Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Matt Gaetz SINKS DEEPER into THE HELL he Deserves

Episode Date: June 18, 2024

Matt Gaetz is embroiled again in a congressional investigation into whether he committed sexual misconduct with an underage girl; as the House bipartisan ethrics committee makes public statement about the scope of their current investigation against him. Michael Popok reports and explains how the committee could also make a referral to the DOJ to reopen their criminal investigation of Gaetz Head to https://Aeropress.com/legalaf to save 20% at checkout! Visit https://meidastouch.com for more! Join us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/legalaf Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown Lights On with Jessica Denson: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/lights-on-with-jessica-denson On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Your teen requested a ride, but this time not from you. It's through their Uber Teen account. It's an Uber account that allows your teen to request a ride under your supervision with live trip tracking and highly rated drivers. Add your teen to your Uber account today. Michael Popak, Legal AF. We've got some new Matt Gaetz news. In particular, that the House Ethics

Committee is seriously investigating whether he committed sexual misconduct with an underaged girl. It's not over. In a bit of an unusual announcement about what they were and were not investigating, there's a new statement out by the House Ethics Committee, which by the way is one of the only committees in Congress that is split equally, equal number of Republicans and Democrats for a reason. And so here's what their new declaration is about what is and is not being investigated related to Matt Gaetz. So here's what they said, the committee is reviewing

allegations that representative Gaetz may have engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, accepted improper gifts, dispensed special privileges and favors to individuals with whom he had a personal relationship, and sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct. The committee said that the allegations made against Gates, specifically those of him sharing inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misusing state identification records, improper personal use of campaign funds, and accepting a bribe were no longer being investigated. So they basically split the world in half. They said the sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, which all goes back to at the time an underage girl

that he transported across state lines and out of the country, for which his wingman, who was a tax assessor in Seminole County, Florida, is in jail and has been cooperating with the federal prosecutors about the case. Remember, the feds announced about a year ago that they were dropping, and this is the Joe Biden, Biden Department of Justice under Merrick Garland, they were no longer pursuing criminal charges against Matt Gaetz. Of course, he crowed about that, but he wasn't out of the woods with the House Ethics Committee. You may also remember, or I'll tell you here straight, that Matt Gaetz has been at war with, who used to be the House Speaker under MAGA, Kevin McCarthy. And even to the last gasp of his last moment when he finally

left Congress, there has been a battle between Gates and McCarthy. Gates believing that McCarthy put the committee up to it. But this is, like I said, this is a bipartisan committee. The committee's statement came a day after Gates issued something preemptively, apparently on X, his Twitter account, in which he accused the committee of frivolous investigations into him and compared its tactics to the Soviet Union. He said, and I quote, "'The House Ethics Committee has closed four probes

into me,' interesting choice of words, interesting visual, which emerged from lies intended solely to smear me. Instead of working with me to ban congressional stock trading, the Ethics Committee is now opening new frivolous investigations and they're doing this to avoid the obvious fact that every investigation into me ends the same way. My exoneration." He added, this is Soviet and here's the Kevin McCarthy reference. Kevin McCarthy showed them the man

and they are now trying to find the crime. I work for Northwest Floridians who won't be swayed by this nonsense and McCarthy and his goons know it. That is that relationship that led to McCarthy being toppled last October in a coup that was led by Gates, no other way to put it. And so the committee acknowledged in their statement about what they are and are not investigating that Gates denied the allegations, but that he had been less than

fully cooperative. And they complained that they had found as a committee, it was very difficult to obtain relevant information from him and others. And just so we know, and just to hone in on this, in March 2021, the Department of Justice was investigating Gates about whether he had sex with a 17-year-old girl and paid for her to travel with him. And then eventually, it had been opened by Bill Barr, but it was eventually closed, that investigation, under the Biden-Americ Garland Department of Justice. Now, of course, the committee could reauthorize its own investigation and make another recommendation to the Department of Justice, depending upon what they find. But, you know, we have a very peculiar set of wheels spinning here.

