Another major bombshell in Matt Gaetz’s teen sex scandal just dropped

Matt Gaetz‘s teen sex scandal is back in the news.

A former aide to Donald Trump testified to the January 6 committee that the anti-LGBTQ Florida congressman pestered the ex-president’s camp for a preemptive presidential pardon relating to the Justice Department’s investigation into his alleged underage sex crimes.

Washington Post reports:

Johnny McEntee, according to people familiar with his testimony, told investigators that Gaetz told him during a brief meeting “that they are launching an investigation into him or that there’s an investigation into him,” without specifying who was investigating Gaetz.

McEntee added that Gaetz told him “he did not do anything wrong but they are trying to make his life hell, and you know, if the president could give him a pardon, that would be great.” Gaetz told McEntee that he had asked White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows for a pardon.

When asked by committee investigators if he interpreted Gaetz’s request to be in response to the DOJ’s investigation into his alleged underage sex crimes, McEntee replied, “I think that was the context, yes.” He also said was couldn’t remember whether the request happened before or after the January 6 insurrection.

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The Justice Department has been investigating whether Gaetz, who opposes codifying same-sex marriage into federal law and frequently leans into the homophobic narrative about LGBTQ people and drag queens being “groomers”,  paid an underage girl for sex and traveled with her across state lines since the final months of the Trump administration.

The probe was initially approved by Attorney General William Barr.

Related: Matt Gaetz marks Pride Month by coming out against Drag Queen Story Hour

In an email, a spokesperson told the Washington Post: “Congressman Matt Gaetz discussed pardons for many other people publicly and privately at the end of President Donald Trump’s first term. As for himself, President Trump addressed this malicious rumor more than a year ago stating, ‘Congressman Matt Gaetz has never asked me for a pardon.’ Rep. Gaetz continues to stand by President Trump’s statement.”

We should note that, according to McEntee’s testimony, Gaetz didn’t ask Trump directly for the pardon. He asked McEntee and Meadows. So, technically, that statement from Trump is true, albeit wildly misleading.

Earlier this summer, former Meadows aide Cassidy Hutchinson told the committee that Gaetz “was personally pushing for a pardon, and he was doing so since early December, I’m not sure why.”

“Mr. Gaetz had reached out to me to ask if he could have a meeting with Mr. Meadows about receiving a presidential pardon,” she said.

Now, some tweets…

In July, Gaetz was among 20 House Republicans who voted against a bill to combat human sex trafficking. When asked by he opposed it, he said it was “overfunded” and “inefficient” then spouted off some nonsense about illegal immigrants.

The Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act allocates more than $1.1 billion over the next five years into funding various programs created under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000. Despite Gaetz’s opposition, it passed with a 401-20 vote.

Related: Matt Gaetz mocks women for being ugly, gets reminded he has huge forehead and (allegedly) pays for sex