The Matt Gaetz story, after one month, looks worse and worse for the political establishment. No accusers, multiple shifts in the storyline, and now a paper trail back to the State Department?
Arthur Bloom, from The American Conservative, joins us to discuss the issue.
The Gaetz Scandal Isn’t About Matt Gaetz
A senior Trump administration official tells The American Conservative that Bob Kent was approved for $75,000 from the State Department
It’s now been the better part of a month since it broke in the New York Times that Matt Gaetz was being investigated for sex trafficking a minor, and he still has yet to face an on-the-record accusation.
Since then, the minor has morphed into a “former minor”—it turns out she was 18.
Gaetz was also accused of sharing revenge porn of a former girlfriend, including by Katie Hill, whom Gaetz had previously defended in her own revenge porn scandal. Two of that girlfriend’s friends told Politico it wasn’t revenge porn, and that she told them “this is the best I will ever look in my life.”
So the two most dramatic claims of the Gaetz scandal seem to be false, and we are still without an on-the-record accuser. Given Gaetz’s reputation as a playboy, and the leakiness of this investigation, you’d think something substantial might have come out by now.
The girlfriend Gaetz was accused of sharing revenge porn of, according to Politico, also fears the “former minor” was recording calls attempting to incriminate the congressman. It also now appears that Joel Greenberg, the Seminole County tax collector who has been indicted on a slew of charges, was paying for the “former minor’s” legal fees.
Another friend of Greenberg told Politico he thought messages to him involving the “former minor” “felt like a setup.”
So we have two, albeit unnamed, sources who believe Greenberg or the “former minor” he was paying were trying to incriminate them. And that “former minor” he was paying is the one who accounts for the apparently untrue child prostitution allegation.
What does this look like to you?
Greenberg’s lawyer has also pointed the finger at Gaetz, strongly implying the tax collector had flipped on him, saying outside the courthouse recently, “I am sure Matt Gaetz is not feeling very comfortable today.”
It’s a mystery to me, given what this all seems to look like, why Gaetz hasn’t pointed the finger right back at Greenberg.
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Up until now, the Joel Greenberg situation and the bizarre scheme to bilk Don Gaetz for $25 million in an Iranian hostage rescue have been considered separate things in the media. I’m not sure why. The note to Matt Gaetz’s father specifically links the two, as do the messages published by TAC that indicate Bob Kent’s friend who works at the Israeli consulate had inside knowledge of the Greenberg investigation before it broke in the New York Times.
There are other aspects of the Bob Levinson rescue business that have so far escaped mention by the media, but are worth considering. Bob Kent, the man at the center of the alleged extortion effort, probably had reason to believe he was operating with at least the implicit sanction of the U.S. government. You don’t go on Chris Cuomo’s show and make reference to an operation to spring a prisoner out of Iran, which would be illegal without USG approval, without it.
The U.S. government’s approval may have been more than just implicit: According to a senior Trump administration official, Kent was approved to receive $75,000 from the State Department for services related to the Bob Levinson case. A State Department spokesperson declined to comment on this.
While we can’t assume the State Department knew about the subsequent $25 million ask, that a federal government contractor is accused of extorting a U.S. congressman is deeply troubling.
By Arthur Bloom
