Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[postman1782]

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/20/u...ments-sex.html

I wish I could see this entire article, but there is supposed to be an article in there to show the payments, over $10,000 to women to have sex with Gaetz, including the 17 year old.

Someone in the DoJ leaked it.

12ft ladder doesn't get around the paywall.

https://www.removepaywall.com/search...ments-sex.html

Nevermind, that website works to get around the paywall.



This is the web that was leaked from the DoJ.
@Breccia @Edge-

[Edge-]

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/20/u...ments-sex.html

I wish I could see this entire article, but there is supposed to be an article in there to show the payments, over $10,000 to women to have sex with Gaetz, including the 17 year old.

Someone in the DoJ leaked it.

https://archive.is/rtpLh

Archive link.

If Democrats had a spine one of them on the Ethics Committee would leak the report if Speaker Johnson decides he'd rather protect a pedophile about to be this nation's top lawyer than actually live up to the kinds of accountability and transparency that Republicans claim they support.

[PhaelixWW]

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/20/u...ments-sex.html

I wish I could see this entire article, but there is supposed to be an article in there to show the payments, over $10,000 to women to have sex with Gaetz, including the 17 year old.

Someone in the DoJ leaked it.

Full article:

Federal investigators established a trail of payments from Matt Gaetz, President-elect Donald J. Trump’s choice to be attorney general, to women, including some who testified that Mr. Gaetz hired them for sex, according to a document obtained by The New York Times and a lawyer representing some of the women.

The document, assembled by investigators during a three-year sex-trafficking investigation into Mr. Gaetz, is a chart that shows a web of thousands of dollars in Venmo payments between Mr. Gaetz and a group of his friends, associates and women who had drug-fueled sex parties between 2017 and 2020, according to testimony that participants are said to have given to federal and congressional investigators.

At the parties, women, and a girl who was 17 at the time, were paid for sex, according to accounts of the participants’ testimony from people briefed on what they said.

The document bolsters recent claims by a lawyer for two of the women who say they had sex with Mr. Gaetz for money. It shows thousands of dollars in payments Mr. Gaetz made to both of the lawyer’s clients.

Mr. Gaetz, 42, represented Florida in Congress from 2017 until last week. He has vehemently denied their accounts, and the federal investigation was closed by the Justice Department without any charges against him. Vice President-elect JD Vance accompanied Mr. Gaetz to Capitol Hill on Wednesday in an effort to build support for his nomination from Republican senators, some of whom have expressed doubt that he is confirmable.

The document was obtained by the House Ethics Committee, which met on Wednesday amid growing pressure to release a report it has compiled on Mr. Gaetz but deadlocked on whether to do so.

Titled “VENMO TRANSACTIONS BETWEEN ALL INDIVIDUALS AS OF 09/14/20,” the document uses thumbnail photos of Mr. Gaetz, dozens of women and several other men to show how payments flowed between them. Lines with arrows connect the men and the women, showing, among other things, how much Mr. Gaetz and his associates paid the women.



Because the department declined to charge Mr. Gaetz with a crime, the documents amassed during the investigation have remained secret, as the department almost never releases materials that law enforcement agencies develop in investigations in which no charges are brought. But a copy of the chart was obtained by the House Ethics Committee during its own wide-ranging investigation into Mr. Gaetz’s conduct, including whether he had sex with the then-17-year-old.

Steven Cheung, the communications director for Mr. Trump, blamed the Justice Department for disclosure of the document, which he claimed was classified even though it has no classified markings and does not relate to national security.

“This purposeful leaking of classified investigative materials is the sort of politicized D.O.J. weaponization that Matt Gaetz will end,” Mr. Cheung said. “The Justice Department investigated Gaetz for years, failed to find a crime and are now leaking material with false information to smear the next attorney general.”

The chart does not say what the payments were for, nor does it show that Mr. Gaetz made a payment to the 17-year-old girl. But the chart shows payments the authorities believed Mr. Gaetz and his associates made to other women, including the two whose lawyer has said they testified to the House Ethics Committee that they had sex with Mr. Gaetz in exchange for money.

