Rep. Matt Gaetz reportedly sought a meeting with former President Donald Trump following the announcement of a federal investigation into sex trafficking allegations against the congressman but was turned down, according to CNN.
Harlan Hill, a spokesman for Gaetz, denied that he attempted to schedule a meeting with Trump when asked for comment by CNN.
“Rep. Gaetz was welcomed to Trump Doral this week and has not sought to meet with President Trump himself,” Hill said in a statement, adding that Gaetz has “been mostly relaxing with his fiancée this week during recess.”
Joe Raedle / Getty Images
Gaetz is facing accusations that he had sex with an underage girl and with other women who he paid off in violation of sex trafficking and prostitution laws. He was met with another hurdle, earlier this week, when The Daily Beast reported that Gaetz had venmo’d accused sex trafficker Joel Greenberg $900, which was then sent to a young woman.
The publication explained their findings, writing:
In two late-night Venmo transactions in May 2018, Rep. Matt Gaetz sent his friend, the accused sex trafficker Joel Greenberg, $900. The next morning, over the course of eight minutes, Greenberg used the same app to send three young women varying sums of money. In total, the transactions amounted to $900.
The memo field for the first of Gaetz’s transactions to Greenberg was titled “Test.” In the second, the Florida GOP congressman wrote “hit up ___.” But instead of a blank, Gaetz wrote a nickname for one of the recipients.
[Via]