Politics Random, Random

[dryrunguy]

Gaetz has withdrawn his nomination for Attorney General.

[Suliso]

That one was inevitable. There are at least two more who might not make it.

[ti-amie]

Was this the coup de grace?

Federal Inquiry Traced Payments From Gaetz to Women
A document prepared by federal investigators bolsters claims by women who say they were hired for sex by Matt Gaetz, President-elect Donald J. Trump’s choice for attorney general, who denies wrongdoing.

By Michael S. Schmidt
Published Nov. 20, 2024
Updated Nov. 21, 2024, 8:27 a.m. ET

Federal investigators have established a web of payments among Matt Gaetz and dozens of friends and associates who are said to have taken part with him in drug-fueled sex parties, according to a document obtained by The New York Times.

Among those who received money from Mr. Gaetz were two women who have testified that he hired them for sex, according to the document and a lawyer for the two women. The lawyer said payments to the women ultimately totaled around $10,000.

The document obtained by The Times was assembled by federal investigators during a sex-trafficking investigation into Mr. Gaetz, who is President-elect Donald J. Trump’s choice for attorney general. It shows how Mr. Gaetz and a friend sent thousands of dollars through Venmo to dozens of people who, according to testimony that is said to have been given to federal and congressional investigators, were involved in sex parties from 2017 to 2020.

Among those who received payment from Mr. Gaetz’s friend, the document shows, was another woman who, according to people familiar with details of the case, was 17 when she attended one of the parties.

Mr. Gaetz, 42, represented Florida in Congress from 2017 until last week. He has vehemently denied any wrongdoing, and the federal investigation was closed by the Justice Department without any charges against him. Vice President-elect JD Vance accompanied Mr. Gaetz to Capitol Hill on Wednesday in an effort to build support for his nomination from Republican senators, some of whom have expressed doubt that he is confirmable.

The document was obtained by the House Ethics Committee, which met on Wednesday amid growing pressure to release a report it has compiled on Mr. Gaetz but deadlocked on whether to do so.

Titled “VENMO TRANSACTIONS BETWEEN ALL INDIVIDUALS AS OF 09/14/20,” the document uses thumbnail photos of Mr. Gaetz, dozens of women and several other men to show how payments flowed between them. Lines with arrows connect the men and the women, showing, among other things, how much Mr. Gaetz and his associates paid the women.


A diagram obtained by The New York Times shows how federal investigators mapped out payments between Mr. Gaetz, his associates and women. The Times has redacted the names and images of most of the individuals who were originally included.

Because the department declined to charge Mr. Gaetz with a crime, the documents amassed during the investigation have remained secret, as the department almost never releases materials that law enforcement agencies develop in investigations in which no charges are brought. But a copy of the chart was obtained by the House Ethics Committee during its own wide-ranging investigation into Mr. Gaetz’s conduct, including whether he had sex with the then-17-year-old.

Steven Cheung, the communications director for Mr. Trump, blamed the Justice Department for disclosure of the document, which he claimed was classified even though it has no classified markings and does not relate to national security.

“This purposeful leaking of classified investigative materials is the sort of politicized D.O.J. weaponization that Matt Gaetz will end,” Mr. Cheung said. “The Justice Department investigated Gaetz for years, failed to find a crime and are now leaking material with false information to smear the next attorney general.”

The chart does not say what the payments were for, nor does it show that Mr. Gaetz made a payment to the 17-year-old girl. But the chart shows payments the authorities believed Mr. Gaetz and his associates made to other women, including the two whose lawyer has said they testified to the House Ethics Committee that they had sex with Mr. Gaetz in exchange for money.

It has been publicly known for several years that women have claimed that Mr. Gaetz paid them for sex. Shortly after The New York Times revealed the existence of the federal sex trafficking investigation into Mr. Gaetz in 2021, it reported that investigators were focusing on Mr. Gaetz’s involvement with multiple women who were recruited online for sex and how they received payments.

The Times reported at the time that it had reviewed receipts from Cash App, a mobile payments app, and Apple Pay showing how Mr. Gaetz and Joel Greenberg, his associate and friend, had paid one of the women for sex with them.

The charts show different payments, all through Venmo, and provide the first documentary evidence from inside the federal investigation, showing how investigators examined Mr. Gaetz’s activities in meticulous detail, tracking not just his payments but also those of a large network of people said to have been involved in the parties.


Obtained by The New York Times

The lawyer, Joel Leppard, said that two women he represents testified before the House committee that Mr. Gaetz had paid them in exchange for sex. One of the women said that she had witnessed Mr. Gaetz having sex with the 17-year-old but that she did not believe Mr. Gaetz thought the girl was under 18, according to Mr. Leppard.

The chart shows that one of Mr. Leppard’s clients received $4,025.27 and the other $3,500. It does not show the dates of the payments. Those amounts appear to be figures that combine several payments the women received from Mr. Gaetz; Mr. Leppard said that the women were typically paid $200 to $500 for each encounter with Mr. Gaetz.

Mr. Leppard confirmed in a telephone interview that his clients had received Venmo payments from Mr. Gaetz. Some of his remarks about the payments were reported earlier by ABC News.

Mr. Leppard said that along with Venmo payments, his clients had received money from Mr. Gaetz on PayPal. He said that he initially thought that his clients had received the amounts listed in the chart but said that when his clients were interviewed by the House committee, it turned out that the panel had obtained other evidence that showed additional payments.

Records the committee had, he said, showed payments from Mr. Gaetz to one of his clients totaling around $6,000, and showed payments to the other of $4,000.

He said he believed the committee had obtained the payment information by sending subpoenas to Venmo and PayPal.