It has been publicly known for several years that women have claimed that Mr. Gaetz paid them for sex. Shortly after The New York Times revealed the existence of the federal sex trafficking investigation into Mr. Gaetz in 2021, it reported that investigators were focusing on Mr. Gaetz’s involvement with multiple women who were recruited online for sex and how they received payments.

The Times reported at the time that it had reviewed receipts from Cash App, a mobile payments app, and Apple Pay showing how Mr. Gaetz and Joel Greenberg, his associate and friend, had paid one of the women for sex with them.

The charts show different payments, all through Venmo, and provide the first documentary evidence from inside the federal investigation, showing how investigators examined Mr. Gaetz’s activities in meticulous detail, tracking not just his payments but also those of a large network of people said to have been involved in the parties.

The lawyer, Joel Leppard, said that two women he represents testified before the House committee that Mr. Gaetz had paid them in exchange for sex. One of the women said that she had witnessed Mr. Gaetz having sex with the 17-year-old but that she did not believe Mr. Gaetz thought the girl was under 18, according to Mr. Leppard.

The chart shows that one of Mr. Leppard’s clients received $4,025.27 and the other $3,500. It does not show the dates of the payments. Those amounts appear to be figures that combine several payments the women received from Mr. Gaetz; Mr. Leppard said that the women were typically paid $200 to $500 for each encounter with Mr. Gaetz.

Mr. Leppard confirmed in a telephone interview that his clients had received Venmo payments from Mr. Gaetz. Some of his remarks about the payments were reported earlier by ABC News.

Mr. Leppard said that along with Venmo payments, his clients had received money from Mr. Gaetz on PayPal. He said that he initially thought that his clients had received the amounts listed in the chart but said that when his clients were interviewed by the House committee, it turned out that the panel had obtained other evidence that showed additional payments.

Records the committee had, he said, showed payments from Mr. Gaetz to one of his clients totaling around $6,000, and showed payments to the other of $4,000.

He said he believed the committee had obtained the payment information by sending subpoenas to Venmo and PayPal.

The chart also helps to solidify the testimony of Mr. Gaetz’s chief accuser, Mr. Greenberg, a former local tax collector from Florida. He cooperated with the Justice Department in the federal investigation, telling the authorities about how he and Mr. Gaetz both had sex with the 17-year-old, although he said they believed she was over 18. Mr. Greenberg pleaded guilty in 2021 to an array of charges — including sex trafficking — and agreed to cooperate against Mr. Gaetz. He was later sentenced to 11 years in prison.

The chart shows that Mr. Greenberg paid the 17-year-old girl $450.

And it demonstrates that despite an unwillingness by the Justice Department to hand over to the House committee much of the evidence it developed about Mr. Gaetz during its investigation, the panel was able to obtain some of the information that investigators gathered as prosecutors weighed whether to charge Mr. Gaetz.

The House committee sought a range of information from the Justice Department about Mr. Gaetz but was repeatedly rebuffed.

[Skjaldborg]

I don't know, I think they are serious about it. And I think to the extent that the law allows him to, Trump will sign off on their recommendations.

Here is the first DOGE roadmap. Looks interesting. About time someone pulled back the curtains a bit!

https://x.com/JStein_WaPo/status/1859363218331718137

Do you even know what every department, bureau, and office of the executive branch does? Do you think they're all just slow-rolling private business on purpose all the time for no reason? Have you stopped to consider how things like (99.99% of) roads and bridges and mountains aren't privately owned?

[PhaelixWW]

1. TRUST AI JUST TRUST AI AI WILL FIX EVERYTHING - great stuff

Seems appropriate:

AP: An AI chatbot pushed a teen to kill himself, a lawsuit against its creator alleges

First rule of AI: GIGO.

[Aphelios]

Trump's cabinet is looking to be the best assembled cabinet in history.

[PhaelixWW]

Far too many "loose screws" to be assembled properly.

[Xyonai]

It's honestly impressive - in a fucked up way - how uniquely unqualified every single one of Trumps picks have been.

Like Marco Rubio is the only choice that makes any kind of sense and it makes me think it wasn't Trump's idea.

[Draco-Onis]

It's honestly impressive - in a fucked up way - how uniquely unqualified every single one of Trumps picks have been.

Like Marco Rubio is the only choice that makes any kind of sense and it makes me think it wasn't Trump's idea.

