r/news • u/AudibleNod • 1d ago
Former U.S. congressman Matt Gaetz accused of sex trafficking in lawsuit
https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/article/former-us-congressman-matt-gaetz-accused-of-sex-trafficking-in-lawsuit/1.5k
u/hefty_load_o_shite 1d ago edited 1d ago
Again. Accused of sex trafficking again.
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u/BananasPineapple05 1d ago edited 1d ago
I almost wrote "when it works the first time, you're gonna do it again, aren't you?" but it seems like these are the same accusations from during DJT's first time in office.
It's just that Gaetz resigned then, so it never went anywhere.
It seems like these two women just didn't give up, despite the fact that this Gaetz creeper (a supporter of DJT, of course, and from Florida, too!) doxed his accusers on X.
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article317634839.html
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u/eronth 1d ago
The fact that a resignation killed the momentum is already fucked up.
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u/almightywhacko 1d ago
It was a House Ethics Committee investigation and once Gaetz resigned he was no longer within their jurisdiction. Also Congress has no power to file criminal charges or send anyone to jail, so the worst they could have done to him is expel him from Congress which became irrelevant when he resigned.
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u/privatepinochle 1d ago
House committees can make criminal referrals to the justice department. They should have.
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u/xteve 1d ago
But "referrals" has three syllables. That's too much government for the GOP.
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u/TimSylvester_ 1d ago
A lot of Congress people are crooks and creeps and want to set a norm that nobody will pursue charges when they're out of office.
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u/targetsinmegadeaths 1d ago
If not sex trafficker, then why constantly sex trafficker?
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u/jyeatbvg 1d ago
Don’t even need to guess what party he’s affiliated with.
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u/the_great_zyzogg 1d ago
Him, Bobo Boebert, and Marjorie Taylor Greene were Trumps biggest cheerleaders in congress not too long ago. MTG as done something of a heel-turn against him recently (though she's till a crazy ass bitch).
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u/johnkasick2016_AMA 1d ago
Magic the Gathering is probably waiting for the right moment to really drop a bomb. She had a major falling out with the Trump/Boebert/Gaetz faction.
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u/trashcatt_ 1d ago
That's how I've read it every single time.
I'm not sure which is worse, Marj, or Universes Beyond.
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u/_Panacea_ 1d ago
Do you genuinely not remember Matt Gaetz?
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u/jyeatbvg 1d ago
No (I’m Canadian)
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u/_Panacea_ 1d ago
Ok, well let me assure you that he was awful.
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u/Nanojack 1d ago
To paraphrase the wise man, he still is, but he used to be too.
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u/SaltyPeter3434 1d ago
Trump hand picked him to be Attorney General, after allegations of sex trafficking and statutory rape against Gaetz already came out years prior. Would be super embarrassing scandal for any admin but for Trump it was just a Tuesday.
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u/Ozymandias12 1d ago
The only reason this piece of shit is even walking free is because Merrick Garland was too chicken shit to charge him despite all the evidence against him.
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u/CompetitiveProject4 1d ago
Merrick Garland will likely be considered the James Buchanan of Attorney Generals in history
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u/No_Economist3788 1d ago
Merrick Garland
this dude needs to be investigated by the next administration. no doubt he lined his pockets by being a fake democrat.
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u/wittyjokename92 1d ago
Iirc the only reason Obama picked Garland is because he's such a milquetoast bland federalist. Basically the closest thing to a Republican endorsed judge because Obama knew either Moscow Mitch would give up the supreme court appointment for the lesser evil or just block it no matter what. Biden keeping Garland around after Mitch blocked the appointment was just stupidity since Garland is and always was going to be a hard-line center right status quo choice.
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u/remotectrl 1d ago
Garland had been specifically named by Senator Orin Hatch as someone they would support. Obama said okay and nominated him. It’s almost as bad as the time Mitch filibustered his own bill because Obama agreed that the bill was a good idea.
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u/WaffleHouseGladiator 1d ago
Dems are so afraid to upset the apple cart that they're letting arsonists burn down the market.
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u/DameonKormar 20h ago
Democratic leaders still think they can work with Republicans to pass bills.
Republican leaders think vaccines cause autism and supernatural beings exist.
Democrats are street stupid and Republicans are book stupid.
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u/21Rollie 13h ago
Republicans don’t believe in shit other than the religion of money. Nobody that truly believes there’s judgement for the wicked would act like them.
