Gaetz Says Allegations Of Sex With Teen Part Of Blackmail Scheme

FLORIDA —Self-proclaimed conservative firebrand Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fort Walton Beach, is vigorously denying accusations he had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl, claiming the story was leaked to the New York Times to discredit him.

Tuesday's story in the Times said the Justice Department under former Attorney General William Barr began investigating Gaetz last year to determine if the second-term House member violated federal sex-trafficking laws by transporting a teenage girl across state lines to engage in sex.

“No part of the allegations against me are true,” Gaetz, 38, said in a statement issued Tuesday afternoon. He said the allegations were made by a former Department of Justice official who is attempting to blackmail his family.

Gaetz admitted he paid for hotels and plane tickets for girlfriends before he was engaged to be married, but denied he ever dated anyone underage.

He told Fox News that "providing for flights and hotel rooms for people that you are dating who are of legal age is not a crime."

In a series of tweets, Gaetz outlined his defense, saying the story was fabricated by a former DOJ official who is attempting to extort $25 million from his family by "threatening to smear my name."

He believes that same official leaked the false story of his involvement with a 17-year-old girl to the New York Times.

The Florida congressman became engaged to Ginger Luckey, 26, on Dec. 30, 2020, at Trump's Mar-A-Lago resort. Luckey is a graduate of the University of California, Santa Barbara, and an analyst at Apeel, a biotechnology firm in California, the New York Post reported.

Gaetz said the FBI is investigating the extortion attempt by the former justice official. He said his family is cooperating with the investigation and his father "has even been wearing a wire at the FBI’s direction to catch these criminals.”

"I demand the DOJ immediately release the tapes, made at their direction, which implicate their former colleague in crimes against me based on false allegations," he said in a tweet Tuesday.

The Justice Department has not commented on the story and Gaetz had not been charged.