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We thank ArrowPress for sponsoring our show. You've got this unusual site of the ethics committee, which is bipartisan, basically saying, well, there were four probes into some other abuses of power and public corruption by Matt Gaetz that we've closed, but still, you know, that's the problem with potential facts and truth. It's a sticky thing, facts and truth,

and Gaetz can't make them go away. And this underage sex with a girl problem of his continues to animate this particular investigation as led by the House Ethics Committee. Now, they've already said that they've spoken to dozens of witnesses, and I'm sure one of them is Joel Greenberg, who was the wingman for him in the Seminole County Tax Assessor, who also admitted and went to jail for using drugs and having sex with underage people. I mean, I don't know how he went to jail

and Matt Gaetz avoided it. It's very bizarre. But that committee that I just been describing has issued 25 subpoenas and reviewed thousands of pages of documents and part of its long-running investigation. It opened this investigation almost three years ago and it's still going on in that bipartisan way. But you know, again, at the intersection of law and politics, I'd be remiss if I didn't say his constituency, Gates's constituency

in that northwest corner of Florida that he talks about, just like Marjorie Taylor Greene in her north whatever west corner of Georgia, they don't care about whether their representative is moral, is ethical, commits public corruption, denies the Jan 6th insurrection, is an election denier, insurrection denier, or any of that. They just don't. And the more that these investigations continue and may lead to maybe a reopening of the Department of Justice investigation, criminal conviction, they don't care. We see what's happening. I mean, we'll know when I say they don't care. We'll know by the time November 5th rolls around, not by polling, but by people voting in the polls. We will know if the conviction of Donald Trump and his other criminal problems and fraud problems weighed and suppressed the vote that would have naturally gone to him and overcame Joe Biden's natural electoral advantage as both the incumbent and somebody who's

presiding over you know a very successful domestic and foreign policy and economic policy. So we will see you know the proof of the pudding is in the tasting and we got to wait for that tasting until November 5th. At that time we'll see hmm hmm, he lost, Donald Trump lost two, three, four, five points of Republican vote or of independent vote or of a constituency vote, the black vote, the Hispanic vote, the Jewish vote, the women vote,

whatever it is, the senior vote, because of his troubles, because of his moral and criminal failings. Matt Gaetz, similarly, will have to see how this seeps into the water supply and affects people's voting decisions. We don't know yet. But it is not a good sign. In his whistling past the graveyard, pardon me, in posting in his Twitter account, in his ex account, that he's the subject of a witch hunt and his Russia and it's all McCarthy's behind it.

McCarthy's not behind it, McCarthy's long gone from the Congress, from Congress and from the House. This is a bipartisan committee that is like a dog with a bone, but they won't let go because the evidence is leading them into a certain path. We'll have to find out what the Department of Justice does if the Ethics Committee finds

that there was sufficient basis to censure, to recommend the censure and to censure Matt Gates for this underage sex with a minor sexual misconduct. it would be rape and rape across state lines and out of the country, which is also another problem under various criminal laws that have been on the books for a long, long time. Look, we got to continue to follow everything related to Matt Gaetz because it's important. He has no moral authority, although he acts like he does in his brazen attacks on Joe Biden, his ethics doing the bidding for Donald Trump. And we have to continue to x-ray somebody like Matt Gaetz and bring him to your attention so that you know who you're dealing with

and when you have to make your voting decision. And when you hear him champion the cause of MAGA and fly the flag of MAGA, know who the flag carrier is, know who's holding that banner. And that's a guy who right now is on the precipice of being sanctioned for having committed sexual misconduct with a minor. We'll continue to follow it here on the Midas Touch Network and on Legal AF. And now you know why we called it Legal AF four years ago, where the podcast at the intersection of law and politics. Join us every Wednesday and Saturday at 8 p.m. Eastern time. On Wednesdays, I do the show with Karen Friedman at Nifilo,

former prosecutor on Saturdays with my co-founder, Ben Mycelis, and then on hot takes like this one, I don't know, about every hour. And you can pick us up on all major podcast platforms as well. Free subscribe to the Midas Touch Network. And if you're interested in all my work, go over to the Midas Touch YouTube,

look under playlists or contributors, Michael Popok and my entire 1200 or so body of work of videos is sitting right there. So until my next hot take, until my next Legal AF, this is Michael Popok reporting. Hear ye, hear ye, Legal AF Law Breakdown is now in session. Go beyond the headlines and get a deep dive into the important legal concepts you need to know

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