Report: Matt Gaetz Is Screwed Six Ways From Sunday

If you happen to’ve been protecting tabs on the authorized drama surrounding Matt Gaetz, you most likely seen that the final month seemingly introduced a lull in headlines regarding the Justice Division investigation into whether or not he paid women for sex and, individually, slept with a minor and transported her across state lines. Some might need taken that pause to imply the Republican congressman was within the clear, and that the one factor he needed to fear about was how deeply awkward Thanksgiving with the in-laws would be this year. However sadly for the Florida consultant, that doesn’t seem like the case. In truth, a number of developments within the scandal that he has asked us to discuss with as “Gaetzgate” recommend the man ought to be extraordinarily anxious about his future as a free man.

Essentially the most worrisome, if one is anxious about Gaetz doubtlessly doing a decade in jail, is a report from The New York Instances that the Division of Justice has added a pair of high prosecutors to its investigation, “an indication of the complicated and high-stakes nature of the inquiry.” In line with Pulitzer Prize–profitable reporters Katie Benner and Michael Schmidt, one of many prosecutors is a public corruption investigator who makes a speciality of youngster exploitation crimes. The opposite, Todd Gee, is a deputy chief of the Public Integrity Part, which is a part of the DOJ’s Prison Division, a division that’s “concerned in practically all main felony investigations into alleged misconduct by federal, state, and native officers.” Amongst different circumstances, Gee served as a lead prosecutor on the 2020 conviction of an ex-Navy commander at Guantánamo Bay, who was discovered responsible of overlaying up a combat with a commissary employee who was subsequently discovered useless.

How unhealthy is that this information for Gaetz, who has denied any and all allegations in opposition to him? As Elie Mystal, lawyer and justice correspondent for The Nation, put it on Thursday:

One other one that appears to understand how regarding this improvement is? Matt Gaetz, therefore his resolution to make use of a congressional listening to with Legal professional Common Merrick Garland to smear DOJ prosecutors. Per the Instances:

Throughout a congressional listening to on Thursday, Mr. Gaetz requested Legal professional Common Merrick B. Garland whether or not the division imposed any particular vetting processes earlier than it employed former lobbyists or former congressional staffers to work as federal prosecutors, particularly within the Public Integrity Part. “Is there any prohibition in opposition to individuals who’ve been lobbyists, partisan committee workers, or political consultants truly moving into and serving within the Public Integrity Part, or is that allowed?” Mr. Gaetz requested. He later added, “If somebody has been a political operative, to then put them in control of election crimes, it’s type of like having the fox guard the henhouse.”

Mr. Garland famous that it was in opposition to Justice Division coverage to contemplate an individual’s political affiliations or views through the hiring course of for profession civil servants. “There’s a requirement that, as soon as anyone turns into a prosecutor, identical to when anyone turns into a choose, that they do away with no matter preconceptions that they had earlier than,” Mr. Garland stated. Mr. Gaetz requested Mr. Garland for a listing of former lobbyists, former political consultants, and former congressional staffers who now labored within the Public Integrity Part. Mr. Garland stated that he didn’t intend to create a listing of profession officers and their earlier jobs.