Prosecutors formally decide not to charge Rep. Matt Gaetz in underage sex trafficking case: report

Federal prosecutors have reportedly decided not to charge Rep. Matt Gaetz in an underage sex trafficking scandal, ending a probe that the Republican lawmaker has long denounced as a witch hunt.

Lawyers for at least one witness in the explosive case Wednesday were informed by prosecutors that Gaetz won’t be charged, CNN reported.

The decision finalizes the recommendation of investigators last fall to not pursue the case against Gaetz, in which a disgraced former political ally would have been the star prosecution witness.

Gaetz, 40, one of the strongest congressional supporters of former President Donald Trump, had been under federal investigation since late 2020.

The Florida Panhandle lawmaker emphatically denies all charges and says he was the victim of a convoluted shakedown scheme involving corrupt FBI agents.

The probe grew out of the case against Gaetz’s former friend and political protege Joel Greenberg, a disgraced suburban Orlando official who was recently sentenced to 11 years in prison for sex trafficking, fraud and official misconduct.

Greenberg admitted to paying women and a 17-year-old girl for sex and agreed to testify against others, including potentially Gaetz.

The federal probe into Gaetz sought to determine if he also had sex with the teenager or paid her to travel to have sex with him, which would violate trafficking laws.

The other witness against Gaetz whose credibility concerned prosecutors was an ex-girlfriend of the lawmaker who testified before an Orlando grand jury this year and who was reportedly on a 2018 junket to the Bahamas that was scrutinized by investigators.

The congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol revealed that Gaetz sought a preemptive pardon from Trump in the sex probe.