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u/Sweatytubesock 1d ago
Trump’s first choice for AG. So surprising.
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u/wd26 1d ago
Blessing in disguise because it got him to resign from the House, and then they proceeded to fail to get enough votes to make him AG.
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u/DerekB52 1d ago
It actually wasn't much of a blessing because when I asked myself, "oh my god, is Pam Bondi fucking worse" my answer was, "possibly". And Gaetz getting forced out made me think maybe the pressure on Hegseth would get him removed from the list of cabinet nominees too. I got my hopes up we'd dodge that one. And that didn't work at all.
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u/RespectTheTree 1d ago
It was the laziest of kompromot
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u/Zeta-2-Reticuli 1d ago
That's just not fair. It could merely be their mutual interest in pedophilia.
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u/-Badger3- 1d ago edited 23h ago
Wow, I wonder why Trump wanted a known sex trafficker to be the Attorney General.
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u/The7footr 1d ago
Show of hands, is anyone surprised?
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u/Cool-Date5719 1d ago
I’m only surprised that he isn’t in Trump’s cabinet
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u/Solid_Snark 1d ago
Trump was just waiting on the proof that he was guilty. A job offer is in the mail as we speak.
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u/Ronho 1d ago
Trump wanted him as attorney general. One of only 3 times I can think of that senate republicans told Trump no. (SAVE act and ending the filibuster)
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u/Reasonable-Turn-5940 1d ago
Remember when he was on Tucker talking about some teenage girl he brought to a dinner at his house and was like "You met her..." and Tucker was like "I don't know wtf you're talking about go to commercial!"
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u/AudibleNod 1d ago
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Orlando, comes nearly two years after the House Ethics Committee said the Florida Republican had regularly paid for sex, including once with a 17-year-old girl, purchased and used illicit drugs, and violated state laws while a member of Congress.
Remember this guy was nominated to be the Attorney General of the United States.
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u/StuTheSheep 1d ago
Remember this guy was nominated to be the Attorney General of the United States.
Remember that he was nominated AFTER Trump read his ethics report that accused him of all this stuff.
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u/Tacitblue1973 1d ago
Like Putin's Systema, every member of your government must be corrupt, it's selected for, not against. Power and coercion, they've expanded the swamp to it's natural evolutionary outcome.
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u/justmitzie 1d ago
I just found out he has a weekend show on OAN or one of the other temu Fox stations. Not a big surprise.
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u/adorablefuzzykitten 1d ago
Trump has never met Matt Gaetz and only heard his name mentioned on TV a few times. It is possible he dated his son a few times but he is not certain.
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u/Solonohioperson 1d ago edited 1d ago
Matt Gaetz , the pedophile? that Matt Gaetz? the guy whose face looks like a thumb?
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u/Intelligent-Tie-4466 1d ago
There was a post on another sub a few years ago from someone who claimed to have gone to high school with him. That person said they used to call him Pumpkin Head. It still works.
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u/Camp_Coffee 1d ago
Weird way to announce his interest in a presidential track, but I guess this is Trump’s America.
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u/Pretty_Eater 1d ago
He is republican, this should be expected.
Nothing Republicans love more than having their way with kids.
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u/Dry_Ass_P-word 1d ago
They caught him on Venmo red handed years ago and nothing happened.
Would be a real surprised to see actual consequences for once.
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u/Aghast_Cornichon 1d ago
nothing happened.
A few of his buddies went to prison. Gaetz had the wisdom to be a US Representative.
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u/Waste_Scarcity4685 1d ago
And he withdrew his name from consideration for US Attorney General because he knew the confirmation hearing would be an evisceration. It was at least a tiny bit of satisfaction.
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u/Khaldara 1d ago
Conservatives wanted to protect pedophiles so badly they nominated one for Attorney General before their term even started.
It was a day one priority for them.
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u/AgentInkling99 1d ago
He should be in prison, but as usual, as long as you make it high enough in government nothing happens.
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u/Professional-Box4153 1d ago
I was gonna say. Again? You think he'd have learned to cover his tracks better at the very least.
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u/Raven_Photography 1d ago
A civil suit isn’t a Congressional ethics investigation or a legal complaint. Civil suits have a much lower threshold of proof before a jury.
