Devastating Report Details How Underage Homeless Girl Allegedly Had Sex With Matt Gaetz For Money to Buy Braces
7 months ago by Redditsux to c/politics
I mean we already knew that, too. But victimizing a homeless girl is a whole new level of creep.
There have been reports of this asshole being a pedo for years. But ever since covid, I honestly couldn't tell you if it was during the early Biden administration or a decade ago
I just assumed that he'd always been rapng children.
He used to rape children. He still does, but he used to too
Let's be fair. Some of his voters are already convicted sex offenders and are no longer eligible to vote.
I expect that ICE will escort such convicts to the polls.
I'm hoping he gets SLAMMED and then GRILLED. That'll show 'em.
We don't even talk about him adopting a 14 year old boy when he was 25. Normal , right?
the magic 24 year marker, same age difference as Donald and Melania. But that's true love.
It's not a crime if you're a politician bro with pale skin.
Yet another beautiful story about how a young person has to sell their youth in order to afford medical care in America.
Deeply /s
Wait till you hear what the biggest attraction of the US Military is...
It's to get the hell out of middle of nowhere dead end towns. At least that was the draw when I was in, as well as my cousins, and father.
If your father did it and you ended up joining for that reason... then maybe it wasn't really effective?
He got the hell out of Marietta Georgia, and managed to buy land in Indiana. We also have a history of being in the Navy since well before the country was founded.
Maybe if someone enlisted long enough to get the GI bill for education and used it things would be different, but if one only does short military time and leaves with no further self-improvement the odds of being better off financially probably aren’t great.
When all else fails, become a mercenary. I get it.
if you yourself need the medical care, you don't get in.
Yes US healthcare sucks. And this particular story sucks. And Matt Gaetz sucks. But I just want to mention that many other countries with superior healthcare systems also suck when it comes to dental care. Despite the fact that a bad dental situation can have devastating health consequences for the whole body.
Like I said I'm not excusing either Gaetz or the US. I also wonder whether she would have been more comfortable leaving her teeth crooked if she weren't in the US, unless it caused health or eating issues.
But it's here on Lemmy, and in years past on the other place, where I have heard people's frustration about teeth being separated as "luxury bones" under even the best healthcare systems. It goes back through history, separate schools, but the more we learn the more obvious it seems that dental care is healthcare.
From what I've read and heard, many poor people just don't get any dental care, whatever country they're in.
I wish for her sake she'd been able to find an orthodontia school where she could have gotten her braces from a student under the supervision of a professor.
Sorry, but talking about how dental care sucks in other places too, in a post about dental services being rendered in exchange for statutory rape, sure does sound like making excuses.
Having teeth is a luxury for the rich.
Every job involves selling your body to the highest bidder. Your attitude only serves to harm people in the sex industry.
Sex work is legitimate work. It's only exploitative and dangerous because it's (mostly) illegal, not the other way around.
Sex trafficking, OTOH, is absolutely vile. It's basically sexual slavery. But it wouldn't happen if sex work was legalized and regulated!
EDIT: this guy thinks AI child pr0n is "just trolling". Fucking ewww
Did you missed the part in the title that says she was UNDERAGE and HOMELESS?
Btw, that is a rethorical question. Feel free to answer if you do, but I'm not going to reply.
Yes she was. Look up consent laws.
I remember a time in 2010 or 2011 (I dont remember when exactly) that they said that sex was the last remaining thing that can ruin a politician's career.
That hasn't been the case since Trump even started running for office in 2015. The level of debauchery is just disgusting. Even if Pete Hegseth was discovered to have made sex videos and they were leaked on porn hub, and then he responded by posting more sex videos he made more recently... this would probably do nothing to harm his career.
People generalize this topic too much.
If Pete Hegseth posted his sex tape it’d be wildly unprofessional, but ultimately who cares (and why should they?)
If Pete hegseth posted the sex tape of an unwilling participant that he surprise donkeypunched while she was underage in exchange for money to get her tonsils out, that’s a bit of a different thing.
America has taught too many people to cower at “what the LORD might think” and accept the word of their leaders as though it was handed down as such.
So when they hear “SEX” they shut down and they go “only the DEVIL would make such accusations at the brave men who deliver our LORDS message to us!”
It’s literally brainwashing.
Infidelity does demonstrate a lack of morals that imo should matter to the electorate. If someone is single or in an open relationship, sure. Otherwise, if someone is willing to betray their spouse, how can we expect them to respect us, a bunch of strangers?
