After The New York Times reported that the Justice Department was investigating the matter, Congressman Matt Gaetz denied having an improper sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl he allegedly arranged to fly with him on Tuesday night. Gaetz, a close friend of Trump, said he was the target of an alleged extortion on Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”
According to the New York Times, authorities are looking into whether Gaetz “violated federal sex trafficking rules,” citing three anonymous sources.
In a separate interview, Gaetz denied any association with the 17-year-old. “The person doesn’t exist. I have not had a relationship with a 17-year-old, ” Carlson was told by Gaetz. “That is totally false.”
Gaetz also said on television that a former Justice Department official was attempting to extort $25 million from him and his family in exchange for “making horrible sex trafficking allegations against me go away.”
Gaetz told Carlson that he had informed the FBI about the suspected extortion attempt. He said that the FBI asked his father to wear a wire during conversations with the former DOJ official, and he demanded that the FBI release the audio recordings of those conversations to “prove my innocence.”
He also challenged the timing of the Times report, alleging that his father was expected to contact the former Justice Department official on Wednesday to negotiate a $4.5 million down payment on the bribe. Gaetz said in a statement that the “planted leak to the New York Times tonight was intended to thwart the investigation.”
The article in the New York Times came just hours after several outlets reported that Gaetz was considering not running for reelection and had expressed interest in working for Newsmax.
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