The chart also helps to solidify the testimony of Mr. Gaetz’s now-former friend and chief accuser, Mr. Greenberg, a former local tax collector from Florida.

He cooperated with the Justice Department in the federal investigation, telling the authorities about how he and Mr. Gaetz both had sex with the 17-year-old, although he said they believed she was over 18. Mr. Greenberg pleaded guilty in 2021 to an array of charges — including sex trafficking — and agreed to cooperate against Mr. Gaetz. He was later sentenced to 11 years in prison.

The chart shows that Mr. Greenberg paid the 17-year-old girl $450.


Obtained by The New York Times

And it demonstrates that despite an unwillingness by the Justice Department to hand over to the House committee much of the evidence it developed about Mr. Gaetz during its investigation, the panel was able to obtain some of the information that investigators gathered as prosecutors weighed whether to charge Mr. Gaetz.

The House committee sought a range of information from the Justice Department about Mr. Gaetz but was repeatedly rebuffed.

Devlin Barrett contributed reporting.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/20/us/p ... s-sex.html

[ti-amie]

I saw this yesterday but figured that the GOP congresspeople would cave and he'd be confirmed. Then MTG starting raving that if they release the report on Gaetz they need to release all of the investigative reports. Now he's withdrawn from consideration.

I think that the public needs to see that report because it must be something else.



That said whoever he puts up next will be worse.

[ti-amie]

This guy is available. He seems like the ideal GOP cabinet official. /s

Son of Norway’s Crown Princess Is Arrested on Suspicion of Rape
Marius Borg Hoiby, the stepson of Crown Prince Haakon of Norway, was arrested on Monday. His lawyer denied the accusation and said his client was cooperating with the authorities.

By Isabella Kwai
Nov. 19, 2024
The eldest son of Norway’s crown princess was arrested on suspicion of rape on Monday, the authorities in Oslo said, the latest accusation in a scandal that has roiled the country’s royal family.

Marius Borg Hoiby, a son of Crown Princess Mette-Marit, was taken into custody on a preliminary rape charge on Monday evening, the police in Oslo said in a news release. The authorities offered few details but said he had violated a section of Norway’s penal code that applies to “sexual intercourse with someone who is unconscious or for other reasons unable to resist the act.”

Mr. Borg Hoiby, 27, has no title or official duties in Norway’s royal family; his mother married Crown Prince Haakon, the heir to the Norwegian throne, in 2001.

Mr. Borg Hoiby, who was 4 when his mother married into the royal family, was once known affectionately as “Little Marius.” In recent years, his behavior toward women has come under scrutiny, including accusations that he abused three women with whom he had been in relationships.

He was arrested in August on charges accusing him of bodily harm and damage in an episode involving a different woman. After that arrest, Mr. Borg Hoiby issued an apology to NRK, in which he admitted to causing bodily harm and destroying objects in an apartment while he was under the influence of alcohol and cocaine. He said he would seek treatment for substance abuse.

Two other women have also publicly accused Mr. Borg Hoiby of physically and psychologically abusing them while they were dating him.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/19/worl ... rrest.html

[ti-amie]

More from the FAFO files

[ashkor87]

I always thought Gaetz might be the lamb being sacrificed, as a gambit, to get the others confirmed

[ponchi101]

About Gaetz:
CASH, buddy, CASH!!! You pay in cash.
And you leave it on a table where the lady can pick it up discreetly while you are looking away.
By now, I don't mind or care that they are so immoral. The thing that I think is really dangerous is how dumb they are.

[Owendonovan]

What a real loss for the US.

[Owendonovan]

About Gaetz:
CASH, buddy, CASH!!! You pay in cash.
And you leave it on a table where the lady can pick it up discreetly while you are looking away.
By now, I don't mind or care that they are so immoral. The thing that I think is really dangerous is how dumb they are.

I'm not a criminal, but I know to use cash if you don't want it traced. Also, if you don't think you're being recorded either audibly or visually, you haven't been paying attention.

[ti-amie]

What a real loss for the US. /s

Fixed that for ya.

[ti-amie]

Where to start? My guess is this person has no idea what tropical fruit is.

In the comments someone mentions that she and her boyfriend are trying to think of things they can stock up on ahead of the tariffs being imposed and used the example of soda (pop to midwesterners).
Where does the aluminum in the can come from?

Where does the US get bauxite from?
Production and reserves

Tens of millions of metric tons of bauxite are mined each year. The leaders in bauxite production include Australia, China, Brazil, India and Guinea. The United States has small amounts of bauxite ore located in Arkansas, Alabama and Georgia.

The poster and her boyfriend gave up.

[ti-amie]

I'm also trying to think of things I can stock up on before January but then Walmart made this statement:



Things like tomato paste, wasabi (love this) and other things that can be safely stored. Perishables are impossible to store for long periods of time. The cost of turkeys has already gone through the roof and the NY Times cooking people are pushing fried chicken recipes to its readers.

[ti-amie]

I read something today that said every highschooler should be required to take a basic Economics course but that man has nominated ex WWE exec Linda McMan as education secretary so we're more likely to see more high schoolers learning how to wield a steel chair than understanding how tariffs work.


Everyone should also work retail once. That's been a pipe dream of mine for a long time.

[dryrunguy]

I read something today that said every highschooler should be required to take a basic Economics course but that man has nominated ex WWE exec Linda McMan as education secretary so we're more likely to see more high schoolers learning how to wield a steel chair than understanding how tariffs work.


Everyone should also work retail once. That's been a pipe dream of mine for a long time.

We don't need basic economics courses. We have Ferris Bueller's Day Off.