Former Trump attorney furious DOJ is investigating Matt Gaetz

"It if comes out to be true, yes, we would remove him if that was the case". He also claimed the probe was "rooted" in a $25 million extortion effort against his family. "So let's get all the information".

Sources familiar with the matter told The New York Times investigators are examining whether Gaetz violated federal sex trafficking laws by engaging in a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old and paying for her to travel with him.

He's remained on both the House Armed Services Committee and on the Judiciary Committee, which has congressional oversight of the Justice Department.

"This is a blatant attempt to distract from the fact that Matt Gaetz is apparently about to be indicted for sex trafficking underage girls", said McGee to the Daily Beast.

Some Democrats have called for his committee positions to be revoked.

Gaetz then went on to seemingly implicate Carlson in the allegations against him, again saying he didn't know anything about the investigation beyond what he's read in the New York Times, but then going on to voluntarily offer up some pretty weird anecdotes. Gaetz then insisted Carlson had previously met "a friend" of his who he claimed was "threatened by the Federal Bureau of Investigation". Take it from me rumors and headlines don't equal truth. "I don't quite understand it".

Rep. Matt Gaetz said a DOJ investigation into whether he broke sex-trafficking laws is based on "lies" and "false" allegations.

A subject is conventionally thought of as someone whose actions fall within the scope of a criminal investigation, whereas a target is someone whom prosecutors have gathered evidence linking to a crime.

The probe has been underway for almost a year and Gaetz, who represents parts of western Florida, has been aware for months that he was under investigation, the person familiar with the matter told the Associated Press. The lawyer has been in private practice for more than two decades. McGee's biography on the firm's website says he spent six years as first assistant at a U.S. attorney's office and seven years as the lead attorney for the DOJ's Organized Crime Task Force.

During an appearance on Fox News' "Tucker Carlson Tonight," Gaetz added another crucial data point to the timeline: he said that someone involved in the alleged extortion scheme texted his father on March 16 "demanding a meeting wherein a person demanded $25 million in exchange for making frightful sex trafficking allegations against me go away".

McGee, who worked in the Justice Department from the late 1980s to the late 1990s, has received outstanding service awards from the Justice Department and the U.S. Marshals Service, as well as a special commendation from the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, according to his biography.

In a series of tweets, Gaetz said that his father has been wearing a wire as instructed by the FBI to help catch his blackmailers and that the people "pushing" the allegations against him "are targets of the ongoing extortion investigation".

Officials told NBC News that the investigation into Gaetz began a year ago when an associate of his, Joel Greenberg, a former county tax collector in Florida, was indicted on charges tied to allegations that he had harassed a political opponent, who worked at a local school, through letters sent to his opponent's employer and through several fictitious social media accounts. "You were accused of something that you did not do", Gaetz told Carlson. "I believe that there are people at the Department of Justice who are trying to criminalize my sexual conduct, you know when I was a single guy".

"I know that there was a demand for money in exchange for a commitment that he could make this investigation go away along with his co-conspirators".