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Matt Gaetz Ethics Committee Sexual Misconduct and Drug Use Probe Expands

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The House Ethics Committee has expanded its ongoing investigation into U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), releasing a rare statement revealing it is now investigating the Florida Republican congressman for allegations of sexual misconduct, illicit drug use, accepting improper gifts, dispensing special privileges and favors to individuals, and obstruction.

The statement detailed the direction of its probe while announcing it has issued dozens of subpoenas and spoken with numerous individuals. It also announced certain allegations will not continue to be investigated.

The bipartisan Committee adds that “at this time” it “will take no further action” on allegations Gaetz “may have shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused state identification records, converted campaign funds to personal use, and/or accepted a bribe or improper gratuity.”

No reasons were given for expanding the probe nor for appearing to step back from pursuing certain  aspects.

Under Trump Attorney General Bill Barr, Gaetz, a top Trump follower, had been under federal investigation for alleged sex trafficking of a minor and alleged illicit drug use.

READ MORE: Stephen Miller Furious as Biden Moves to Protect Undocumented Spouses of US Citizens

“Investigators are examining whether Mr. Gaetz violated federal sex trafficking laws,” The New York Times had reported in 2021, citing unnamed sources. “A variety of federal statutes make it illegal to induce someone under 18 to travel over state lines to engage in sex in exchange for money or something of value. The Justice Department regularly prosecutes such cases, and offenders often receive severe sentences.”

The House Ethics Committee had also opened an investigation in 2021, but on Tuesday noted it had paused that probe at the request of the Dept. of Justice, but “reauthorized” its investigation after DOJ withdrew its request.

“On April 9, 2021, the Committee announced it had initiated a review into allegations that Representative Matt Gaetz may have engaged in sexual misconduct and/or illicit drug use, shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused state identification records, converted campaign funds to personal use, and/or accepted a bribe, improper gratuity, or impermissible gift, in violation of House Rules, laws, or other standards of conduct,” the Ethics Committee said in Tuesday’s statement.

Punchbowl News co-founder John Bresnahan characterized the Committee’s statement as “very unusual,” and adds it “[s]ays Gaetz hasn’t cooperated with the investigation.”

Despite “difficulty in obtaining relevant information from Representative Gaetz and others,” the Ethics Committee revealed it “has spoken with more than a dozen witnesses, issued 25 subpoenas, and reviewed thousands of pages of documents in this matter.”

The Committee notes that Gaetz maintains his innocence. It often indicates an expected date for resolution, updates, or further announcements but did not on Tuesday.

READ MORE: Whoopi Goldberg Mocks ‘Crook’ Trump for ‘Black Church’ Trip

HuffPost’s Jennifer Bendery called it “an unusual public statement.”

“Apparently aware the ethics committee would be making a statement about its investigation, Gaetz claimed on social media on Monday afternoon that he’s been the subject of four committee probes and all were closed,” HuffPost reported Tuesday.

On Monday Gaetz targeted former GOP House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

“’This is Soviet,’ Gaetz said of the latest ethics investigation,” HuffPost noted. “’Kevin McCarthy showed them the man, and they are now trying to find the crime.’ ”

In April, McCarthy declared he was no longer Speaker “because one person, a member of Congress, wanted me to stop an ethics complaint, because he slept with a 17-year old.”

While McCarthy did not name Gaetz, the Florida congressman has denied that allegation and never been charged for it.

Also on Tuesday Noah Bookbinder, president of the government watchdog Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington (CREW), announced the organization is suing DOJ for “documents explaining why the Justice Dept. chose not to prosecute” Gaetz.

Watch McCarthy below or at this link.

READ MORE: Democrats Have One Way to Correct Corruption of Justices Thomas and Alito: Expert

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Closer to Russia, Closer to Trump: US Official Says Alliances Are Shifting

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A top Trump official says global power alliances are shifting, observing that nations closest to Russia are now increasingly aligned with President Donald Trump’s interests.

Fox News host Martha MacCallum told Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum that she had spoken with President Trump earlier Friday, “and he basically said that Japan is a better ally to the United States than NATO, which, when you look at the big picture in history, is a pretty stunning statement.”

She also asked the secretary, “do you think that our orientation, in terms of our alliances, is changing?”

“Well, clearly, it is,” Burgum replied.

“What we might consider our traditional allies from Europe have been less than reliable,” he said, “and from the time that we’ve spent working with those folks in Eastern Europe, the closer they are to Russia, the more aligned they are with President Trump, and the more … aligned they are on energy policy.”

READ MORE: Trump Official Says He Teleported 50 Miles to a Waffle House

Offering Japan as an example, Burgum said that nation “is 120 million people living in the size of an area of North Dakota, and they’ve got complete dependence on foreign energy. They want to buy energy from the United States.”

He explained that it takes eight days by ship from Anchorage to Tokyo, as opposed to 30 days from the Middle East.

