For weeks in 2023, Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz battled to oust former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy for failing to deliver on promises he made to get the job and for not being conservative enough.
The Fort Walton Beach Republican ultimately succeeded in getting McCarthy booted after seven GOP lawmakers joined Gaetz and the Democrats in a no-confidence vote for the House leader.
Gaetz asserted that McCarthy must go for breaking his promises to Republicans and the American people.
But a left-wing news website reported on Thursday that Gaetz went after McCarty because of a pending House Ethics Committee investigation.
Read: Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz Chastises “Weak Republicans” Silent While MAGA Prosecuted
The Daily Beast reported that according to “private correspondence” that it reviewed, “Gaetz indicated to a friend that his effort to undercut, isolate, and ultimately remove McCarthy was, indeed, payback for the ethics probe.”
“The Daily Beast reviewed these communications, but is not allowed to quote from them for fear that Gaetz would be able to identify the recipient,” the report added.
“In fact, the source who provided the communications was so nervous about retribution that The Daily Beast isn’t allowed to say in what form the correspondence took place. Suffice to say, however, it’s clear from the communications that Gaetz’s targeting of McCarthy wasn’t borne out of his concern for reckless Washington spending.”
Gaetz denied the Daily Beast’s accusations, as he did when the same charges were flung at him during the fight to dump McCarthy.
Read: Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz Says House Speaker Johnson’s Job Is Secure. For Now.
“As I’ve answered likely 100 times on the record, I led the charge to remove Kevin McCarthy from his role as House Speaker because he failed to keep his promises,” Gaetz said in a statement to the website.
“The Daily Beast continues to lie about me, and I think it’s due for a round of layoffs.”
Gaetz was under the committee’s microscope because of a sex-trafficking allegation that was later dropped for lack of evidence.
As the Tampa Free Press reported last October, the Ethics Committee began probing Gaetz in 2021 on accusations of campaign finance violations, taking bribes, and using drugs.
Gaetz denied all of the allegations, and was already cleared at that point on one charge.
The Federal Elections Commission last September tossed a complaint, filed by Gaetz’s former opponent in the Republican primary, that he wrongfully used campaign contributions to cover legal expenses related to the 2020 Justice Department investigation into the sex trafficking allegations.
Gaetz’s haters claimed he enticed an underage girl to cross state lines and paid her for sex.
Read: National Media Silent Over Sentencing Of Leftist Who Threatened To Kill Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz
Gaetz denied those allegations as well.
The Justice Department dropped that case in February, after a 30-month investigation, for a lack of evidence and because of unreliable witnesses.
The FEC dismissed the election complaint on the grounds that all available evidence indicated that roughly $200,000 that Gaetz’s campaign paid to attorneys actually benefited the campaign, and not Gaetz personally.
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