Yeah, sleeping with a multiple people isn't the problem. It's the lying and willingness to hurt someone they allegedly care about. Why would you trust that person with any power?
https://youtu.be/Ji1XoTsd4DU
(Start to 1:08)
https://youtu.be/h5Ug9r4AxpM?t=31
(Start time pre-set at 31 seconds, watch until 1:32 or the end)
“Hes literally reading this, he actually wrote this out”
Trump isn't nearly as charming or as honest as this guy. Also the sex appears to be consensual among adults. Trump is such a fucking pedo it isn't funny.
It was more a response to what you said about Hegseth:
Even if Pete Hegseth was discovered to have made sex videos and they were leaked on porn hub, and then he responded by posting more sex videos he made more recently... this would probably do nothing to harm his career.
This is one of the reasons, unironically.
Not how rapes work but okay. Not trying to be contrarian here, Gaetz is a POS. Just think sex work has a place and isn't rape.
Oh missed that part, yeah it's rape
Setting aside that statutory rape is still rape.... sex work for 17-year olds has a place? WTF...
^*ladies and gentlemen, the result of the rape culture we live in.
A powerful, older man took advantage of a young, desperate woman, but because he did not physically assault her, it’s not rape.
Rape is about POWER, not sex.
While it doesn't make Gaetz not a shitbag, unless the article is wrong he wasn't the person who solicited her, set it up, or paid her. It's also still statutory even if she lied about her age and had a false ID (and we don't know if Gaetz was actually lied to and checked her ID), but I am not sure if this is a good example of rape culture.
100% unequal power dynamics being a rich politician sleeping with an 18 year old escort at a party, but in the case all parties are 18 or older is it sex work or rape?
Joel Greenberg, the one who actually met her and did the soliciting and paid her, was charged and convicted for child sex trafficking and ID fraud/identity theft for this. I am pleasantly surprised he was both charged and convicted given track records on both of those things. If 11 years is a sufficient sentence is another story.
Dude , you are still explaining away an adult man fucking an underaged girl in an extreme power imbalance. He knew what he was doing, he knew she was underaged. That he had people help facilitate the rape does not make it less of one.
A 40 year old who needs to ID the woman he’s paying to have sex with knows EXACTLY what he was doing.
I mean, this is a textbook example of statutory rape. He paid an underage girl $400 to show up to a party with the implication of sex, gave her cocaine and ecstasy, and then had sex with her. The state recognizes that rape can occur even if the victim was otherwise willing. The “statutory” part of statutory rape means the prosecutor is required by statute to assume a rape occurred, even if the victim does not agree with the prosecution.
The state acknowledges that there are circumstances where a reasonable person would determine that a victim wasn’t capable of consenting. To be able to prosecute these cases, the state passes statutes to assign a penalty on the assaulter for statutory rape. This statute allows the prosecution to charge for rape, even if the victim was enthusiastically consenting and/or does not feel like they have been assaulted.
For example, if a cop detains someone, then has sex with them in the back of their cruiser. A reasonable state would recognize the unfair power dynamic in this situation, and a reasonable jury member would acknowledge that the detainee was under duress when the sex occurred. Even if the detainee was enthusiastic and willing, they were legally unable to consent because of the power dynamic that was present during the sex. There’s no way of factually proving if the detainee was/is actually willing, or just playing along because the cop held an inordinate amount of power over them. And thus a reasonable state would assume the latter, and statutorily assign a penalty to the person who held the power (the cop, in this example). And this statutory penalty would be enforced by prosecuting the cop for statutory rape.
And “being too young” is one of the biggest and most (in)famous reasons that someone can’t consent. The state sets an age limit on when children can begin consenting to sex with adults. Otherwise willing children below that age are assumed to be groomed (like a 30 year old “dating” a 15 year old) or under some other kind of unfair power dynamic.
If you’re trying to say that it’s unfair that Gaetz was tricked into sex with a minor, that’s a separate discussion. He took that risk when he knowingly paid a homeless person for sex. He knew there was an inherent power imbalance. If he wanted to avoid the power imbalance, he could have used a legal brothel that has a hiring and vetting process designed to preclude underage children from being hired. Hell, he could have worked as a lawmaker to decriminalize sex work and make brothels legal in his area. He could have ensured that people (including himself) didn’t feel the need to pay streetwalkers for sex, because legal brothels were accessible.
But he didn’t do that. He sought out a sex worker who looked young, fully knowing and accepting that there were no systems in place to stop her from lying about her age, and he was willing to take on the risk of statutory rape by choosing to sleep with her.
