Before marrying in 2021, former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., was known to be a braggadocious deviant. No conservatives would want to protect such behavior, and many on the right are keeping quiet as Gaetz is accused of furthermore having intercourse with a slight, paying brothels, and engaging in criminal behavior. But, the accusations against Gaetz are yet another one that parallel those made against Brett Kavanaugh and Donald Trump. And this pattern will continue unabated unless Americans uncompromisingly deny the strategy, regardless of the target.
From Donald Trump’s first presidential campaign and his brief tenure in office, we ought to include learned this. From Crossfire Hurricane, to the pee-tape report, to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s research, unfounded and incredible accusations leaked to the government hampered Trump’s ability to advance his plan. Time and again the claims proved false, and yet in progress of the 2024 vote, the lawfare continued. The nation, nevertheless, was already aware of the numerous criminal and civil charges brought against Trump as a result of what they constituted as an attempt to stifle the vote.
Why then does everyone deny the allegations made against Gaetz, especially given that the FBI, which had conducted extensive investigation for two decades, has decided not to charge him? Instead, Department of Justice career lawyers came to the conclusion that” the two central testimonies” to the case had reliability issues.
Earlier this month, The Federalist’s editor-in-chief, Mollie Hemingway, detailed not just the DOJ’s assumption that the children’s stories may be unconvincing to a judge, but the many more problems with the complete fake. Take, for instance, the fact that a jail-house informant revealed that his cellmate, Joel Greenberg, was behind the woman’s claims that she had sex with Gaetz when she was 17. Additionally, Greenberg had admitted to making “fabricating allegations against a schoolteacher who was attempting to pay taxes” by sending “letters to the school falsely claiming the teacher had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a student.”  ,
However, Gaetz’s opponents are kicking the sex trafficking accusations against him now that Trump has chosen him to be his attorney general. The attorney representing two women who testified before the House Ethics Committee about Gaetz’s alleged misconduct was interviewed by ABC News on Friday. These two witnesses previously gave testimony during the DOJ investigation, according to ABC News. The FBI, which has no hatred for Gaetz, concluded that the House Ethics Committee investigation’s lack of credibility is the result of the same witnesses.
The House Ethics Committee’s report on the investigation into Gaetz is currently being pressured by the media and some senators. Whether that happens or not, though, there will surely be leaks designed to doom Gaetz’s nomination as attorney general.  ,
The only way to stop the spread of salacious lies as a political tool is to condemn the information operation, prosecute those responsible, and obtuse the media figures who helped advance the hoax, though some on the right may prefer not to do so. Whether or not conservatives should act in response to the attacks on Gaetz is exactly what they must do.
It would no longer be necessary to defend Gaetz against the false accusations if Republicans had followed this strategy when the Left first introduced the shameless Brett Kavanaugh. It’s irrelevant, however, whether Gaetz’s bachelorhood looked significantly different from Kavanaugh’s: The fact that both men’s adversaries lied about politics. And we as a country ca n’t stand by that tactic.
Margot Cleveland is an investigative journalist and legal analyst and serves as The Federalist’s senior legal correspondent. Margot’s work has been published at The Wall Street Journal, The American Spectator, the New Criterion, National Review Online, Townhall.com, the Daily Signal, USA Today, and the Detroit Free Press. She is also a regular guest on nationally syndicated radio programs and on Fox News, Fox Business, and Newsmax. Cleveland is a lawyer and a graduate of the Notre Dame Law School, where she earned the Hoynes Prize—the law school’s highest honor. She then worked for a federal appellate judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals as a permanent law clerk for nearly 25 years. Former full-time university professor, Cleveland now occasionally teaches adjunct. The New Civil Liberties Alliance also has Cleveland as its attorney. You can follow Cleveland on Twitter at @ProfMJCleveland to learn more about her most cherished accomplishments, including her husband and son. Cleveland’s opinions are those of her personal life in this article.
