Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz Is Reportedly Under Federal Investigation Over an Alleged Sexual Relationship With a 17-Year-Old Girl

It’s been a very busy day for Florida congressman and loyal Trump supporter Matt Gaetz! On Tuesday morning, Axios reported that Gaetz was considering not seeking reelection in order to take a job at far-right cable network Newsmax. Later in the day, the New York Times reported that the Justice Department was investigating allegations that two years ago, Gaetz had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl whose travel he allegedly paid for. If Gaetz induced the girl to cross state lines to have sex with him, he would have violated a number of federal anti–sex trafficking statutes, offenses that often result in serious prison time.

Shortly after the New York Times story was published, Gaetz claimed in a Twitter thread that the sex trafficking allegations were false and in fact had been deliberately planted as part of a criminal extortion scheme whose perpetrators included a former Department of Justice official. Gaetz went on to claim that he and his father, former Florida state Sen. Don Gaetz, were participating in an FBI sting operation to catch the extortionists, and called on the Department of Justice to release the tapes his father made while wearing a wire at their direction. Gaetz finished his day by giving a bizarre interview to Tucker Carlson denying the allegations.

Gaetz, who first attracted national attention as a state representative by fiercely defending Florida’s “stand your ground” laws, has long been known for provoking controversy. He called for Donald Trump to fire Robert Mueller, tweeted threatening things at Michael Cohen the night before his congressional testimony, wore a gas mask on the House floor last March to mock coronavirus precautions, supported the fraudulent objections to the presidential election results, and falsely claimed the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol had been instigated by left-wing double agents.

The Axios story reporting that Gaetz had been talking about taking a media job at a pro-Trump cable network instead of seeking reelection—and that, according to one source, he was already talking to the network about it—was not very far out of the ordinary. The same cannot be said for the Times story, which alleges that Gaetz had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old.