“People are desperate to have the stronger relationship with the United States right now on energy,” he claimed.

President Trump’s policies are “absolutely working to build alliances around the world,” Burgum said.

MacCallum noted that “the alliance seems to be the United States, Israel, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, Japan have a good relationship with us as well right now, and a lot of repair needed in Europe.”

READ MORE: Conway’s Dire Warning: Trump Poised to Interfere With Election — and Nation’s Not Ready

 

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‘Down There With the Titanic’: Fetterman Has Historic Polling Swing Says Analyst

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Democratic U.S. Senator John Fetterman has suffered a historic collapse in support, plunging 108 points among Pennsylvania Democrats from his strong standing just three years ago.

The Pennsylvania lawmaker, who often appears on Fox News and has accused Democrats of having “Trump derangement syndrome,” enjoyed a positive 68 percent approval rating in 2023, his first year in office.

Now, he stands at a negative 40 percent, according to CNN analyst Harry Enten.

“John Fetterman is doing as well with Pennsylvania Democrats as the New York Giants are liked in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” Enten said on Friday, while noting that in 2023, Fetterman was a “Democrat liberal darling.”

READ MORE: Trump Official Says He Teleported 50 Miles to a Waffle House

Now, Enten says, Fetterman is “down there with the Titanic.”

Enten compared Fetterman to Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who he says is “not well liked by the Democratic base nationwide.”

Schumer’s popularity rating is about minus two points.

Leader Schumer “is 38 points more popular than John Fetterman is with Pennsylvania Democrats.

Enten also compared Fetterman to several senators who were unpopular and lost their primaries.

“His net popularity with his own party is worse than all senators who lost a primary this century,” Enten noted online.

READ MORE: Conway’s Dire Warning: Trump Poised to Interfere With Election — and Nation’s Not Ready

“He is below the lowest,” Enten said. “The ones who actually got beat in a primary. There is no historical analog to this. That is how unpopular John Fetterman is with Pennsylvania Democrats.”

If Fetterman runs for re-election in 2028, what happens?

“There is basically no doubt in my mind that if Fetterman decides to run for re-election as a Democrat, he will face a primary challenge and it will be a very competitive one,” said Enten.

“The bottom line is this: John Fetterman, when you look, when you look at his net popularity rating, minus 40 points, he’s on a completely other planet from Chuck Schumer, who is also unpopular, and he is on a different galaxy entirely from other incumbents who actually lost re-election — far less popular than them.”

READ MORE: ‘I Don’t Think She Survives This’: Gabbard Faces Blowback After ‘Devastating’ Testimony

 

Image: Public Domain

 

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Conway’s Dire Warning: Trump Poised to Interfere With Election — and Nation’s Not Ready

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George Conway, once a leading Never-Trump Republican and now a Democratic congressional candidate, has issued a stark warning, saying that Americans remain perilously unprepared for President Donald Trump’s potential interference in November’s election.

Conway, who founded the Anti-Psychopath PAC, said in a video posted on Friday that Trump’s “brain is mush, and he says, with conviction, things that he said the opposite of five minutes before or five days before.”

He says that Trump “has the capacity to declare that the polls are fake — and that if an election goes the same way that the polls do, well, that’s fake, too, and that’s why we need to ignore an election, and that’s why we need the voter rolls.”

READ MORE: Trump Official Says He Teleported 50 Miles to a Waffle House

But Conway warns that despite what happened on January 6, 2021, the American public is not ready for what Trump could do to the 2026 election.

“I don’t think people are sufficiently prepared, notwithstanding what happened in 2021, for the possibility that he will try to f — — with this election. And he will.”

“I mean, he’s already basically telling us that’s what he’s gonna do, just the same way he told us he would do that in 2020.”

READ MORE: Trump Re-Endorses Congressman He Dumped — Then Dangles Job to His Rival

Conway warns, “I don’t think truth means anything to him.”

Trump, he adds, “doesn’t care about the distinction between truth and lies. And so, does he know he’s lying? It doesn’t matter to him. Truth has no meaning to him. All that has any meaning to him in any given moment is whether or not he’s receiving praise or adulation, or some kind of a reward — like money, or a peace prize.”

“And what comes out of his mouth is whatever is in his head at the moment that he wants to believe or he wants other people to believe,” Conway says. “He’s divorcing himself from reality because he thinks he can create his own reality and the great megalomaniacs of history have always done that.”

Trump is in a “very dangerous place psychologically,” says Conway,”and he is a man, don’t forget — he talked about nuclear weapons the other day — he’s got 5,500 nuclear weapons.”

“He’s gonna trash everything once and for all,” Conway warns.

READ MORE: ‘I Don’t Think She Survives This’: Gabbard Faces Blowback After ‘Devastating’ Testimony

 

Image by Presia Debauch via Flickr and a CC license

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