I know you’re getting down voted to oblivion but I know what idea you’re trying to get across. She was underage so at the very least it was statutory. But even if she wasn’t underage it was coerced and she was being manipulated to do something she likely didn’t want to do to pay for something she desperately needed. Now if she wasn’t underage it technically still was prostitution but significantly different than a rape if it was indeed consensual but who knows.
Illegal or not it was wrong and these douchebags can get away with anything which boils my backside.
It's fine, points and internet strangers don't matter as much as they'd like too. We can still have a nuanced discussion, you just need to ignore the people who feed off their internet addiction to outrage and thinking clicking a thumbs down on a keyboard fulfills their social duties. I didn't notice the underage part which is clearly problematic and changes the discussion and yes we need a society that discourages this type of behavior.
That happens, not a big deal but you can't really complain about internet outrage addicts and lack of nuance when you're the one who rushed into a thread without even taking enough time to properly understand the headline let alone read the article and immediately tried to correct someone who was objectively right.
This is very true. Up and down doesn’t really lend itself to nuance does it?
She legally couldn't consent. That's statutory rape
Daaaamn, I have never seen anyone get NO upvotes at all on Lemmy
I've seen it on occasion (and probably been on the receiving end myself). It's almost more damning than being downvoted to oblivion. It's like that Mad Men scene when Don Draper is like "I don't think about you at all"
Uh, this is the definition of statutory rape:
Statutory rape is the crime of sex with a minor when the sex is agreed to by both parties, not forced.
So... no.. it's still rape.
Please... please I beg of you, do not try to argue that 17 is basically 18. Please. I have had too much of pedophile talk recently.
I think we all have, a lot of people on the Right have been saying shit like "Oh 15 is barely legal, not pedophilia at all."
Reminder: There is not a single fucking state where 15 is within the age of consent.
Who CARES? If there's Grass on the Field PLAY BALL!
-Republicans LITERALLY!
Brb, updating my grindr profile...
I have nothing against sex work, but this was not sex work; this was a goddan tragedy created by a bunch of monsters who created the current situation in which this can happen in the first place.
Just one more reason why they want to keep you poor. So they can do shit like that. And worse.
This is a category of sex work. There is sex work in which adults choose that it's labor they'd prefer to participate in, I support that sex work. Then there's a long spectrum that ends in places like this. You can't criminalize this stuff away. When minors are so desperate they're selling sex you need to look at the material root causes
There are recordings of an interview with a historian in which Sylvia Rivera talks about how she got into sex work as a child. It's heartbreaking and infuriating and more than anything it's a condemnation of the circumstances in which she lived.
The fact that these cases always seem to end with “DOJ declined to bring charges” or some similar fate is disgusting
We need to move past these things and finally concentrate on the really important issues, like transgender girls playing volleyball!
But, they supposedly couldn't find a reason to actually prosecute this fucker? Give me a break.
That poor girl, so desperate that she had sex with someone who looks like a cephalopod.
had sex with was raped by
Fixed that for you.
The fact that representatives knew this happened, and accepted basically "if you step down from taking your next roll, we'll ignore it". Shows how absolutely every representative that wasn't screaming about it should be in prison right now.... Which means near all reps in Florida, and many in U.S. Congress.
Also, token: Desantis absolutely allowed this to be covered up for political reasons/gain
They also know that the poor are absolutely powerless, especially considering the enormity of resources rich politicians have at their disposal.
This is it. I don't think they have particular respect for the offspring of other wealthy elites either, they just know there is power and money protecting/ defending the children of the elites if anything happens to them. These people don't have respect for anything but themselves. They've just gotten where they are by having a keen instinct for self-interest and preservation.
Not sure if you're joking but yes. The profit of deprivation is exploitation.
Pretty much. The rich want to be able to grab a rando off the streets and abuse them as they see fit.
That's criminally low compensation for having to touch Matt Gaetz.
these are the types of stories we need to hold when we push for medicare care, housing, food for ALL
Hold in what way?
I meant, hold up. There is no better example of how depriving people of the rights to basic necessities exposes the most vulnerable to exploitation.
Single Payer Healthcare now and it better include dental and gender affirming care
Just add it to the pile of sexual predators in the GOP.
DENTAL PLAN...
DENTAL PLAN...
I mean, perhaps just buy the girl braces, than perhaps...just perhaps instead of preying on her, because the rock for her that she is clearly missing, so that when she grows up she's A HEALTHY member of society instead of getting the emotional damage of seeing dumbass pervert wannabe elvis coming at you.
Pfff... Devastating... Par for the course, you mean.
Oh yeah, there’s another one for sure. These people are just fucked
The most moral republican
No wonder the sick fuck abruptly resigned from Congress.
