{"id":2598,"date":"2024-11-18T11:39:29","date_gmt":"2024-11-18T11:39:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/matt-gaetz-feels-the-heat\/"},"modified":"2024-11-18T11:39:29","modified_gmt":"2024-11-18T11:39:29","slug":"matt-gaetz-feels-the-heat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/matt-gaetz-feels-the-heat\/","title":{"rendered":"Matt Gaetz feels the heat"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

President-elect Donald Trump is dead serious about making him attorney general. Speaker Mike Johnson is pledging to bury a critical House Ethics Committee report into his alleged personal misconduct. But expect this to be a very uncomfortable week for former Rep. Matt Gaetz all the same.<\/p>\n

There is new pressure to publicize details from investigations centering on allegations of underage sex and drug use by the Florida Republican as a potentially tawdry and dramatic confirmation battle takes shape. <\/p>\n

First off: An attorney representing two women who testified to both federal and House Ethics investigators about Gaetz\u2019s alleged misdeeds is coming forward with new details about what his clients told investigators. Lawyer Joel Leppard is set to do multiple network TV interviews Monday as he pushes for the release of the House Ethics report, and he gave Playbook a sneak preview last night:<\/p>\n

\u2014 His clients, he said, told investigators they attended more than five and as many as 10 \u201csex parties\u201d with Gaetz between the summer of 2017 and the end of 2018, during his first term in the House. At those parties, they testified, there were \u201cgroup sex situations\u201d and illegal drugs were present.<\/p>\n

\u2014 One of Leppard\u2019s clients told investigators she witnessed Gaetz \u201chaving sex with her friend,\u201d who was underage at the time, against what she recalled as some sort of game table, according to Leppard.<\/p>\n

Gaetz has strenuously and repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. The federal investigation that Leppard\u2019s clients participated in ended without charges against Gaetz, according to his lawyers and Justice Department officials.<\/p>\n

But Leppard \u2014 and many on Capitol Hill \u2014 believe that a lack of criminal indictment is a much lower bar than a prospective attorney general should be meeting, and they are looking to the as-yet unpublished House Ethics report to provide further details. Leppard said his media blitz is aimed at protecting his unnamed clients, who have not ruled out coming forward in the future<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, I hope it puts a lot of pressure on the panel to release the report,\u201d he said. \u201cMy clients have already been through this several times and they really, really do not want to testify again, especially not on the floor of the Senate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about the allegations, a spokesperson for the AG-designate made reference to the current AG: \u201cMerrick Garland\u2019s DOJ cleared Matt Gaetz and didn\u2019t charge him. Are you alleging Garland is part of a cover up?”<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Democrats charged with vetting Trump\u2019s nominees are privately exploring how to gather more information on the sexual misconduct allegations that are bearing down on both Gaetz and Pete Hegseth, Trump\u2019s pick for Defense secretary who is alleged to have paid a settlement<\/a> to a woman who accused him of sexual assault. (Like Gaetz, Hegseth has strongly denied wrongdoing.)<\/p>\n

Importantly, Democrats are discussing what they can do now, while they hold the committee gavels and subpoena power that they will give up when the new Congress gets underway in January.<\/p>\n

On the Senate Judiciary Committee, Democratic members have discussed requesting the FBI file on Gaetz, which could include records of any interviews conducted as part of the now-closed investigation. They\u2019re likely to do so before the end of the year, knowing Trump could order those materials to be withheld once he assumes office.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re also considering making contact with the attorney of the woman who told the House Ethics Committee that Gaetz had sex with her when she was a minor. That lawyer, John Clune, called for the report to be released \u201cimmediately\u201d<\/a> last week.<\/p>\n

Public hearings aren\u2019t under consideration at the moment, but Democrats say that behind-the-scenes conversations with the women\u2019s representatives \u2014 or possibly interviews with women themselves \u2014 could serve as preparation for confirmation season should the GOP circle the wagons around Trump\u2019s nominees.<\/p>\n

Even in the minority, Democrats will get the right to call witnesses during confirmation hearings, and they are discussing the possibility of calling the women to testify if they are willing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe ought to be marshaling all of the objective and relevant evidence necessary to assess the confidence, character and moral compass of each nominee,\u201d said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn), who sits on the Judiciary and Armed Services panels. \u201cAnd if those materials are denied, or concealed, and if witnesses with relevant information are willing to come forward, they should be given an opportunity to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n

That, Blumenthal added, includes the woman who accused Hegseth of sexual assault and subsequently signed a nondisclosure agreement.<\/p>\n

\u201cA private agreement on nondisclosure should be preempted by an Armed Services hearing on the confirmation of a nominee,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd we would expect any nominee to waive any rights under nondisclosure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like this content? Sign up for Blue Light News’s Playbook newsletter. <\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President-elect Donald Trump is dead serious about making him attorney general. Speaker Mike Johnson is pledging to bury a critical House Ethics Committee report into his alleged personal misconduct. But expect this to be a very uncomfortable week for former Rep. Matt Gaetz all the same. There is new pressure to publicize details from investigations […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2598\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}