Republicans continue to reel from the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and mob scene, all repercussions from former President Donald Trump losing he Nov. 3, 2020 election, now snaring 39-year-old Rep. Matt Gaetz in a sex scandal. While Gaetz denies all the charges of sex trafficking with underage minors, his good buddy 37-year-old former Seminole County Tax Collector Joel Greenberg has just completed as plea deal with federal prosecutors to sex trafficking involving underage teenagers, something alleged by against Gaetz. Joel pled guilty to charges that he paid underage minors for sex, raising more questions about Gaetz because they were partners in crime. Gaetz has denied any wrongdoing on a technicality that the underage minor with whom he fooled around was 17-year-of –age, not meeting the statuary definition of rape. But Greenberg’s plead deal looks to implicate Gaetz.
Gaetz was once considered a rising star in the Republican Party, now finds himself fighting for his life and career. With Greenberg cooperating with federal prosecutors, it’s only a matter of time before Gaetz also gets formally charged. Greenberg admitted to federal prosecutors that he paid about $70,000 to underage girls between 2016-2018, to have sex with him and his friends, most likely Gaetz. Greenberg was charged last August for sex trafficking with girls aged from 14 to 17-year-of -age. “Greenberg also introduced the Minor to other adult men, who engaged in commercial sex acts with the Minor,” states the plea agreement. Gaetz is certainly implicated as one of the men also participating in sex acts with minors. With Greenberg’s deal, it’s just a matter of time before the case is formalized against Gaetz. Gaetz thought he could beat the wrap, now looking unlikely.
Democrats and press have kept Republicans snafus in headlines, spending extraordinary time covering the rise-and-fall of Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wy.), once the third in GOP leadership as chairwoman of the Republican National Conference. Cheney, who claims she leads a large faction of the GOP against Trump, was replaced yesterday by 36-year-old Rep. Elise Stefanki (R-N.Y.). Contrary to Cheney’s proclamations about leading anti-Trump Republicans, a Yahoo/YouGov poll shows she has 17% backing in the GOP. Democrats and the press delighted reporting on the internecine warfare in the Republican Party, until GOP leadership held its vote yesterday to oust Cheney. Cheney promised she would continue to work feverishly to deny Trump any role in the future of the Republican Party. Cheney will be luckY to retain her seat when she faces reelection in 2022 for voting to impeach Trump twice.
Greenberg’s a small fish in the GOP, nothing like Gaetz that spent plenty of political capital backing Trump. Department of Justice prosecutors have Gaetz in their crosshairs, certainly now that they’ve got Greenberg singing like a canary. Greenberg used his position as Seminole County Tax Collector to get confidential DMV data on some of the underage girls with whom he was involved. While federal prosecutors haven’t admitted yet that Gaetz was involved with Greenberg’s shenanigans, it’s obvious that they’ve have evidence against the Florida Congressman. Prosecutors are trying to determine whether Gaetz tried to secure government jobs for some of the women involved in the sex trafficking allegations. Prosecutors are looking into whether Gaetz influenced Florida’s medical marijuana laws due to his involvement in the industry, another egregious conflict-of-interest.
Whatever federal prosecutors find about Gaetz, it’s doubtful he’ll survive re-election in 2022. With charges piling up, the once rising GOP start now looks radioactive, glowing in the dark with scandal. Nothing hurts credibility more that constant notoriety, staying in the headlines with allegations of sex crimes and influence peddling. Greenberg was running the Seminole Tax Collector department like the late sex crimes junky Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein died in prison Aug. 10, 2019 of an apparent suicide, awaiting prosecution for sex trafficking and other sex crimes. Unlike Epstein, Greenberg smartly fashioned a plea deal in the DOJs’ quest to charge Gaetz with whom so far they’ve found it difficult to prosecute. Even if prosecutors can’t get an ironclad case against Gaetz, his reputation has been sullied for the foreseeable future, no longer a rising star in the Republican Party.
Gaetz is getting that sinking feeling as his old buddy Greenberg has agreed to implicate him in his sex trafficking scandal. Greenberg actually used Seminole County resources to pay for the underage minors with whom he fooled around, in one case seven times with the same underage teenager. How Greenberg’s plea deal implicates Gaetz is anyone’s guess. Talk of Greenberg and Gaetz using for themselves and supplying Ecstasy and other drugs to the teenage girls also adds to the egregious charges. Greenberg’s now a cooperating witness with the DOJ, most concerned of building a case against Gaetz. When you consider that Greenberg embezzled about $700,000 from Seminole County to pay for his sex trafficking habit, it’s hard to imagine he won’t do time in federal prison. However Gates crossed the line, he didn’t embezzle cash from Congress to feed his sexual perversion for underage girls.
