Dems Demand Gaetz Removal From House Panel Over Claims He Sought ‘Pre-Pardon’ in Sex Crimes Probe

The Florida GOP Representative has yet to comment on widely-publicized mainstream media claims that second-hand testimony supposedly delivered by a former Trump aide to a January 6 House Committee means he’s guilty of sex trafficking.

House Democrats are demanding that Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) be removed from his position on the House Judiciary Committee following a new report claiming he sought a “preemptive pardon” from the Trump administration in reference to the Justice Department’s sex trafficking investigation.

Saying that the role creates a “conflict of interest,” Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) called on House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to “remove” Gaetz from the Judiciary Committee on Twitter Saturday, writing that “GOP Rep Matt Gaetz is… not entitled to sit on the Judiciary Committee that has oversight over the Department of Justice that is investigating him for sex crimes.”

GOP Rep Matt Gaetz is entitled to the presumption of innocence. He is not entitled to sit on the Judiciary Committee that has oversight over the Department of Justice that is investigating him for sex crimes. A conflict of interest. @GOPLeader must remove him from the Committee. https://t.co/Ovhcre5v0V

— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) September 17, 2022

The allegation that Gaetz sought assurances from the White House that he wouldn’t be convicted following a DoJ investigation into sex trafficking stems from testimony delivered before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 riots at the US Capitol building.

The Washington Post claims Johnny McEntee, the former college quarterback who served as Trump’s director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office, “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.”

Per the Post, “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.’” Citing anonymous sources, the CIA-linked newspaper also insists “Gaetz told McEntee that he had asked White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows for a pardon.”

Though the allegation is technically considered hearsay and would be inadmissible in a court of law, dozens of high-profile supporters of the Democratic Party jumped on the remarks, insisting they’re proof of Gaetz’s guilt.

Republicans have long argued that such allegations are merely political tricks to keep party members out of office, and their voters are likely to see the latest claims as yet more proof of a conspiracy by elements of the US ‘deep state’ to target former President Donald Trump and his high-profile supporters.