I had a menage with identical twins in grad school. They gave me different ages when asked a week later... one stated 19; the other said 17. They looked 21-22.
I was just glad a friend with me at that bar the first night I met her...he recognized she was the General's daughter...I definitely would have taken her back to my place off base had we not known whom she was. Regardless, looks like Matt Gaetz doesn't know how to resist the temptation shown to him from the Devil or maybe he's the Devil in disguise and that 17 year old couldn't resist. I feel sorry for his fiancée Ginger Luckey. If he gets indicted...she's in the wind. wrbtrader
Matt Gaetz accused of ‘regularly’ paying for sex, including with 17-year-old girl By Farnoush Amiri, Lisa Mascaro and Alanna Richer December 24, 2024 https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-...ng-with-17-year-old-girl-20241224-p5l0h3.html Washington: The US House Ethics Committee has accused Matt Gaetz of “regularly” paying for sex, including with a 17-year-old girl, and purchasing and using illicit drugs as a member of Congress, as lawmakers released the conclusions of a nearly four-year investigation that helped sink his nomination for attorney general. The 37-page report by the bipartisan panel released on Monday includes explicit details of sex-filled parties and vacations that Gaetz, now 42, took part in from 2017 to 2020 while representing Florida’s western panhandle. Matt Gaetz was “un-cooperative” throughout the probe, the Ethics Committee panel said.Credit: AP Congressional investigators concluded that Gaetz violated multiple state laws related to sexual misconduct while in office, though not federal sex trafficking laws. They also found that Gaetz “knowingly and willfully sought to impede and obstruct” the committee’s work. “The Committee determined there is substantial evidence that Representative Gaetz violated House Rules and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, impermissible gifts, special favours or privileges, and obstruction of Congress,” the report states. Ahead of the report’s release Gaetz denied any wrongdoing and criticised the committee’s process. “Giving funds to someone you are dating — that they didn’t ask for — and that isn’t ‘charged’ for sex is now prostitution?!?” he posted on X, the website formerly known as Twitter. “There is a reason they did this to me in a Christmas Eve-Eve report and not in a courtroom of any kind where I could present evidence and challenge witnesses.” Gaetz, a Republican first elected in 2017, spent the majority of his time in Washington enmeshed in scandals that ultimately derailed his nomination by President-elect Donald Trump as attorney general. His political future is uncertain, although Gaetz has indicated he would be interested in running for the open Senate seat in Florida. Gaetz was President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general.Credit: AP Lawmakers paint a damning portrait of Gaetz’s conduct, using dozens of pages of exhibits, including text messages and financial records, travel receipts, cheques and online payments, to document a party- and drug-fuelled lifestyle. The committee said it compiled the evidence after issuing 29 subpoenas for documents and testimony and contacting more than two dozen witnesses. In addition to soliciting prostitution, the Ethics Committee report states that Gaetz “accepted gifts, including transportation and lodging in connection with a 2018 trip to the Bahamas, in excess of permissible amounts”. That same year, investigators say Gaetz arranged for his chief of staff to obtain a passport for a woman he was sexually involved with, falsely telling the US State Department that she was his constituent. In some of the text exchanges, Gaetz appears to be inviting various women to events, getaways or parties, and arranging airplane travel and lodging. At one point he asks one woman if she has a “cute black dress” to wear. There are also discussions of shipping goods. One of the exhibits is a text exchange that appears to be between two of the women concerned about their cash flow and payments. In another, a person asks Gaetz for help to pay an educational expense. Regarding the 17-year-old girl, the report states there’s no evidence that Gaetz knew she was a minor when he had sex with her, the committee said. The woman told the committee she didn’t tell Gaetz she was under 18 at the time and that he didn’t know how old she was. Rather, the committee said Gaetz learned she was a minor more than a month after the party. But he stayed in touch with her after that and met up with her for “commercial sex” again less than six months after she turned 18, according to the committee. But Florida law, which states it is a felony for a person 24 or older to have sex with a minor, does not allow a claim of ignorance or misrepresentation of a minor’s age as a defence. Joel Leppard, who represents two women who told the committee that Gaetz paid them for sex, said the findings “vindicate” the accounts of his clients and “demonstrate their credibility”. “We appreciate the Committee’s commitment to transparency in releasing this comprehensive report so the truth can be known,” Leppard said in a statement. At least one Republican joined all five Democrats on the Ethics Committee earlier this month in voting to release the report about their former colleague despite initial opposition from GOP lawmakers, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, to publishing findings about a former member of Congress. While ethics reports have previously been released after a member’s resignation, it is extremely rare. On behalf of the Republicans who voted against releasing the report, Representative Michael Guest of Mississippi, Ethics chairman, wrote that while the members do not challenge the report’s findings, “we take great exception that the majority deviated from the Committee’s well-established standards” to drop any investigation when a person is not longer a member of the chamber. “We believe that operating outside the jurisdictional bounds set forth by House Rules and Committee standards, especially when making public disclosures, is a dangerous departure with potentially catastrophic consequences,” Guest wrote. Mounting a last-ditch effort to halt the publication of the report, Gaetz filed a lawsuit on Monday asking a court to intervene, citing what he called “untruthful and defamatory information” that would “significantly damage” his “standing and reputation in the community”. Gaetz’s complaint argues he’s no longer under the committee’s jurisdiction since he resigned from Congress. “The Committee’s position that it may nonetheless publish potentially defamatory findings about a private citizen over whom it claims no jurisdiction represents an unprecedented expansion of Congressional power that threatens