Oh, look at Matt Gaetz (R-FL). He said he would interrupt his ‘throes of passion” if Donald Trump called. Talk about loyalty. Unfortunately for the Florida representative, he was not adept enough to get that Donald Trump’s loyalty only ran one way. His requests for a blank pardon were rebuffed. Even so, a presidential pardon only looks backward not forward. It gets worse.
There has been an ongoing federal investigation into whether Gaetz was involved in illegal sex trafficking. The investigation is coming to us in bits and pieces, and none of them are good.
The probe started under former Attorney General William Barr. Now, we find that the investigation has been looking at a trip the representative allegedly took sometime between late 2018 or early 2019 with Dr. Jason Pirozzolo. The good doctor, a marijuana supporter/hand surgeon, co-founded the Medical Marijuana Physicians Association (AMMPA). Pirozzolo is also the chairman of the board.
Gaetz was the featured speaker at two of the group’s conferences, the first in October 2017. Trump and Gaetz friend, Roger Stone was there, too. Right afterward, the representative held a fundraiser for his own campaign, according to The Central Florida Post. In May 2018, he spoke again at the organization’s Miami NFL and Medical Cannabis Conference.
Investigators also want to know whether Gaetz was accepting paid escort services in exchange for political access or legislative favors, CBS News’ sources said. They were also interested in the possibility of sexual escorts being taken across state or international borders for Gaetz, which is illegal. The doctor paid for all travel expenses, hotels, and the women escorts.
Former prosecutor and partner at Covington & Burling Arlo Devlin-Brown told CBS News:
‘If there’s evidence of a quid pro quo that the congressman was provided with benefits in return for him sponsoring some legislation that’s of interest to the donor, that that’s a federal crime.’
Devlin-Brown continued:
‘Traveling across state lines is what creates a federal hook for a prosecutionCBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell. It doesn’t matter that [Gaetz] personally paid them as long as he knows someone is doing that.’
Pirozzolo told Ganjapreneur.com in a podcast that Gaetz was planning on introducing medical research on cannabis federal legislation. This was in July 2018. The congressman did, indeed introduce the Medical Cannabis Research Act in April 2018 and again in January 2019, iuridefense.proofpoint.com showed.
However, the bill never made it to the House floor in either case. Dr. Pirozzolo continued:
‘In fact, Congressman Matt Gaetz is in the process of working on legislation up in Washington, D.C., that will help facilitate research on the nationwide level. And we should see a lot of good benefit from them. We’ve got Congressmen that are actually dealing with this federal legislation right now.’
A spokesperson for Gaetz’s office released a statement to CBS that read:
‘Rep. Gaetz has never paid for sex, nor has he had sex with an underage girl. What began with blaring headlines about ‘sex trafficking’ has now turned into a general fishing exercise about vacations and consensual relationships with adults. Yesterday, we even learned of some nonsense ‘pardon’ story that turned out to be false, and today it’s just more euphemism. It’s interesting to watch the Washington wheels grinding so hard every time one of their falsehoods gets knocked down.’
The Mueller Report Adventures: In Bite-Sizes on this Facebook page. These quick, two-minute reads interpret the report in normal English for busy people. Mueller Bite-Sizes uncovers what is essentially a compelling spy mystery. Interestingly enough, Mueller Bite-Sizes can be read in any order.
