On Monday, The Daily Beast reported that Stephen Alford, the man behind a bizarre scheme to try to extort $25 million out of Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) by taking advantage of an ongoing sex trafficking investigation, has been sentenced to five years in prison for the scheme.
"Alford, who admitted to wire fraud in the scheme last November, had promised the Gaetz family that, if they gave him $25 million to help free a U.S. hostage in Iran, President Joe Biden would pardon the Republican in connection to an ongoing child sex trafficking investigation," reported Roger Sollenberger. "Alford faced up to 20 years and a $250,000 fine."
While the scheme was fraudulent, the investigation into Gaetz is very real, and — according to the report — ongoing.
The probe, first reported in March 2021, is looking into whether Gaetz and an associate, former Seminole County tax commissioner Joel Greenberg, paid to transport an underage girl across state lines for sex acts.
Subsequent reporting revealed that Greenberg, who has since pleaded guilty to six federal charges and started cooperating with investigators, received a $900 Venmo transaction from Gaetz that he passed along to three teenage girls. Federal investigators have also looked into whether any women or girls in this scheme were paid for sex with drugs, or with money earmarked for political campaigns.
Gaetz has categorically denied all accusations against him, and claimed that it was a setup to extort him for money — citing in particular the fraud case against Alford as evidence for this. And the identity of the underage girl at the heart of the investigation has never been revealed. But other women have come forward and asserted that Gaetz and Greenberg threw parties rife with "drug use, sex, and payments."
