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Matt Gaetz

GOP-Led House Ethics Committee Reopens Gaetz Sex Offenses Probe

On Thursday, CNN reported that the House Committee on Ethics is renewing its investigation into Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) after issuing a new request to interview a witness.

According to the network, the request to interview the unnamed witness went out the day before the House of Representatives voted for the expulsion of Rep. George Santos (R-NY), stating that "the Chairman and Ranking Member have authorized staff to conduct an interview" with the witness. This is the first activity out of the committee regarding Gaetz since July, when it interviewed a witness in Florida about "alleged lobbying violations."

In response to CNN asking him about the probe, Gaetz said "oh please" and "I wish them luck."

The ethics committee initially launched its investigation into Gaetz in 2021, when Democrats were in control. CNN reported that the initial probe looked into allegations that Gaetz "violated sex trafficking laws, shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, used illicit drugs, converted campaign funds to personal use and accepted a bribe, among other claims."

While a Department of Justice investigation into Gaetz for alleged sex trafficking of a minor concluded with no charges filed against the Florida congressman, a source close to the ethics committee confided to CNN that the DOJ's decision to not file criminal charges "does not impact what the committee will and won’t investigate." The network reported that the committee has not yet interviewed key witnesses in the DOJ probe, including his close associate Joel Greenberg, who in 2021 was sentenced to 11 years in prison after pleading guilty to underage sex trafficking, wire fraud, stalking, identity theft, producing a fake ID card and conspiring to defraud the United States government.

Gaetz has carved out a reputation in the House of Representatives as a bomb thrower among the GOP, as the instigator of the motion to vacate former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). Ultimately, Gaetz and seven other Republicans joined all Democrats in voting to oust McCarthy from the speakership following his efforts to work with Democrats to avoid a government shutdown.

On Wednesday, McCarthy announced he would not be retiring from Congress at the end of 2023. His exit triggers a special election in his Southern California district, potentially endangering Republicans' ability to hold their slim majority in the next Congress.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Scott Perry

New Documents Show Perry's 'Extraordinary' Effort To Overturn 2020 Election

The District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals unsealed documents revealing Rep. Scott Perry's (R-PA) interactions and efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, Politico reports.

Per Politico, Perry's conversations with former Department of Justice (DOJ) official Jeffrey Clark — who was indicted alongside former President Donald Trump and 17 others in the ongoing Georgia election case — "are perhaps the most revealing."

During one conversation, the news outlet reports, "Perry told Clark that Trump was upset with Clark for using the Justice Department to defend [ex-Vice President Mike] Pence against a lawsuit brought by another House member, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas)."

The Texas lawmaker "was seeking a court ruling declaring that Pence had the power to unilaterally reject Biden's electoral votes, but DOJ’s civil division — then under Clark’s leadership — stepped in to defend Pence against the suit, which failed," the report notes.

The Pennsylvania GOP leader texted Clark on December 30, 2020, "POTUS seems very happy with your response. I read it just as you dictated," to which the former DOJ official replied, "I'm praying. This makes me quite nervous. And wonder if I'm worthy or ready."

Perry said, "You are the man. I have confirmed it. God does what he does for a reason."

Politico listed the "extraordinary web of communications between Perry, who is now the chair of the House Freedom Caucus, and key figures in Trump's orbit," including:

  • A Dec. 12, 2020, text exchange with Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel discussing efforts to challenge Joe Biden’s victory in the election.
  • A series of exchanges between Perry and a former DOJ colleague, Robert Gasaway, between Dec. 30, 2020, and Jan. 5, 2021, in which Perry embraced a plan to have then-Vice President Mike Pence “admit testimony” prior to the counting of electoral votes on Jan. 6, 2021. Perry agreed to “sell[] the idea” with a call to Trump, Pence and Trump adviser John Eastman, but Perry later alerted Gasaway that Pence’s chief of staff, Marc Short, “will not allow access.”
  • A description of numerous exchanges between Perry and top Trump administration officials, including Clark, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, senior adviser Eric Herschmann and Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, a former House colleague of Perry.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Kevin McCarthy

Former Speaker McCarthy Says Matt Gaetz 'Belongs In Jail'

Even though former House Speaker Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was ousted from his position nearly two months ago, his feud with Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who orchestrated the ouster, appears to be intensifying.

In a Wednesday interview with Politicoabout the influence of Florida's Republican members of the House of Representatives, McCarthy posited that there was a "cross section" of Floridians in Congress.

"You have [Rep. Matt] Gaetz, who belongs in jail, and you have serious members," McCarthy said.

McCarthy didn't specify what crime he thought Gaetz committed, though the remark may have been a reference to the Department of Justice's investigation into Gaetz for alleged sex trafficking of a minor (the DOJ ultimately declined to charge Gaetz with any crimes). Gaetz, for his part, dismissed McCarthy's remark. He also referenced the former speaker's alleged shoving of one of the eight Republicans who voted for his ouster in a capitol hallway earlier this month.

"Tough words from a guy who sucker punches people in the back," Gaetz said. "The only assault I committed was against Kevin’s fragile ego."

