Rep. Matt Gaetz allegedly showed other lawmakers naked photos and videos of women he said he had slept with and boasted about his sexual conquests to his colleagues, according to a new report.
Multiple sources, including two people who said they had been shown the compromising photos first hand, told CNN, the 38-year-old congressman displayed the images of the women on his phone including while he was on the House floor at the US Capitol.
While there is no known link between these alleged images and the sex trafficking probe into Gaetz, prominent Republicans have largely remained silent on the issue with sources saying the congressman is not well liked because of his avid self-promotion on right-wing news outlets.
The claims come as former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe said there must be a ‘significant degree of information’ for federal officials to have launched a sex trafficking probe into a sitting member of Congress.
McCabe described the allegations as ‘very serious’ after the New York Times revealed Tuesday that Gaetz is under investigation by the Department of Justice over claims he had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl and paid her to travel with him across state lines.
‘It’s substantial and very serious. You know [after] 21 years of opening and overseeing, conducting investigations, I can tell you that nobody opens a sex trafficking investigation in which the subject is a sitting member of Congress without having a significant degree of information,’ McCabe, who was fired by Trump in 2018, told CNN Wednesday.
‘In any case, I can assure you the FBI doesn’t open these cases lightly, and don’t get briefed to the attorney general without some significant momentum behind them.’
The complex saga began earlier this week when The New York Times published a report citing three anonymous sources saying that Gaetz was under investigation for his relationship with a 17-year-old girl.
Gaetz has denied having sex with anyone underage or trafficking a girl across state lines.
Instead, he claims he is the victim of an extortion plot involving former Justice Department official David McGee.
He claims McGee was trying to extort him and his family for $25 million using the sex trafficking probe as leverage.