Matt Gaetz, Trump’s pick for attorney general, had been the subject of a sex-trafficking investigation

Matt Gaetz, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Justice Department, has previously been investigated for allegations of sex trafficking of a 17-year-old girl — a federal investigation that ultimately did not lead to charges.

Gaetz — a House member from Florida who has been one of Trump’s most loyal foot soldiers on Capitol Hill — has long denied the allegations and was told on February 15, 2023 that the Justice Department was closing its investigation without charging him.

“We have just spoken with the DOJ and have been informed that they have concluded their investigation into Congressman Gaetz and allegations related to sex trafficking and obstruction of justice and have decided not to file any charges against him,” Gaetz’s lawyers said.

Before resigning from Congress after becoming Trump’s pick for attorney general on Wednesday, Gaetz remained under investigation by the bipartisan House Ethics Committee, which is investigating whether he was involved in sexual misconduct and illegal drug use.

NBC News reported in 2021 that federal investigators were looking into Gaetz’s trip to the Bahamas with women and specifically whether those women were paid to travel for sex, which could violate federal law, a law enforcement official and another person familiar with the matter said .

At the time of reporting, a spokesman for Gaetz said, “Rep. Gaetz has never paid for sex, nor has he had sex with an underage girl. What began as loud headlines about ‘sex trafficking’ has now turned into a general fishing exercise about vacations and consensual relationships with adults.”

Law enforcement sources have said the investigation stems from an investigation by Joel Micah Greenberg, a former friend of Gaetz and former tax commissioner in Seminole County, Florida. Greenberg pleaded guilty in May 2021 to several crimes, including sex trafficking of a 17-year-old girl.

Federal prosecutors in the summer of 2021 also investigated whether Gaetz might have obstructed justice during a phone call with a witness in a potential sex-crimes investigation, a law enforcement source said.

The obstruction probe, which stemmed from an inquiry into whether Gaetz had an inappropriate relationship with a minor, was first reported by Politico, which cited two sources familiar with the matter.

A spokesman for Gaetz, who has not been charged with any crime in that investigation and has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, scoffed at the time of news of the obstruction investigation.

“Congressman Gaetz pursues justice, he does not obstruct it,” the spokesman said in a written statement.

“After two months, there is still not a single registered allegation of wrongdoing, and now the ‘story’ is changing again.”

Also in the summer of 2021, the FBI investigated and the Department of Justice secured the guilty plea of ​​a man involved in a plot to shake down Gaetz’s father, Don Gaetz, for $25 million.

Stephen Alford, 62, of Fort Walton Beach, Florida, said he could help Matt Gaetz secure a presidential pardon, authorities said.

Alford said he could help free ex-FBI agent Robert Levinson from Iran for $25 million from Don Gaetz and in return secure Matt. Gaetz’s pardon by the Biden administration, claiming he had access to President Joe Biden.

Matt Gaetz has said allegations stemmed from the extortion plot.

Gaetz told the House Ethics Committee in September that he is done cooperating with the panel, which he said asked him for a list of adult sexual partners over the past seven years.

In a letter to the committee and later to reporters, Gaetz called the investigation “not a matter for Congress.”

“They’re just curious is what they are, and it’s none of their business,” Gaetz told NBC News in late September.