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u/wishbones_kitchen 1d ago
Almost forgot about that loser
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u/shroezinger 18h ago
Don’t forget that the current speaker of the house protected him tooth and nail. The former one just used the information to control his vote.
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u/Basic-Record-4750 1d ago
I got news for you… nobody close to this administration is getting convicted of anything until Trump is out of the White House, unless they personally piss off trump
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u/PossumJumpRopeSquad 1d ago
But if it's civil and not criminal, Trump can't do shit about that one. Otherwise criminal has to be at state level to avoid presidential pardons.
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u/Effective_Dirt2617 1d ago
Trump can absolutely do something about a civil suit if he wants to. All it would take are a few well placed tweets and the plaintiffs end up in a world of shit. This administration, and its crew, are absolutely above the law until they’re out of the White House. Civil, criminal, it doesn’t matter.
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u/Imaginary_Cow_6379 1d ago
Yeah pretty sure this is the kind of accomplishments that get you a cabinet position these days.
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u/DrowningKrown 1d ago
I'm sorry, a lawsuit? These people never face actual consequences. How about criminal charges next time?
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u/U2ElectricBoogaloo 1d ago
That path was already tried. Whether you like it or not, the FBI concluded there was likely not enough evidence to secure a conviction in a criminal case where the burden of proof is “beyond a reasonable doubt.” How they arrived at that conclusion… you’d hope it was based on purely on the evidence, but I wasn’t there so I can’t say.
So now the victims are using the next best option available to them, which is a civil suit. The burden of proof is now “preponderance of the evidence,” a much lower bar. If the case is strong enough, penalties and restitution could fuck him financially. And if it doesn’t settle before trial, some real lurid shit may come out that’s hard to ignore, and he may suffer social consequences. Heck, it may introduce new evidence that could convince the DOJ to reopen the original criminal action.
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u/Ragingtiger2016 19h ago
What happened to his “son” btw? I think Nestor was his name?
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u/Circaninetysix 1d ago edited 22h ago
We have genuinely dangerous criminals out there walking among us because they appealed to the right politicians for protection.
No way America goes down or falls into civil war over these piles of garbage, right?
There is a class of people in the 200,000$ to 500,000,000$ tax bracket that think they are above the law and can do whatever they want. The law shouldn't give a shit what your income is. Everyone is equal when you're raping and murdering people.
Nearly everything these people accuse others of, they are guilty of themselves. They control the media now, so they tell you it's immigrants or illegals.
We're actually in the end game now. I genuinely hope this vote pushes things in the right direction again. Most people are good and just want to live and love. It's a small, but very loud minority trying to convince us acting inhumane is going to bring us towards a better future. It won't come through hate or ignorance.
We gotta get these people out of positions of power. What the fuck are we doing America. Please vote.
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u/Waistdeep1984 13h ago
$200,000 is NOTHING in today's world. That's a slightly upper middle class in the USA and Canada.. They're not the problem. The problem really lies with anyone over 100 million I would say.
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u/Dry-Charity-3787 16h ago
Among us? They are leading the country lol.
Let's not sugarcoat the politicians. They know what they are doing, they know how much return for the bribes, they know their dirt is kept hidden.
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u/Bandit_Raider 1d ago
Trump Cabinet candidate btw
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u/Aghast_Cornichon 1d ago
Gaetz's brother-in-law is billionaire Palmer Luckey, recently appointed to team up with Elon Musk and Newt Gingrich to run a Pentagon future weapons needs evaluation program.
Mar-a-Lago Face has not yet fully claimed Ginger Luckey Gaetz, but entry into that gravity well has done a number on her soul.
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u/paulsoleo 1d ago
We’re voting some of these fucks out in November, right? Right?? Because I’m sure as fuck tired of hearing about these people literally every day and I HOPE SOME OTHERS FEEL THIS WAY, RIGHT?
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u/ycpa68 1d ago
He's no longer in politics but yes vote the rest out
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u/CaterpillarJungleGym 1d ago
I remember going to Birmingham AL when that dude admitted he slept with 14 and 15 year old girls. So sad that people werent sure he wouldn't be reelected.
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u/The-Shattering-Light 1d ago
Republicans don’t actually care - that’s why they keep opposing attempts to outlaw child marriage in the US.
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u/chiksahlube 1d ago
Crazy enough he was bad enough the GOP actually cut him loose...
Tells you how bad he is.