Nah his cabinet are from people he watches on TV, have given him tons of money or sucked up to him for years. It's the whose who of people who will do whatever he wants and that's the theme for the next 4 years, incompetent people who are loyal to the fuhrer.

[PhaelixWW]

It's honestly impressive - in a fucked up way - how uniquely unqualified every single one of Trumps picks have been.

Like Marco Rubio is the only choice that makes any kind of sense and it makes me think it wasn't Trump's idea.

I'm starting to wonder if a Cabinet position is the "Associate Producer credit" of Trump's second term.

[Cthulhu 2020]

Trump's cabinet is looking to be the best assembled cabinet in history.

Trump's cabinet is about 80% pedophiles or pedophile enablers and the remaining 20% have been convicted of sexual assault or rape.

Truly the party of family values.

[postman1782]

Trump's cabinet is looking to be the best assembled cabinet in history.

You are on fucking crack if you think that. Literally no one appointed so far, have been qualified to be in their positions.

[DarkTZeratul]

Literally no one appointed so far, have been qualified to be in their positions.

Eh, I'll agree with Xyonai that Marco Rubio is actually an entirely adequate pick for Secretary of State. Like, in a hypothetical world where Nikki Haley got elected president, I could see her making that same choice.

Literally the only one, though.

[postman1782]

Eh, I'll agree with Xyonai that Marco Rubio is actually an entirely adequate pick for Secretary of State. Like, in a hypothetical world where Nikki Haley got elected president, I could see her making that same choice.

Literally the only one, though.

He has been the only one that I didn't know was nominated, but then again, he didn't make the news for being a pedo or a rapist like everyone else has been for Trump.

Gaetz, RFK Jr, Musk, Linda McMahon married a rapist, Hegseth is a sexual assaulter, and I am sure there are others.

[Flarelaine]

Those are pretty red states. The next two years would have to be truly disastrous for Democrats to win those seats.

Some of those have just been gerrymandered to fuck with a strong dose of voter suppression. Take North Carolina - the incumbent won with 48.7% and the share of the popular vote is generally close to even.

[ati87]

Some of those have just been gerrymandered to fuck with a strong dose of voter suppression. Take North Carolina - the incumbent won with 48.7% and the share of the popular vote is generally close to even.

Maybe Biden should have done something about it then...

Biden's biggest failure is either to do a fraction of the things he promised or just drop some things entirely and given the presidency over to Sinema and Manchin.During the Georgia run-off in 2020 Democrat's biggest message was “voting rights” and that definitely helped them win.

[Kiria]

Hey Americans can you please keep your stupid commenters to your side of the water cause Musks father is a complete dipshit like his son.

[Somewhatconcerned]

Do you even know what every department, bureau, and office of the executive branch does??

Do you? Does anyone?

That's part of the reason for DOGE - "what do you exactly do here?"

They're not going to cut stuff that affects basic, essential services like infrastructure, and most of that is locally maintained anyways.

My guess is whatever they cut, you will hardly feel the effects of, if at all.

[Doomcookie]

Do you? Does anyone?

That's part of the reason for DOGE - "what do you exactly do here?"

They're not going to cut stuff that affects basic, essential services like infrastructure, and most of that is locally maintained anyways.

My guess is whatever they cut, you will hardly feel the effects of, if at all.

How do you know this?

They are professional liars. Others just do it as a hobby.

[Draco-Onis]

Do you? Does anyone?

That's part of the reason for DOGE - "what do you exactly do here?"

They're not going to cut stuff that affects basic, essential services like infrastructure, and most of that is locally maintained anyways.

My guess is whatever they cut, you will hardly feel the effects of, if at all.

You do realize that there is already an accountability office? the reason Elon gets DOGE is because they want to get around the confirmation process. Elon cannot really cut anything he is basically a glorified consultant. If the goal was to cut waste you would focus on things like lack of competition for government contracts (cough cough SpaceX). You would want to break up those types of companies so government bids would be competitive (Boeing, Lockheed Martin, northrop grumman).

This entire thing isn't serious Trump was one of the most wasteful presidents in US history he gave away trillions in tax cuts even before COVID. He gave COVID money to venture capitalists and the catholic church to pay off their pedophile charges.