Once again, Michael Schmidt of The New York Times has stopped the presses. Schmidt broke the story that in the waning days of the Trump administration, Google Dates Gaetz went personally to the White House, and requested a preemptive blanket pardon for charges that had not yet been filed. This was at a time when Gaetz was already well aware of a federal DOJ investigation against him for child sex trafficking crimes, although he neglected to advise the White House or Trump of that liability. The White House declined to give Gaetz the pardon due to the fact that it might create the wrong impression.
 But it gets worse, a whole lot worse. Because, when Gaetz petitioned the White House for a blanket pardon for charges yet unfiled, he also made the same plea for other unnamed members of the House GOP caucus! Which means that Gaetz isn’t the only criminal member of the House GOP caucus.
Now look, let’s not get ahead of our skis here. I am not suggesting that Gaetz is aware of other GOP House members who are involved in his child sex trafficking ring. There is absolutely no evidence of that. But what it does show is that Gaetz may well be aware of other GOP House caucus members who were at least subject to DOJ criminal investigation, and was seeking to cover for them.
Which now becomes a much larger problem, not only for Gaetz, but for the House GOP caucus. Because the person for whom Gaetz is associated in his own crimes, Joel Greenberg, is under federal indictment for 33 crimes, and is scheduled to go on trial in June. Greenberg is not a stand up guy. Faced with decades in prison, I find it likely that Greenberg will flip on the only fish larger than himself, namely Matt Gaetz.
Which is a major problem for the entire GOP House caucus, because Matt Gaetz is most certainly no stand up guy either. Gaetz is a rich, spoiled, pampered rich kid, whose Daddy already bought him out of a DUI that could have had his license revoked. And if Gaetz is suddenly faced with with Joel Greenberg rolling over on him to lighten his sentence, there is only one thing left for Matt Gaetz left to do.
He will than immediately roll over on every, single, GOP member of congress on which he has any dirt, and which was serious enough in potential for Gaetz to petition the White House for pardons for them too. All I know is that if I’m a GOP House member with a secret to hide, I’m calling a criminal defense attorney right now.
This is the problem for the current Trump iteration of the GOP. Political parties used to be made up of career politicians, who tool their chances, and if they got caught, took their time. But the current Trump iteration of the GOP is made of u[p of soulless glory seekers looking for the headlines and the cash. And when they go down, they’ll take everybody else down with them. It’s a brave new words.
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It DOES go a long way towards explaining why the GQP suddenly has nothing to do with him.
I assume that everyone here, like me, plays MMORPGs or games like Magic the Gathering (LOL). In those games, you’re playing along on a storyline and then sometimes, all of a sudden, a new character comes into play that upends the whole story. Joel Greenberg is a total WTF card pulled out of the deck and put into play…one of those cards everyone at the table has to pick up and spend five minutes reading all the buffs and debuffs and how they work.
Anyway, now that Greenberg and his amazing technicolor slate of indictments is in play, I guess there are a number of ways that can play out for other Politicians:
1. Greenberg is in so much trouble that flipping doesn’t provide enough incentive for him to do so, and he doesn’t.
2. Greenberg flips on Gaetz, who ends up in deeper trouble.
3. Greenberg flips on Gaetz but also other Republicans, deepening the scandal.
4. Greenberg flips on other Republicans and Democrats, because…hey…Florida.
5. Greenberg dies before any of this can totally play out.
I’m not sure which is most likely, but regardless, I think Gaetz goes down in almost any combination of any of those scenarios.
In my business, that kind of plot twist tends to be called “deus ex machina” and is considered one of the cheapest and worst tricks any writer can pull. But then Bad Religion called it back in the day with “Stranger Than Fiction”: “Life is the crummiest book I ever read,/There isn’t a hook,/Just a lot of cheap shots,/Pictures to shock,/And characters an amateur would never dream up…”
I’d say Gym Jordan is a sure bet to be part of WaterGaetz’s prostitution, drug and fake ID schemes. From what we know so far, Gaetz did accumulate a group into his illicit ring, probably pulled from the ranks of the Florida House and Congress. It started out as a sex game he created while a disreputable rep in the Florida House. He then extended it to a prostitution ring – that involved drugs and a fake IDs scam – when he moved to the US House. That most likely means that other members of Congress are part of his ring. Jordan is an almost constant companion so he’ll be part of it for sure. Among their other pals are Devin Nunes, Doug Collins, Steve Scalise and Louis Gohmert. Impossible to say if any of them are involved though. It’s possible Greene and Boebert may be in on the fringes. Both are gullible and stupid.
” All I know is that if I’m a GOP House member with a secret to hide…”
The list of those who DON’T is most likely much, much shorter.
I’ve seen speculation that Gaetz asking for pardons for “other members of Congress” could be cover. In other words, he included other Congresscritters so he would not draw attention to his particularly nasty situation.
Can’t wait for those criminal charges to come home to roost.
You wrote, “The White House declined to give Gaetz the pardon due to the fact that it might create the wrong impression.” Really? When did Trump ever worry about creating the wrong impression?