Two of the reporters who’ve been breaking news about the investigation into Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) say the lawmaker is about to find himself in an even worse predicament.
The Florida Republican is under investigation for possible sex trafficking involving at least one minor, and two Daily Beast reporters covering the case told the website’s “Fever Dreams” podcast that the coming week should bring a slew of new challenges as Gaetz friend Joel Greenberg is expected to enter a cooperation agreement with prosecutors.
“We know that this is heating up, particularly again, because we’ve got a deadline on May 15 for Greenberg to become a fully cooperating witness for the government,” said Daily Beast reporter Jose Pagliery said, “and there’s not just that. We also hear that the feds are pressuring other people who have direct knowledge of this.”
“The world for Matt Gaetz in the near term looks extremely difficult because it’s not just that there’s some evidence,” Pagliery added, “there’s a lot of evidence, and there are several witnesses.”
Pagliery and colleague Roger Sollenberger said they’ve been able to build much of their reporting through sources found on Instagram who had ties to Gaetz and Greenburg.
“These are people who are amateur Instagram models,” Pagliery said. “So many of these were, like, wannabe escorts. They wanted to project a version of themselves out to the galaxy, and, you know, I got so… incredulous at one point a few weeks ago that I just decided to tweet, ‘You think you’re doing it for your brand, but you’re actually doing it for my investigation,’ because these people are just putting it out there front and center.”