After experiencing days of incessant public shaming and hypocritical media dogpiling, Florida Representative Matt Gaetz’s trial in the court of public opinion took a nosedive. Despite being notorious for egregious left-wing bias in its reporting, The Daily Beast has so far done most of the legwork involved in exposing transactions between Gaetz and Florida tax collector Joel Greenberg. The connection between them has been confirmed by various photographs of the two men meeting in Florida and Washington, DC.
The latest allegations against Gaetz include details from anonymous sources alleging that Greenberg, who is currently facing 33 federal charges, including charges of sex trafficking of a minor and tax fraud, acted as the financial middleman for sexual encounters between Gaetz and various women who were possibly underage.
Following the Money
These latest claims were understandably contested by Gaetz, as no solid evidence of the transactions taking place had been released to the public despite the ongoing Department of Justice investigation into the affair. Just this week, however, The Daily Beast pointed out that public Venmo transactions from May 2018 revealed the exchange of $900 between Gaetz, Greenberg, and three young women. Some reports have alleged that one of the women involved in the transaction was underage. However, this has not yet been confirmed, and the original reporting made no mention of the woman in question – now working in the adult film industry – being underage at the time of the payment.
There are still quite a few unknowns regarding the investigation, but Gaetz’s defense has been dealt a severe blow. The Florida Republican consistently intermingled these sexual trafficking accusations with an ongoing investigation involving his father being extorted for $25 million. However, there is no evidence of these investigations being involved with one another. The publicly available Venmo transactions, including the name of the woman alleged to be a part of Joel Greenberg’s sex trafficking, seem impossible to dispute. Thus far, no attempts have been made to deny their authenticity.
If even more evidence against Gaetz continues to stockpile, the fallout would be immense. Despite the lack of official charges being brought against him, Gaetz has been the subject of a Department of Justice investigation that was opened during the Trump administration. Simultaneously, the House Ethics Committee has announced its own investigation into the legislator’s affairs. Gaetz has been elevated to the national spotlight in recent months for his staunch support of Donald Trump and the America First movement. He has allied himself with anti-establishment Republicans and distinguished himself from more conservative party members by supporting socially liberal views like marijuana legalization and advocacy for the LGBT community.
Plea Deal
[the-uprising align=”left”] Reports of Joel Greenberg’s willingness to flip on Gaetz are still unconfirmed, though Greenberg’s attorney has specifically mentioned his hope for a plea deal before his client’s trial in July. The attorney even left an ominous remark, noting that Matt Gaetz would not be comfortable hearing news of a potential plea deal.
Despite the past desires of the Democratic Party establishment, American citizens are always presumed innocent until proven guilty. Female staffers of Gaetz have also issued statements of support for him amid the ongoing investigations and probes. Unfortunately for Gaetz, the court of public opinion oscillates rapidly, and publicly available evidence of his interactions and dealings with Greenberg will only hurt his case before the American people.
~
Read more from Jose Backer.
