The former DOJ official that Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) accused on Tuesday night of allegedly trying to extort money from his family responded to Gaetz’s allegations by saying that Gaetz’s allegations were false and an apparent attempt to distract from upcoming legal issues.
David McGee, a former federal prosecutor, told The Daily Beast that Gaetz’s allegations were “completely, totally false,” and that they were “a blatant attempt to distract from the fact that Matt Gaetz is apparently about to be indicted for sex trafficking underage girls.”
McGee was responding to accusations Gaetz made on Fox News’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight” with host Tucker Carlson. Gaetz said that McGee was involved in an “extortion scheme” that involved “demanding a meeting” with Gaetz’s father where $25 million was demanded “in exchange for making horrible sex trafficking allegations against me go away.”
“Our family was so troubled by that we went to the local FBI and the FBI and the Department of Justice were so concerned about this attempted extortion of a member of Congress that they asked my dad to wear a wire, which he did with the former Department of Justice official,” Gaetz said. “Tonight, I am demanding that the Department of Justice and the FBI release the audio recordings that were made under their supervision and at their direction which will prove my innocence and that will show that these allegations aren’t true, they’re merely intended to try to bleed my family out of money.”
“And this former Department of Justice official tomorrow was supposed to be contacted by my father so that specific instructions could be given regarding the wiring of $4.5 million as a down payment on this bribe,” Gaetz continued. “I don’t think it’s a coincidence that tonight somehow The New York Times is leaking this information, smearing me, and ruining the investigation that would likely result in a one of the former colleagues of the current DOJ being brought to justice for trying to extort me and my family.”
Gaetz claimed that McGee and other alleged co-conspirators claimed to have connections to the Biden White House and “they were promising that Joe Biden would pardon me.”
The New York Times reported that the investigation centered around whether Gaetz violated federal sex trafficking laws. Investigators were examining whether Gaetz had a relationship with a 17-year-old and paid for her to travel with him. The investigation, which was opened up under the Trump administration, was part of a larger investigation “into a political ally of his, a local official in Florida named Joel Greenberg, who was indicted last summer on an array of charges, including sex trafficking of a child and financially supporting people in exchange for sex, at least one of whom was an underage girl,” The New York Times added.
This report has been updated to include additional information.