Gaetz has been a frequent target of McCarthy's rage. In an interview with CNN's Manu Raju, the former speaker suggested the House would benefit "tremendously" if the Florida Republican was no longer in Congress.

"People have to earn the right to be here," McCarthy told Raju. He adding that he doubted the GOP caucus "would ever heal if there's no consequences" for stripping him of his speakership and prompting a chaotic transition to Rep. Mike Johnson's (R-LA) election to the position.

"People have to earn the right to be here," McCarthy told Raju. He adding that he doubted the GOP caucus "would ever heal if there's no consequences" for stripping him of his speakership and prompting a chaotic transition to Rep. Mike Johnson's (R-Louisiana) election to the position.

In response to McCarthy's comment to Raju, Gaetz offered "thoughts and prayers to the former speaker as he works through his grief."

In October, Kevin McCarthy became the first sitting speaker of the House to be removed from his position via a motion to vacate put forth by members of his own party. Members of the GOP's far-right faction were upset with McCarthy's efforts to work with House Democrats to avoid a government shutdown.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Donald Trump

Authoritarian Extremists Plotting A Second Trump Regime

The institutional right is laying the groundwork for a more authoritarian Republican administration if the party triumphs in next year’s presidential election.

The Heritage Foundation-led Project 2025 government-in-waiting operation features an effort to screen would-be staffers to create a “pre-vetted, pro-Trump army of up to 54,000 loyalists across government to rip off the restraints imposed on the previous 46 presidents,” Axios reported. If former President Donald Trump is returned to office, he would use that force to carry out his top priorities of arresting his political enemies, deporting millions of immigrants, purging the federal bureaucracy and military leadership, and generally turning the government into an extension of his will.

The effort would forestall the hiring of “conventional Republicans,” who Axios points out “often curtailed” Trump’s “behavior and power” during his term. In practice, this would mean that a second Trump administration would offload more authority and power onto the coterie of Fox News stars and fringe-right figures who surrounded Trump and served as his unofficial cabinet during his first, with dire potential consequences for the American public and the rule of law.

Trump’s obsession with Fox set the agenda during his tenure in the White House. Federal hirings and firings, government contracts, presidential pardons, legislative efforts, and communications strategy were all influenced by what the people on Trump’s television were telling him, on and off the air. Sycophantic cable news demagogues had the ear of the president and shaped Trump’s worldview and actions on issues as varied and critical as military action, immigration policy, and pandemic response.

But other government officials with stronger grips on morality and reality would often attempt to slow-walk or block Trump’s Fox-fueled fancies until he lost interest, as Axios noted. The Heritage screening process would filter out officials more loyal to the country and the Constitution than to the president, allowing the right-wing media extremists who hold Trump's attention to get their way as quickly as possible.

It's disconcerting to consider how aspects of his first term may have played out if such a mechanism had been in effect.

Trump routinely issued demands for the Justice Department to investigate his various political opponents, often in response to conspiracy-minded Fox coverage he was seeing about them. While Trump did succeed in partially corrupting its operations, DOJ leadership generally ignored those rants calling for probes when they were made in public and fended him off when he asked for them in private. When he did force through an investigation into one of those Fox-promoted fantasies, the Uranium One conspiracy theory, the result was a prosecutor slow-walking the probe for years before quietly shuttering it with no charges.

The Heritage plan, by ensuring that Justice Department appointees were personally loyal to Trump first, would effectively create a fast track from Fox segment to Trump tweet to federal criminal probe.

Fox coverage and the private counsel of prime-time host Laura Ingraham convinced Trump that the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine was a miracle cure for COVID-19. At the then-president’s demand, federal regulators issued an emergency use authorization for the drug and amassed a stockpile of 66 million doses, even as experts at the top levels of government pointed out there was no evidence it was effective. More pliant officials could have ensured the widespread adoption of drugs that didn't work at the height of the pandemic.

U.S. Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer spent months locked in a power struggle with Fox host Pete Hegseth over the fate of Eddie Gallagher, a Navy SEAL who had been accused of war crimes, eventually leading to Spencer’s removal. That fight would have been over in an instant if the Heritage plan had been in effect, with a compliant Navy secretary giving Trump whatever Hegseth wanted.

Trump’s inner circle has only become more extreme, and more willing to encourage his worst impulses, since he left office.

Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s podcast is “the media home” of Project 2025, my colleague John Knefel has written, regularly hosting architects of the project to normalize “deploying the military against protesters, weaponizing the Department of Justice against critics, and replacing the federal civil service with loyalist reactionaries.”

Donald Trump Jr. is also getting into the game by promoting potential hires for his father’s would-be administration. He’s floated giving the White House press secretary gig to Laura Loomer, a self-described “proud Islamophobe” who is “pro-white nationalism,” and turning the Justice Department over to Mike Davis, who has called for a “reign of terror” to imprison Trump’s critics, including myself and my colleagues.

Donald Trump is going on unhinged rants that evoke genocidaires and fascists, pledging to “root out” his opponents who “live like vermin within the confines of our Country.” And the right-wing political apparatus is busily assembling plans to turn that dark message into reality.

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.