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Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz has been exonerated after the Department of Justice indicted his accuser for extortion.
Stephen Alford, 62, was indicted this week for false accusations of sexual misconduct against the congressman, Townhall reported.
“Stephen M. Alford did knowingly and willfully devise, and intent to devise, a scheme to defraud and for obtaining money and property by means of material false and fraudulent pretenses, representations, and promises, and for the promise of executing such scheme, did cause, and attempt to cause, a wire communication to be transmitted in interstate commerce,” it said.
The representatives exoneration did not trend on Twitter the way the fake accusations against him trended when they were made.
In March Rep. Gaetz admitted that he was the subject of a federal investigation for sexual misconduct when he spoke to Axios.
He maintained his innocence and said that the accuser was attempting to extort himself and his wealthy family.
“The allegations against me are as searing as they are false,” he said in an interview with Axios. “I believe that there are people at the Department of Justice who are trying to criminalize my sexual conduct, you know when I was a single guy.”
“The allegations of sexual misconduct against me are false,” he said. “They are rooted in an extortion effort against my family for $25 million … in exchange for making this case go away.”
He then defended himself in a series of tweets in March as the accusations against him were trending on Twitter.
“Over the past several weeks my family and I have been victims of an organized criminal extortion involving a former DOJ official seeking $25 million while threatening to smear my name,” he said.
“We have been cooperating with federal authorities in this matter and my father has even been wearing a wire at the FBI’s direction to catch these criminals. The planted leak to The New York Times tonight was intended to thwart that investigation,” the congressman said.
“No part of the allegations against me are true, and the people pushing these lies are targets of the ongoing extortion investigation,” he said.
Over the past several weeks my family and I have been victims of an organized criminal extortion involving a former DOJ official seeking $25 million while threatening to smear my name.
We have been cooperating with federal authorities in this matter…
— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) March 30, 2021
In April the case got more curious when Fox News reported that there was a possible connection to the sexual assault allegations and an FBI agent that went missing in Iran.
Details surrounding the claim by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., that he is the victim of an extortion plot involving allegations of a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old now portend to connect it to a search for an FBI agent who went missing in Iran 14 years ago.
According to documents obtained and reported by the Washington Examiner, Gaetz’s family was approached by former Air Force intelligence officer Bob Kent, who claimed that he had located former agent Robert Levinson, whose family presumed him to be dead. Kent reportedly sought a $25 million loan to fund an operation to rescue Levinson, and promised to help the congressman with legal woes in return.
“In exchange for the funds being arranged, and upon the release of Mr. Levinson, the team that delivers Mr. Levinson to the President of The United States shall strongly advocate that President Biden issue a Presidential Pardon, or instruct the Department of Justice to terminate any and all investigations involving Congressman Gaetz,” a document reportedly given by Kent to Gaetz’s father said.
“The document reportedly Gaetz’s father to place $25 million in a trust account of law firm Beggs & Land, bearing the name of Levinson family attorney and former federal prosecutor David McGee,” Fox News said.
The representative had previously said, in an interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson, that McGee was involved in the extortion plot, which McGee has denied.