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u/wd26 1d ago
They didn’t really cut him loose. He resigned from the house because he was Trumps first pick as AG. Then they couldn’t get the votes so they gave up with him.
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u/RunRosemary 1d ago
Reminder that Matt married Palmer Lucky’s sister. Palmer has contracts with the DOJ and hosts Trump when he visits Southern California.
Matt has big, dark money behind him.
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u/AgentInkling99 1d ago
For fucks sake, we already had the receipts from his Venmo app years ago. We haven’t really had a functioning justice system for at least a decade or more. This moronic administration is just putting it on display more because they’re idiots.
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u/McDuchess 19h ago
The wheels of justice grind slowly.
Mattie Boy thought he’d gotten away with everything, because his idol, Trump, seems to have.
But even Trump is now living a life of physical pain and humiliation on a worldwide scale. The humiliation is even worse to him than the kidney disease o and the CHF.
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u/sourceninja 16h ago
“Much of the conduct alleged against me is false,” Gaetz said in response.
Oh so you just dipped your toes into sex trafficking, good to know.
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u/onyaasuminyasai 1d ago
good, can we actually convict him now that he's out of the good ol' boys club?
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u/Kairamek 23h ago
Least surprising news of the day. He resigned to prevent an ethics investigation into the trafficking thing.
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u/joetothemo 1d ago
“‘Much of the conduct alleged against me is false, Gaetz said in response.” is not the denial he thinks it is.
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u/AxeSkewsMe 1d ago
Come on Trump, the man's doing everything he can to get your attention. Hire him already.
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u/Maleficent_Pie8099 1d ago
No one is surprised. We can build a system and government that doesn’t force us to choose between two different predators.
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u/JLP33376 1d ago
“Much of the conduct alleged against me is false,” Gaetz said in response.
He sounds confident with the word "much."
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u/wastelandingstrip 23h ago
Always feel like he's changing his face drastically so he can make a getaway. It's like watching The Fly (1986) except he starts off as a monster too.
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u/grisworld0_0 19h ago
Just a guest, republican/maga?
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u/Aggressive_Dot5426 1d ago
No one bringing up Nestor the boy he almost adopted but didn’t who still he’s “raising “. Hes 25 now.
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u/Troubled202 1d ago
He's a pedophile and the despicable human being. I hope he goes broke due to litigation.
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u/observingjackal 1d ago
Again...Former U.S. congressman Matt Gaetz accused of sex trafficking again. Hell there was proof the last time but he was still up the blumpkin in chief's ass so the powers that be shielded him.
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u/Kendall_Raine 1d ago
“Much of the conduct alleged against me is false,” Gaetz said in response.
"Much of"? Not all of it?
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u/DarkBomberX 1d ago
Guy with creadible pedo allegations gets charged with sex trafficking. Could of had his ass earlier if the DOJ wasn't dogshit.
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u/Practical_Ant6162 23h ago
Hoping this time he is held accountable.
Wish I could say I’m surprised but nope, not at all…
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u/henryrblake 1d ago
I don’t have anything productive to say except holy shit! That asshole with the forehead like a Florida highway billboard was accused again of sex trafficking? You mean more evidence was piled on top of the existing pile?
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u/FartyFartsMD 1d ago
How is this rapist still not behind bars?! Rapepublicans really are vile pieces of shit.
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u/Bicentennial_Douche 22h ago
I don't know which is worse: That GOP is not bringing out their best people, or that they are.
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u/tdclark23 1d ago
This guy could have been our Attorney General. I'm sure GOP Senate fellow perverts would have approved.
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u/TremendouslyRegarded 1d ago
This was who Trump tried to appoint as AG before Pam Bondi, the senate wasn’t going to confirm him.
Shocker that his first choice was another pedo, and his 2nd was the DA from Florida who had already actively protected pedos (Epstein)
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u/Hairy_rambutan 1d ago
So that's the Matt Gaetz who was put forward by Trump to be Attorney-General? Figures. Birds of a feather traffick together.
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u/hamsterfolly 1d ago
he was already accused and has gotten away with it due to Republican protection
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u/gnarkill3332 17h ago
he paid a young girl with venmo after having sex with her, and arranged for a few payments. these were the claims like a fuckin a year ago.
guess it’s time to pay your tab, maddie
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u/JimDemintRecession 1d ago
Pope Leo accused of Catholicism