Congressman Matt Gaetz (R- FL) appeared on Fox News Tuesday night to discuss the DOJ investigation against him with Tucker Carlson.

The New York Times broke news that Gaetz is under investigation for “whether he had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old and paid for her to travel with him.” Gaetz publicly responded by saying he is the target of an extortion scheme by a former DOJ official.

Gaetz told Carlson, “What is happening is an extortion of me and my family.”

He claimed that his father received a text earlier this month demanding a meeting “wherein a person demanded $25 million in exchange for making horrible sex trafficking allegations against me go away.”

Gaetz said they were so troubled by that they went to the FBI and the FBI, “asked my dad to wear a wire, which he did, with the former Department of Justice official.” He called on the DOJ to release the audio “which will prove my innocence.”

He even suggested the timing of the New York Times report was no accident.

Gaetz gave Carlson a name for the individual he said is extorting him, and said, “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. They even claimed to have specific connections inside the Biden White House. I don’t know if that’s true, they were promising that Joe Biden would pardon me. Obviously I don’t need a pardon.”

Gaetz went off as he told Carlson that “people are smeared to try to take them out of the conversation” and that both of them have faced false allegations.

At one point Gaetz made this comment to Carlson:

“You and I went to dinner about two years ago, your wife was there, and I brought a friend of mine, you’ll remember her. And she was actually threatened by the FBI, told that if she wouldn’t cop to the fact that somehow I was involved in some pay-for-play scheme that she could face trouble, and so I do believe that there are people at the Department of Justice who are trying to smear me, you know, providing for flights and hotel rooms for people that you’re dating who are of legal age is not a crime. And I’m just troubled that lack of any sort of legitimate investigation into me… would then convert into this extortion attempt.”

Carlson said, “I don’t remember the woman you’re speaking of or the context at all, honestly.”

When Carlson asked about the allegation he had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old, Gaetz said “the person doesn’t exist” and that this is “totally false.”

You can watch above, via Fox News.

The post Matt Gaetz Claims to Tucker Carlson Ex-DOJ Employee ‘Demanded $25 Million in Exchange’ for Making Sex Trafficking Allegations ‘Go Away’ first appeared on Mediaite.

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