Matt Gaetz, former Trump AG pick, had sex with underage girl while in Congress, House Ethics report says
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/12/23/matt-gaetz-sex-drug-report-house-ethics.htmlOpen linkView original on lemmy.world779
Comments106https://www.cnbc.com/2024/12/23/matt-gaetz-sex-drug-report-house-ethics.htmlOpen linkView original on lemmy.world
The correct phrasing is raped. He raped a child.
No, he is influential and rich. So the most damning phrase can be „had sex with“. The alternatives were „seduced“ or „was seduced by“.
"had relations with a young woman"
I wouldn't be surprised if they even go with "was raped by", that she did it just to get him in trouble and he had no choice.
Engaged in amorous behavior with a woman some years younger than him.
So, rape? Underage people can't consent, it's rape. He's a pedophile.
America's willingness to elect pedophiles/rapists to the highest positions in their country is... baffling. To then have their news not even use those words just makes me worry so much for women in the US. Like seriously, 'sex with underage girl,' we have specific words for that. Embarrassing.
Yup. It’s a big club, and we ain’t in it.
As a non-American (Canadian), it's baffling to me. Our Conservatives have been quite horrific in many decisions (like refusing to admit climate change exists, for example), but I do actually think they would turn on one of their own who was a pedophile. Maybe not in a year or so, but for now, I do believe they would. To see people celebrate these monstrous things in their leaders is terrifying.
Just look at religion for answers to that puzzle. The entire schtick is a manual for giving yourself and your friends easy outs from your constant and consistent bad behaviour
I guess that could be why; up here in Canada it's political suicide to be openly religious (though I think the Cons will change their tune on that next election.)
Stranger things have happened
It is baffling, especially since this is the same country where people have been arrested for CP because they had photos of themselves.
It's the double standards in these laws that get me.
inb4 the weirdos come saying "well she was 17, so he's acktually a hebo whatever blah blah" as if it matters
That would matter in New York, just ask Jerry Seinfeld
Relevant joke
It matters only in that it gives cover to the extra extra sick ones that go after young children.
Fixed: Matt Gaetz, former Trump AG pick, ha
d sex withraped an underage girl while in Congress, House Ethics report saysA minor cannot consent.
In Florida a 17 year old can consent.
Matt Gaetz being older than 24 is the illegal part. He groomed a young girl.
Also, because he paid her, then the offense involves the procurement of a person who is under 18 years of age, so the charge increases to a second degree felony, which can result in up to 15 years of imprisonment, a fine of up to $10,000, or both.
If it only costs $10,000 to do that then it's only illegal for poor people
Welcome to America.
Where "Speeding fine" has totally opposite meanings depending on how rich you are.
I like the Swiss and Finnish laws for speeders. The fine is based on your income.
Isn't it a felony above a certain amount of speed, though?
That needs to be proven. An expensive traffic ticket attorney could get the charges dismissed (scrutinize the evidence, challenge the officer’s observations, find fault in equipment etc.).
https://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=96698
I think 25+ is wreckless endangerment or some such and more illegal than other types of speeding. This is all based on my shitty memory. I just generally don't speed.
No she couldn't consent to anyone over 24, which he was. Also, I would have to play catch-up, but if this is one of the girls he flew to New Jersey to have sex with... It's sex trafficking a minor right?
I think consent is the wrong word here. A 17 year old can consent to a subgroup of people (under 24). Therfore she is above the age of consent.
The girl has full control over her decisions but, more importantly, should not be charged with any crime.
Gaetz on the other hand ...
Consent is tied to legality. You can consent to a credit card at 18 but not 17.
I can tell someone it's fine to punch me in the face, and you could call that consent. When the person next door sees it out the window and calls the police, they show up and will arrest them. Both parties say they approved of it and no one wants to press charges. Tough shit, if they follow the law they arrest the person, charges for assault are placed against the person who punched by the State it happened in.
The "victim" who thinks they consented can tell the state prosecutor they don't want there to be charges when they get a subpeno to show in court.
So did I ever actually give consent? No... I never had legal right to at any age.
(There are some loop holes in a few states, and ways to get out of it, but you get the point)
Note: This is a another huge example of how laws are broken and ignored by companies and people with money as well. An NFL contract may list that consent was placed to be hit during a tackle, but when a play is over and someone intentionally kicks someone in the ribs, slams someone's head down into the ground again or hits a player the league "fines them or suspends them" but they are criminal charges so they should be out in front of a judge. Why would they be exempt from the law.
Fun example: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CgjAN_wgmiI
Nobody goes to jail if you don't press charges bucko. Nice try though.
