The latest from the Lincoln Project.

Matt Gaetz is spinning so fast he’s going to fall down.  After deny, deny, deny didn’t work, he’s now saying that the DOJ investigation into sex trafficking and crossing state lines with a minor for sex is all a Democratic plot to take him down.  The little detail he left out?  The investigation was begun last year when Trump and Bill Barr were still in office.  Oops.  Oh, and it gets worse.  While Gaetz continues to dig a deeper hole for himself, the NY Times is reporting that he had petitioned the Trump WH for a blanket preemptive pardon for himself a some unnamed associates for crimes they may have committed during his term in office.  Mercifully, WH counsel determined that request to be a non-starter.  Apparently, he did not disclose to the WH that he was under federal investigation at the time of the pardon request.  Oops, again.

Wow.  Twice in one day we talk about Matt Gaetz; first this morning when we talked about him accurately calling “Big Dan” Rodimer a fake Texan.  Now, Axios is reporting that Gaetz is toying with leaving Congress to join Newsmax as a manure shoveler on television.  It fits.  Usually politicians don’t leave a cush job on Capitol Hill unless there is some problem.  What’s Gaetz problem?  Well, as I write this, news is breaking that Gaetz is being investigated in Florida for a sexual relationship with a 17 year old girl.  The investigation is part of a larger investigation into Gaetz pal Joel Greenberg who’s being investigated for sex trafficking of minors.  Well, being Trump allies, that all fits.  The interesting thing is that the investigation was opened months ago while Bill Barr was still AG.  Funny how Barr didn’t trumpet that one like he did the one into how the FBI conducted investigations of Trump before the 2016 election.

There’s been a lot of speculation about Gaetz over the years, especially when he revealed last year that he “adopted” a 12 year old boy from Cuba 6 years ago when he was 32 years old himself.  He kept that relationship secret until last summer when he revealed it in a surprise announcement.  Until then, he had called the boy his “helper” and a congressional page.

Newsmax, being super Trumpist, doesn’t seem to have any problem with pedophilia, but I’m curious if that the offer is going to come through now.