Rep Matt Gaetz is under investigation for sex trafficking over claims he had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl.
The New York Times reported on Tuesday that DOJ has launched a probe to investigate whether the Republican congressman violated federal sex trafficking laws.
Gaetz then took to Twitter and fired out a series of posts saying the allegations were ‘lies’ and claiming a former Justice Department employee had been attempting to extort more than $20 million from him.
Launched under then-Attorney General Bill Barr, the probe is said to be part of a wider probe into Joel Greenberg, who faced sex trafficking charges related to a girl between the ages of 14 and 17.
Two sources said that the investigation started during former President Donald Trump’s final months in office.
38-year-old Gaetz was a close ally of Trump and got engaged to food analyst Ginger Luckey at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago club.
Gaetz’s alleged sexual encounters with a 17-year-old girl happened around two years ago. According to the Times, the DOJ’s investigation focuses on whether he paid for the teen to cross state lines and travel with him.
“Over the past several weeks my family and I have been victims of an organized criminal extortion involving a former DOJ official seeking $25 million while threatening to smear my name,” Gaetz wrote on Twitter.
He said that he and his family had been working with the FBI. “We have been cooperating with federal authorities in this matter and my father has even been wearing a wire at the FBI’s direction to catch these criminals.”
Gaetz continued: “The planted leak to the FBI tonight was intended to thwart that investigation. No part of the allegations against me are true, and the people pushing these lies are targets of the ongoing extortion investigation.
“I demand the DOJ immediately release the tapes, made at their direction, which implicate their former colleague in crimes against me based on false allegations.”
He also told the Times that his lawyers had been informed by the DOJ that he was the subject but not the target of the probe.
“I only know that it has to do with women,” Gaetz said. “I have a suspicion that someone is trying to recategorize my generosity to ex-girlfriends as something more untoward.”
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