fundamental constitutional rights and established procedural protections,” Gaetz’s lawyers wrote in their request for a temporary restraining order. The often secretive, bipartisan panel has investigated claims against Gaetz since 2021. But its work became more urgent last month when Trump picked him shortly after election day as his first choice to be the nation’s top law enforcement officer. Gaetz resigned from Congress that same day, putting him outside the purview of the Ethics Committee’s jurisdiction. But Democrats had pressed to make the report public even after Gaetz was no longer a member and had withdrawn as Trump’s pick to lead the US Justice Department. A vote on the House floor this month to force the report’s release failed; all but one Republican voted against it. The committee detailed its start-and-stop investigation over the past several years, which was halted for a time as the Justice Department conducted its own probe of Gaetz. Federal prosecutors never brought a case against him. Lawmakers said they asked the Justice Department for information about its probe, but the agency refused to hand over information, saying it doesn’t disclose information about investigations that don’t result in charges. The Committee then subpoenaed the Justice Department for records, but after a back-and-forth between Justice Department officials and the Committee, the department only handed over “publicly reported information about the testimony of a deceased individual”, according to the report. “To date, DOJ has provided no meaningful evidence or information to the Committee or cited any lawful basis for its responses,” the committee said. In releasing the report, the panel added that Gaetz was also “un-cooperative” throughout the probe. He provided “minimal documentation” in response to the committee’s requests, it said. “He also did not agree to a voluntary interview.” AP
Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) make a last-second agreement to end McCarthy's four-day battle for the Speaker of the House at the U.S. Capitol Building on January 7 in Washington, DC. The House of Representatives met for the fourth day to vote for the next Speaker after Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) failed to earn a majority of votes on 14 ballots; the first time in 100 years that the Speaker was not elected on the first ballot. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) Matt Gaetz is a Southern Baptist who appears to get a free pass AnalysisMark Wingfield | November 18, 2024 https://baptistnews.com/article/matt-gaetz-is-a-southern-baptist-who-appears-to-get-a-free-pass/ One of President-elect Donald Trump’s most controversial cabinet nominees is a Southern Baptist. Matt Gaetz, who abruptly resigned his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives last week just days before a House Ethics Committee was to release its investigation of multiple alleged improprieties — including sexual relations with a 17-year-old girl — is Trump’s nominee to become attorney general. He has been described as someone who would carry out Trump’s desire to exact vengeance on his political enemies. Gaetz’s own political website describes him as a member of First Baptist Church of Fort Walton Beach, Fla., a Southern Baptist Convention congregation. In 2017, Gaetz posted this photo of him with some members of First Baptist Church of Fort Walton Beach, Fla., at an event celebrating the 10th anniversary of the church’s Christian Life Center. (Photo via Facebook) Southern Baptist leaders have been silent on the allegations of sexual improprieties against Gaetz — even though in 1998 the SBC adopted a resolution aimed at denouncing another Southern Baptist politician, then-President Bill Clinton. Although the Republican-dominated SBC spoke out against a Democratic president’s sexual impropriety, the convention never has spoken against President-elect Donald Trump, who has been accused of sexual harassment and abuse by 69 women. Nor has the SBC had anything to say about Gaetz. That 1998 resolution lamented that “many Americans are willing to excuse or overlook immoral or illegal conduct by unrepentant public officials so long as economic prosperity prevails.” It concluded: “We urge all Americans to embrace and act on the conviction that character does count in public office, and to elect those officials and candidates who, although imperfect, demonstrate consistent honesty, moral purity and the highest character.” Polling data show Southern Baptists voted for Trump in droves, despite known character flaws, moral impurity and illegal conduct. They also have supported Gaetz, who has been described as the most hated member of Congress. Current Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, also a Southern Baptist, is attempting to quash release of the ethics report on Gaetz. Gaetz orchestrated the ouster of former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy and has played the role of spoiler in other Republican agendas in Congress. Most recently, he was investigated by the House Ethics Committee, but he resigned from Congress two days before the investigative report was to be made public. Among the allegations against Gaetz is that he had sex with a 17-year-old woman. Even other conservative Christian legal advocates now are calling Gaetz’s nomination as attorney general flawed. Mat Staver Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, a rightwing legal advocacy group, says Gaetz is morally and professionally unqualified for the job. His comments were reported Nov. 15 by the Orlando Sentinel. Staver published an article online Nov. 14 titled, “Matt Gaetz is Not Qualified to Be U.S. Attorney General.” Staver said: “President-elect Donald Trump has quickly named many good choices to serve in his cabinet. But Matt Gaetz is not one of them. The nomination of Matt Gaetz as attorney general is shocking and disappointing to those who have followed this man and the lurid scandals and serious allegations of sex parties and drugs during his tenure in the U.S. Congress. The resignation of Gaetz immediately after his name surfaced for attorney general is inexplicable except for the fact this resignation now ends the U.S. House Ethics probe. Obviously, Gaetz does not want America to know the result of the ethics investigation. Matt Gaetz has neither the experience nor the moral character to serve as the highest law enforcement officer of the United States of America. Gaetz should do President Trump and all of America a favor and withdraw his name from consideration. This will save him considerable embarrassment. America deserves better.” Staver told the Sentinel Gaetz “has no experience to even find his way around a courtroom let alone lead the nation’s largest law firm.” Other right-leaning religious liberty advocacy groups have been silent on Gaetz’s nomination.