The Biden administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) will not charge Republican Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz following a probe into allegations of ties to sex trafficking.
The DOJ informed lawyers for at least one witness in the investigation Wednesday that charges will not be brought against Gaetz, CNN reported.
The announcement follows a year-long investigation into Gates over alleged connections to Seminole County, Florida, tax collector Joel Greenberg, who pleaded guilty to sex trafficking a minor, identity theft and fraud in May 2021.
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“We have just spoken with the DOJ and have been informed that they have concluded their investigation into Congressman Gaetz and allegations related to sex trafficking and obstruction of justice and they have determined not to bring any charges against him,” Gaetz’s lawyers Marc Mukasey and Isabelle Kirshner said in a statement to CNBC.
Greenberg had previously alleged that Gaetz paid him for arranging sexual encounters with young women through Venmo, but the allegations were not included in Greenberg’s guilty plea.
In March 2021, Gaetz revealed he and his family were being extorted by Stephen Alford, who attempted to secure $25 million from Gaetz’s father, Don Gaetz.
In September, career prosecutors at the DOJ reportedly believed that Gaetz would not be convicted, as many witnesses had credibility problems.
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Rep. Gaetz has denied the allegations and tied the sex trafficking investigation to an extortion plot against him.
In April of 2021, Gaetz tweeted, “No surprise that bizarre claims are made about me after I took on the most powerful institutions in DC. Biden’s DOJ wants to pervert the truth & the law to go after me, I will not be intimidated or extorted. And no, I am absolutely not resigning.”
A Florida developer was indicted in April of 2021, on a charge that he tried to extort $25 million from Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz’s father in exchange for a presidential pardon that would effectively end a federal sex-trafficking investigation into the congressman.
Stephen Alford, a 62-year-old from Fort Walton Beach, was indicted on charges of wire fraud and destruction of property.
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The indictment alleges that Alford in March and April tried to get Don Gaetz to pay him as part of a deal titled “Project Homecoming.” The intricate scheme also would have funded a private effort to rescue Robert Levinson, a former FBI agent who disappeared in Iran 14 years ago and who officials believe died in Iran custody.
Alford said that he could “guarantee” that one of Don Gaetz’s family members would not go to prison if the $25 million he demanded was paid, according to the indictment. Matt Gaetz is currently under investigation over whether he broke federal prostitution, sex-trafficking and public corruption laws and whether he had sex with a girl who was 17 at the time.
The indictment refers to Don Gaetz as “D.G.” and to Matt Gaetz as “Family Member A,” and describes the investigation as one conducted “by the FBI for various public corruption and public integrity issues.”
Rep. Matt Gaetz, in March, told Fox News that he was the victim of an extortion plot.
“What is happening is an extortion of me and my family,” he said, adding that he got a text message “demanding a meeting wherein a person demanded $25 million in exchange for making horrible sex-trafficking allegations against me go away.”
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