You have no idea how assault charges go. The charges are from the State, not a person. It isn't a civil case. (Also you could be in another country, so maybe it is different in your country)
Also a civil suit can be filed separately for restitution by the person. So you could have criminal and civil suits side by side
Note: most domestic violence charges in the U.S. the partner does NOT want charges to be placed.
"the charges come form the state" So there are charges. That's what I said. Are you slow???
That's not how criminal law works, actually. In criminal courts the State brings charges regardless of the victims wishes.
Is there a c/confidentlyincorrect ?
I don't know about this case, I can definitely imagine him raping that girl.
But from a European perspective, saying minors cannot consent is definitely one of these very stupid US takes. It is honestly insane that in the US 18 is treated like a god, and if one partner is some months older, it's illegal.
Obviously, minors can generally be influenced more easily than older people, and it's important to have safeguards in place, but such a statement is just genuinely ridiculous.
That’s not the case in this scenario, and rarely is. It varies by state, but Romeo and Juliet laws are common, which cover these kinds of circumstances.
Basically, the law will set an acceptable age gap where consent can happen; If the gap is 5 years, then a 17 year old won’t be able to consent to sex with a 30 year old, but can with an 18-22 year old. So it helps maintain the “this is obviously a child who was groomed by a creepy middle-aged person” statutory rape laws, while still allowing kids to date each other.
In some states they just straight up do the European thing where all that matters is being at least 16. In my state the age of consent is 16 and that's also the age where you can be tried as an adult. They recently voted on whether or not to raise the age, and they decided no.
There is still push for that to be changed, though only for the age of being tried as an adult. The former they're kinda keen on keeping where it is.
You'll be relieved to know that this is never the case.
Let me tell you about Wisconsin: We regularly bump 17-year-old offenders into adult court. So, yes, we have had cases of 17-year-old couples tried as adults for having sex with a minor after they had sex with each other.
If the implication of that fact hasn't sunk in I'll make it explicit: We treat them as adults for the purposes of being a criminal, and a minor for the purposes of being a victim.
Ok that one is on me. I don't know why I expected Romeo and Juliet clauses to have some level of consistency in all states.
Actually it happens all the time
har aped
Brutal.
You can be against this kind of behavior while also not celebrating murder, you know?
You might think I'm being the self-righteous one. I actually think its the other way around. In a country with democracy and rule of law giving up on the belief that murder is wrong as a matter of principle just because it fits your narrative. What would you say when a person you ideologically support gets murdered as they caused violent protests that align with your ideology. Would you be opposed to that.
What am I even getting at. Murder and chaos like this has no place in society. At least not in one where the people can make sovereign choices.
You know?
Not the one you responded to, but the evidence is quite damning, so yes I'd go stop far as to say its very reasonable to say that we know.
I was trying to reference the commenter above. :(
Luigi didn't commit murder. It was community self defense.
A CEO is a position, not a person. Killing him isn't any sort of defense when he isn't actively endangering others.
It's murder, even if it's justified. Stop these idiotic word games. They only weaken your position.
He is mass murderer. Would you clutch pearls if someone assassinated a warlord?
He (the warlord) would still be murdered. Just with a justification - So it is really only a word game
Self defense only applies when you literally defend yourself from an attack in that moment. If you get away from a warlord with your life and kill him a day later thats again murder.
Pointing out your wanton violation of language isn't pearl clutching.
If your use of the word warlord is equivocated to all hell like your other vocab choices our warlord might be a janitor or some shit, so it's hard to say.
Edit: also, merry christmas. I hope the holiday season has been well :)
You can be, but the world will be a better place in 50 years if 7 billion people were murdered today ,so you also dont have to.
Uh what?
Arrest him like the criminal he is.
Sorry, you must have missed the meeting, we do not do repercussions for anyone worth more than $1 million and a light skin tone. As punishment, we will just give him a high-paying political pundit job on OAN. Thank you for your concerns and please get fucked. Sincerely, United States Judicial System.
Edit: I can't spell
matt gaetz, confirmed pedophile
Where are all the pizzagate dipshits now?
About to take elected office.
I seem to recall this asshat and his best buddy
Fred FlintstoneMTG going on about "groomers" all the time.Looks like we found the actual groomer.
And as usual, it's ALWAYS projection with the qons. Always.
Every accusation is a confession
Ok so now put him in jail wtf?
So uh... why haven't "we" like... convicted and jailed him?
Yeah, like, what the fuck? Don’t the rest of us go to jail if we do this?
Well yeah but we're not born rich to the ruling class. Our fathers and grandfathers weren't Senators like Mattys were.
Rules for thee, not for me.
Trump...same. Elon...same.
Pretty much anyone at the very top of government now...same.
Hahaha you expect politicians to hold themselves accountable!? That would take things like integrity and honesty. You know honor, that thing the we just voted to kill forever.
