As the abrupt downfall of Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) continues to accelerate, his communications director, Luke Ball, has reportedly resigned. According to a source for MSNBC/ NBC, Ball resigned “out of principle.” Throughout recent days, a flurry of stories have emerged revealing monumentally damaging alleged details of Gaetz’s behavior. The Congressman, an ardent Trump ally, is currently under federal investigation for potential child sex trafficking, and he has multiple connections to ex-Seminole County Tax Collector Joel Greenberg, who has already been hit with charges including child sex trafficking and is apparently currently in jail.
Luke Ball, the communications director for Rep. Matt Gaetz, has resigned, according to a person familiar.
Ball quit out of principle, according to the person. @LACaldwellDC— Chris Jansing (@ChrisJansing) April 2, 2021
According to other recent reporting, Gaetz also showed adult photos of women with whom he had sexual relationships to fellow members of Congress in some kind of demented bid to impress them. The Congressman also reportedly paid for sex, with The New York Times sharing this week that they had “reviewed receipts from Cash App, a mobile payments app, and Apple Pay that show payments from Mr. Gaetz and Mr. Greenberg to one of the women, and a payment from Mr. Greenberg to a second woman.” The women who received the payments, the Times adds, “told their friends that the payments were for sex with the two men.” Prostitution is illegal in the overwhelming majority of circumstances in the U.S.
Originally, a report from the Times revealed that Gaetz was under investigation for potentially paying for a 17-year-old to travel with him under the pretenses of sexual interactions, which would constitute child sex trafficking, which carries a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 10 years. Gaetz has claimed that the allegations are part of a supposed extortion scheme targeting his family, but the federal investigation into the Congressman began well before Gaetz claims that this supposed extortion plot got started.
There was a recent sign that Gaetz’s communication staff could have been considering their options. The Congressman claimed during a Fox News appearance that apparently public travel records could exonerate him and prove that he didn’t travel with a 17-year-old as alleged, but The Washington Post looked into the claim, finding that no public records exist that actually clear Gaetz. The Post said that they “repeatedly asked Gaetz’s chief of staff Jillian Lane Wyant and his spokesman Luke Ball to show us the travel records supposedly debunking the allegations and received no response.”
