On Wednesday, a new Daily Beast report revealed that the indicted former tax official tied to Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) in the federal sex trafficking investigation, Joel Greenberg, made over 150 Venmo payments to young women, including a 17-year-old — often with crude or racy memo lines.

"Gaetz made only one previously unreported transaction in the newly obtained documents: a payment from the Florida congressman to the former Seminole County tax commissioner for $300 on November 1, 2018, with the love hotel emoji ('🏩') in the memo field," reported Jose Pagliery and Roger Sollenberger. "The Daily Beast was unable to tie that transaction directly to any woman, but confirmed that Greenberg booked one night for that date at The Alfond Inn, a luxury hotel in Winter Park, Florida."

On Wednesday, POLITICO reported that Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) has taken out a political ad attacking CNN as part of a PR offensive to try to deflect from the allegations of sex trafficking and misconduct.

"The new 30-second ad will be featured in the Florida Republican's congressional district and nationally on select cable networks, according to a statement from Gaetz's congressional campaign," reported Benjamin Din. "The ad marks the beginning of Gaetz's counteroffensive, as he 'fight[s] back against a multiweek fake news cycle against him,' it said."

Politico reporter Marc Caputo did an update for MSNBC's Ari Melber about Wednesday's developments in the ongoing saga of Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and whether he is or isn't being indicted.

The news this morning was that the Justice Department asked Gaetz for his cell phone, which he handed over. More information has been revealed about the Bahamas trip with hand-surgeon and marijuana entrepreneur Jason Pirozzolo who made the invitation and paid for the trip. There were at least five women on the trip and according to one of them, they were all over 18 and no prostitution was involved.