Hot take: the difference between 17 and 18 doesn't actually matter, and the real problem is Matt Gaetz abused his position of power to coerce young, relatively powerless women into sex with him. Crossing the line of 17 vs 18 is so unimportant in this particular case. Matt Gaetz fights to maintain a system where young women have no power, and utilizes his socio-economic position in that system to sexually abuse those women. Whether she's just finishing up high school, or in her first year of university, we're still talking about a young women who feels like she needs that money to step forward in her life, and Matt Gaetz, and many others like him, are responsible for creating that need. To then use that need to get sexual gratification from those same young women is fucking disgusting, whether or not she's crossed the socially dictated line of "adulthood."
i think the person you’re replying to is making a normative claim. they’re talking about how there really isn’t much difference in maturity/development between a 17 year old and an 18 year old. both ages are way too young for this guy, not to mention the power imbalances, etc. but you’re right that as far as the law is concerned, there is a big difference between 17 and 18 year olds.
In a case of procurement involving a person under 18 years of age, the defendant's lack of knowledge regarding the person's age is not a defense
I would consider it unreasonable and in fact rude for a 35 year old to even attempt to fuck a 17 year old who may look a few years older.
Add payments into the mix and reasonableness goes out the window.
what reason?
are you new?
of course a party like that would have underage girls. it is a situation that FAMOUSLY has underage girls.
can you at least tell me they were IDing at the door?
The law specifically doesn’t make a distinction in cases like Gaetz’ because he paid her for it. The moment it becomes prostitution, any “I didn’t know” defense gets immediately disregarded. It’s to prevent child sex traffickers from claiming ignorance to plea down to a lesser charge.
That finger gonna be wore down soon bubba
The pedophilia is coming from inside the party?!
Also I love how every conservative is sprinting backwards with the goalposts here.
So why did it take so long to release the report? From well before the election iirc. How is this not in the publics interest? Release the 'vote to release the report' vote also?
Evidently DOJ was investigating, so the ethics committee back burnered it. Then of course it went nowhere, and gaetz wasn't pissing any republicans off at that moment so it wasn't reopened right away.
So he is qualified. Only Rapists are allowed in.
Seriously, it wasn't even as lite as the titile makes it out to be.
"Gaetz did drugs while paying a child who hadnt even made it to her final year of high school while serving as a GOP representative and the GOP covered for him" would be more accurate
"Matt Gaetz does Republican shit." would've been accurate.
Paragon of conservative virtues and former leading figure of elected government officials, everyone.
Breaking News: Thing we all knew. In other news, GoP says facts presented are fake and they don't believe them. Nothing changes.
These are the people the modern Republican party puts forth. These are the "values" we are told we need.
How could he possibly not? How could people look at him and think he wouldn't? The dude FUCKING looks like some sort of evil villain. That or a Dollar Tree Beavis.
I knew about this years ago. You knew about it. Our neighbors knew about. But still we gotta go through this wishy washy bullshit from those who are supposed to be leaders saying that this is all suddenly "coming to light". Fuck no it isn't.
And Congress knew and knows about others yet they think that they should still be the ones leading our representative government.
Why are these people living on the people ?
I'm sure justice will be done swiftly and fairly
The GOP is full of rapists, and it's nothing new.
I think it's a perfect time to realize that there are perverts on both sides of the aisle, and neither aisle cares about their constituents.
So the guy who doesn't think [Matt Gaetz] is a pedophile is wrong?
But I was told by someone here on lemmy that there wasn't possibly time to lay charges, since we only learned about last month!!
Knowing Matt I am not shocked.
Tell us something we didn't already know for a change.
Lmao
You mean the evidence collected by the bipartisan congressional committee investigating the credible and substantiated rape allegations against Matt Gaetz?
What?
Someone forgot to take their meds again.
Huh? No? Do you not know how Lemmy works? That link at the top is to an article written by a journalist. That is where this information comes from.
Assuming
/sI think the secret to enjoying the Internet is s just always assuming /s when you are unsure
I dunno, maybe the fact that he sent money to a guy on several occasions, who then sent that exact amount to multiple different young girls, and the that guy also got convicted for sex trafficking? Like fuckin years ago??
I came from your mom’s house but she seemed over 17.
Why are lashing out at an obvious troll.
Read their posts. Guy is as anti Muslim as you can get. Like, it's his mission to be the most hateful, racist, bigoted person on earth. While breathing their own farts as absolute truth.
They're worse than a troll.
They're an angry fucking moron.
I wasn't talking about you. I was talking to you.
Buy thanks for playing.
I was talking about the guy with the username Allah. The guy you think supports Islam.
You're so hateful you can't even see you attacked your own hatebuddy.