What if he knew about plans to assault the Capitol (ROGER FUCKING STONE CLANG!!!) before it went down? This picture is on the TPM front page, FFS.
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Probably didn’t trust the little fuck with info like that. FFS!!!
Picture doesn’t mean shit.
just put Gaetz in a giant human-size Garlic press … and squeeeeeeze
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I just love the smell of burning Gaetz in the morning.
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his dealings with marijuana lobbyists
Another member of the government — like Trump — who pals around with criminals, while never getting around to reporting the crime…?
I understand that. I don’t understand the Republican Party acting all indignant when people start questioning their commitment to law and order.
Trumpism seems to be neither.
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We’ve arrived. The age when we’re ruled by the very worst, most odious, slimiest motherfuckers available.
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Thanks for that update!
That’s why I come here… to get my news updates from TalkingPointsNewman (or is it ThunderClapMemo?).
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But it’s giving me so much pleasure.
(And besides, it would be imprudent not to speculate.)
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Horrifying.
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He’s clinging to it because it’s likely he thinks he’s going a great job!
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HEY, lay off me bagpipes, or I’ll hit yah with me haggis! 
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It means, now that Gaetz appears to be in significant legal jeopardy, does he have any incriminating information about actions or activities that Marjorie Taylor Greene and/or Lauren Boebert - two sympathetic allies of his in the U.S. House of Representatives, as well equally obnoxious threats to our Democratic ideals - may have engaged in, such that we could pressure Gaetz to provide such information to minimize his own legal jeopardy (i.e. “flip”) and thus get not just one but three criminal indictments out of Gaetz’s poor personal choices, while simultaneously eliminating three of the most treacherous, treasonous Representatives to ever walk the halls of Congress.
English, and all one sentence. Never had one lesson!
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Greenberg pleaded guilty to six charges, including sex trafficking. I can’t find anywhere it specifies sex trafficking of a minor in the pleas, which I assume would carry a longer sentence than your old run of the mill sex trafficking. There is an article up on TPM about it but the comments section is not open.
Gosh. Wasn’t there something like 35 charges? And he’s pleading to six?
That sounds like a pretty sweet deal for Greenberg, unless the other 29 were parking violations.
Sure sounds like he had something significant to offer them. I’d be shitting a brick right now if I were Gaetz.
@txlawyer listed sentences associated with some of the charges. Wire fraud, which he is supposedly pleading guilty to, carries a 20 year sentence.
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It’s reasonable to conclude at this point that Greenberg served Gaetz up on a platter.
Jesus Christ this will be fun.
The federal sex trafficking statute basically makes it a crime to take a minor across state lines for sex stuff with money involved, or to coerce a person into sex stuff across state lines with money involved. The latter is possible, but the former is what has been reported. Crucially, it would mean that Greenberg is admitting he knew the girl was under 18.*
*ETA: I was wrong. Though the statute expressly says that knowledge of the victim’s true age is required, it goes on to say in a further subsection that the government does not need to prove actual knowledge so long as the defendant had “a reasonable opportunity to observe” the victim.
Which is annoying as hell.
For sentencing purposes, the only charge that really matters is the one with the longest sentence. That’s wire fraud. The guilty plea on the sex trafficking means he’ll do 10 years, but wire fraud (theoretically) could have brought 20, and he’ll be avoiding the (theoretical) possibility of having to serve sentences consecutively.
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“Up to” 20 years. Don’t fall into media hype tropes.
You sure about that? I thought the 10 year minimum for federal child sex crimes was for repeat offenses (eg. George Nader).
(b) The punishment for an offense under subsection (a) is . . . if . . . the person recruited, enticed, harbored, transported, provided, obtained, advertised, patronized, or solicited had attained the age of 14 years but had not attained the age of 18 years at the time of such offense, by a fine under this title and imprisonment for not less than 10 years or for life.
I should also add that there’s a twist in the statute that I had not previously recognized, which allows the prosecution to obtain conviction even without proof of actual knowledge of the victim’s true age. To wit:
( c ) In a prosecution under subsection (a)(1) in which the defendant had a reasonable opportunity to observe the person so recruited, enticed, harbored, transported, provided, obtained, maintained, patronized, or solicited, the Government need not prove that the defendant knew, or recklessly disregarded the fact, that the person had not attained the age of 18 years.
So Matt Gaetz would appear to be fucked because he undoubtedly had “a reasonable opportunity to observe” the girl in question whilst trafficking her across state lines.
And by the way, 18 U.S.C. § 1591 is a really poorly written statute.
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