Before discussing the new (old, actually, but just dredged up) accusations against former House member/possible Florida gubernatorial candidate Matt Gaetz, I will reprint a blot I wrote on November 13 – to establish the way I feel about Donald Trump’s effort to make him our Attorney General:
ATTORNEY GENERAL MATT GAETZ?
No. Emphatically no.
Gaetz does not have the academic credentials or the legal credentials or the experience or the temperament or the political standing nor the acceptable political positions to be Attorney General.
I hope – don’t know, of course, but hope – that this is nothing more than Donald Trump’s sop to the hard right. That after Gaetz is rejected by the senate (even if it we’re talking about the newly constructed Republican majority senate I would expect a rejection), Trump can say something like “See, I tried”. This, presumably, would make the far right wing of his party feel good about him without actually getting anything out of it.
But, unlikely though it may be, there is always the possibility he would somehow be confirmed. Which would be godawful to the nth degree.
Stay tuned.
I assume you now know how I feel about a) Matt Gaetz’s lack of qualifications for the Attorney General position and b) Donald Trump’s possible motives in selecting him for it — one of which is that this is another example (there are plenty to pick from) of Trump selecting people based less on their qualifications and more on their loyalty to him personally.
With that in mind, what are we supposed to make of the just-released house report showing the Department Of Justice (DOJ) determined Gaetz has a history of sexual improprieties, including at least one fling with an underage girl he later paid off – presumably to keep her quiet?
Do the charges hold water? Molly Hemingway, writing for thefederalist.com, thinks not. And her latest article both fully explains her skepticism, and harshly condemns the way the DOJ has operated in recent years – not just in the case of Gaetz, but generally.
Here is her key segment:
Many Americans are sick and tired of elected officials and media pundits doing nothing as DOJ attempted to destroy the country with its abuse of the rule of law. Among the many powerful figures in Washington, D.C. opposed to the Gaetz nomination are some who are attempting to thwart it by releasing a report from the House Ethics Committee that will attempt to tie Gaetz to salacious allegations involving child sex trafficking.
The report comes years after DOJ dropped its investigation into the same claims on the grounds that the two central witnesses had serious credibility issues. Yet these are the same two central witnesses the House Ethics Committee has relied on for its critical report of Gaetz—the same report it is leaking to compliant reporters as part of a coordinated effort to thwart his nomination as President-elect Donald Trump’s next attorney general.
The two witnesses have massive credibility problems. The claims arose from Joel Greenberg, “one of the most corrupt Florida politicians of all time,” according to Florida reporter Marc Caputo, who is now with the anti-Trump media outlet The Bulwark.
Among many things the former Seminole County tax collector admitted to as part of a wide-ranging case for which he is currently serving 11 years in prison was falsely accusing local political opponent Brian Beute of having sex with a minor, similar to the outlandish claim he made against Gaetz. Greenberg also reportedly later attempted to frame his own attorney with pornographic images of children. One New York Times writeup of Greenberg was headlined, “Like the Tiger King Got Elected Tax Collector.“
According to the Washington Post, Greenberg admitted to “fabricating allegations against a schoolteacher who was running against him to be a tax collector. Greenberg had sent letters to the school falsely claiming the teacher had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a student — a similar allegation to the Gaetz case.” U.S. District Judge Gregory Presnell, appointed by President Bill Clinton, said Greenberg’s actions against that innocent victim were “downright evil.”
The politicized employees at DOJ have shown themselves willing to explore novel legal theories and bend federal rules to the breaking point in pursuit of their most reviled political opponents, most notably former and future President Trump. Gaetz has a reputation as one of the most tenacious cross-examiners of DOJ officials from his perch on the House Judiciary Committee.
Yet even the DOJ was unwilling to exploit Greenberg’s unsubstantiated claims — apart from leaking them to the press to hurt Gaetz’s reputation. They announced their closure of the investigation in 2022.
The House Ethics Committee, however, decided to pick up the dropped and deflated ball and run with it a full year after DOJ dropped the investigation.
Does that speak volumes about what is going on here? I’d say so.
Again, I a no fan of Matt Gaetz. And I was no fan of Donald Trump’s thwarted effort to make him our Attorney General. But that does not mean he is guilty of what very well might be a major-league hit job by the DOJ – which, over recent years, seems to disgrace itself on a regular basis.
If soon-to-be-President Trump is somehow able to regenerate the DOJ and make it a serious source of justice instead of a hardline partisan weapon for Democrats, he will have done us all a huge favor.
I hope he succeeds 100%
