Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), a staunch and brash media defender of Donald Trump, said that he was under federal investigation for sexual conduct with women, but also is the victim of a criminal extortion attempt.
The allegations come just hours after Axios reported that Gaetz was considering not seeking reelection and instead would take a post at Newsmax.
The New York Times broke the story about a Justice Department investigation of Gaetz over “whether he had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old and paid for her to travel with him.” Axios then posted on the investigation and spoke to the congressman for 13 minutes, in which he said,”The allegations of sexual misconduct against me are false,” Gaetz told Axios. “They are rooted in an extortion effort against my family for $25 million … in exchange for making this case go away.”
On Twitter, Gaetz wrote, “Over the past several weeks my family and I have been victims of an organized criminal extortion involving a former DOJ official seeking $25 million while threatening to smear my name. We have been cooperating with federal authorities in this matter and my father has even been wearing a wire at the FBI’s direction to catch these criminals. The planted leak to the FBI tonight was intended to thwart that investigation. No part of the allegations against me are true, and the people pushing these lies are targets of the ongoing extortion investigation. I demand the DOJ immediately release the tapes, made at their direction, which implicate their former colleague in crimes against me based on false allegations.”
Gaetz told Axios that the specifics of the investigation of him are “unclear,” and he said that his lawyers were told that he was “not a target but a subject of an investigation regarding sexual conduct with women.”
He will appear on Tuesday on Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight.