Minion for Donald Trump Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL) has been caught in a tumble of sex trafficking schemes and other federal crimes. The ex-president’s former attorney/fixer Michael Cohen commented that those around Trump find themselves feeling as invulnerable as the former president. Is that what happened to Gaetz?
A federal investigation into Gaetz started with the sex trafficking claims but took an even more negative turn. Now, sources familiar with the investigation told The Associated Press that it has moved into “broader public corruption” issues.
As investigators delved into Gaetz’s recent history they found the representative let people around him profit off of his legislation regarding “marijuana liberalization.” They were a friend and also campaign donor Dr. Jason Pirozzoloand and a Florida state House colleague, Halsey Beshears.
It began with an investigation into Gaetz for paying for sex with a child as defined by Florida state law. She was 17-years-old at the time. The U.S. representative had already fallen into the federal investigators’ purview at a time when “he enticed her to meet across state lines” for sex. This would have been “a potential violation of federal sex trafficking laws:” Investigators then probed into whether any of those women had been linked to others with government jobs.
In 2014, Gaetz was a Florida state legislator. He moved a bill through the Florida legislature that allowed the use of marijuana for legal medicinal uses. That drew in the support of his father, Don Gaetz, who was a powerful state lawmaker at the time.
Both Pirozzolo and Beshears were colleagues of the younger Gaetz, who was a state representative at the time. And both profited from the bill, according to the ensuing report.
Beshears’ family owned a nursery, which was then given five contracts to start cultivating the newly legal marijuana plants. At the same time, Pirozzolo profited from an amendment that made the dispensaries have a physician onboard. Then, Pirozzolo founded the trade group, the American Medical Marijuana Physicians Association.
Another person deeply involved with Gaetz, Joel Greenberg, played a key position in the investigation into the Republican legislator. Greenberg wrote in a letter obtained by The Daily Beast that said both men paid for sex with multiple women, according to CNN​ News. That letter is how federal investigators linking Gaetz to sex with a minor along with Pirozzolo. All three men traveled to The Bahamas together on that trip.
After Gaetz became a U.S. representative for Florida, he introduced another bill in 2018, “favorable to the association’s policy positions,” The New York Post reported.
Thus far, none of the men have been charged with the alleged crimes. Gaetz has consistently claimed that he was innocent. A Gaetz spokesperson said:
‘Rep. Matt Gaetz is a long-time policy expert on marijuana liberalization and passed legislation on the matter as far back as 2013. Rep. Gaetz has never been influenced by outside groups to take a stance on any given position.’
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.
