and three other felony charges.

As part of his plea deal, Greenberg provided information to investigators about Gaetz related to the sex-trafficking probe, a source familiar with the case previously told CNN.

Gaetz has denied ever paying for sex or having sex with a minor, and no charges have been filed against Gaetz.

A bit of good news. Hopefully, there is enough to charge Gaetz.

Agreed, but the article certainly suggests otherwise.

The article says that “prosecutors recommended against an indictment”, so they must not have found anything that convinces them that they could convict Gaetz.

Ken White aka Popehat thinks there won’t be a Gaetz indictment:

https://twitter.com/Popehat/status/1598407537845420032