Rep. Matt Gaetz on Tuesday denied that he had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old after the New York Times reported that, according to its sources, the Justice Department was investigating a possible sexual relationship with the girl and whether he paid for her to travel with him.
The Florida Republican said in a statement to CNN that “no part of the allegations against me are true” and that the claims were being pushed by people who are targets of an “ongoing extortion investigation.”
“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. 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 claimed.
“The planted leak to the New York Times 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,” Gaetz added.
In an interview on Fox News, Gaetz strongly denied the accusations.
“The person doesn’t exist. I have not had a relationship with a 17-year-old. That is totally false. The allegation is, as I read in the New York Times is, I have traveled with some 17-year-old in some relationship. That is false and records will bear that out to be false,” Gaetz said.
Gaetz also accused a former Department of Justice prosecutor, David McGee, of attempting to extort him and his family over the allegations.
McGee did not immediately respond to a request for comment by CNN, but in an interview with The Washington Post, he denied that he is involved in attempts to extort Gaetz or is connected to the DOJ investigation.
“It is completely false. It’s a blatant attempt to distract from the fact that he’s under investigation for sex trafficking of minors,” McGee told the Post. “I have no connection with that case at all, other than, one of a thousand people who have heard the rumors.” …
Rush Week will be released on Blu-ray on April 27 via Vinegar Syndrome. Direct orders ($27.99) come with an embossed slipcover designed by Earl Kessler Jr, limited to 4,000.
The 1989 slasher film is directed Bob Bralver (American Ninja 5) and written by Russell V. Manzatt (Midnight Ride) and Michael W. Leighton (The Genesis Code). Pamela Ludwig, Dean Hamilton, and Roy Thinnes star.
Rush Week has been newly restored in 2K from its 35mm interpositive. It features reversible artwork. Special features are listed below.
On this day, 31 March 1979, a group of around 15 men, including off duty police in San Francisco’s vice squad, attacked patrons and workers at a lesbian bar in the city. The men had been celebrating a bachelor party when they were denied entry to Peg’s Place by the door person as they were drunk and carrying beer.
Some of the men were reported to have shouted “Let’s get the d*kes” and forced their way in, attacking the woman working the door, and beating the woman who owned the bar with a pool cue. When the men were told the women were calling the police, they responded “We are the cops, and we’ll do as we damn well please”. And when on duty officers eventually arrived, the patrons claimed that they did not provide any medical assistance to the wounded and refused to take witness statements. One woman who was attacked ended up needing to be hospitalised for 10 days with head injuries.
In the end, one police officer was convicted for his part in the attack, but served no jail time, and he and the other officers involved kept their jobs. The incident was a contributing factor to growing anger in the LGBT+ community which would explode some weeks later following the failure to convict on murder charges the killer of gay superintendent Harvey Milk.
Learn more about the problems with policing in capitalist society in this book: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/products/the-end-of-policing-alex-s-vitale
Pictured: a protest against police violence in the city later that year https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1684198231765320/?type=3