I don't think something like that would happen here. It's an extremely professional workplace and Matt's a really good guy. Can I go? Matt's birthday's starting and bunch of Mets are here.
As much as I hate this MAGA slimeball ... the girl lied about her age. Yes, he took advantage of a young woman. Yes, it is grotesque to force people into poverty just to take advantage of them ... but she lied and said she was 18.
Americans and their age of consent laws, as if 14 or 18 matters when an older man forces her into prostitution. This idea that 18 year old girls are open season is fucked.
I trust that as much as I trust "Are you 18" barriers on a porn site.
Less, honestly, because that doesn't actually harm kids and he was definitely trying to fuck kids which is why it keeps happening.
Doesn't really matter, at least not morally and probably not legally.
If you pay for sex you're a sleazeball. If you pay someone who says they just turned 18 you're a moron. In addition to being a pedophile.
If you pay for sex you’re a sleazeball.
Do you mind giving a little more feedback on why you feel that way?
Taken at face value, as stated, it sounds like you're 100% against prostitution and making a value judgement against people who hire sex workers.
Keep in mind, I have never paid for sex, and I'm not coming at you because of your opinion. Just curious, is all, since I'm more of the opinion that what consenting adults do in their own privacy is their own business as long as it's not hurting anybody. And I do understand that a lot of times, sex workers are being exploited. But then I also think about situations like the disabled guy (IIRC it was something terminal) who hired sex workers because he felt he couldn't/wouldn't find a willing partner otherwise due to the circumstances of his disability. Plus, I'm a bit biased, as I lived with a sex worker as a roommate for a couple of years, and while nobody's perfect, he was a much nicer and better person that a lot of random folks I know.
I have pretty strong judgements of lots of things that I think should be legal despite how I feel. I despise gambling, I hate cosmetic surgery, I'd never get a tattoo, I don't even like perfume, glitter... you get the idea. I'm not saying that you're a criminal for buying a lottery ticket, but I'm totally gonna judge you an immoral moron in my mind.
I can certainly understand the argument that prostitution should be legal in order to protect sex workers. I'm not sure if that's the best policy, but I can see where it's coming from.
I do not believe that sex workers are categorically bad people, neither do I believe that people who hire sex workers are beyond redemption. I still find it disgusting and I don't think it should be normalized.
However, to clarify: in this case we're talking about a powerful person seeking out a young girl to have sex with. He pays for sex. He does not in any way verify age. I think it's safe to say that he doesn't give a shit about the well-being of this person, and if it was legal to have sex with a younger girl he would have done that openly. No internal moral compass whatsoever, just the narcissistic playbook of how he's perceived by others. His followers are only backtracking because he got caught.
I swear the people downvoting this haven't read the article at all. She lied about her age and signed up to a website specifically for sugar daddy type hook ups. Sex for money is what she was seeking and it is what she found.
the headline always picks the most sensational adjectives to put in….
he’s still a creep and all, but he didn’t go down some alley looking for homeless children. didn’t know she was 17.
nuance:
she falsely advertised herself in 2017 as 18 years old on a website that matches men looking for ‘companionship’ with young women looking to make money.”.
According to the report by the House Ethics Committee, the girl signed up with a “sugar dating”website that arranged “mutually beneficial relationships,” usually with younger women and older men. That’s when she met Gaetz associate Joel Greenberg who allegedly paid her $400.
i mean, he would still be obligated to see her ID, if he’s having sex with what he thinks is a barely legal
nearly illegal aged young woman.
definitely exploiting impoverished women with his money… taking them to drug parties is even worse….
but the headline sounds like he offered her braces for sex…
He has a history with underage girls. Don't defend this pedo. You can't keep claiming ignorance when it keeps happening.
i’m not defending him in any way shape or form
He has a history with underage girls.
He has enough history that we can judge him for all of it. We don't need to abandon integrity & accuracy. We shouldn't fault others for defending the truth. We should fault ourselves for failing to respect it.
You can’t keep claiming ignorance when it keeps happening.
They weren't.
Yea, it's an honest mistake that could happen to anyone! I mean, who among us HASN'T ordered an online prostitute who we thought was barely legal that turned out to be underage? There's no way to avoid it!
if anyone’s a victim here, it’s clearly gaetz… he was defrauded by this imposter….
surely he wasn’t seeking out the youngest looking girls on the website or anything….
poor guy
i refuse to believe that you’re too dense to recognize that as sarcasm.
….
so why be a troll? there are many much more fulfilling hobbies.
The headline:
Devastating Report Details How Underage Homeless Girl Allegedly Had Sex With Matt Gaetz For Money to Buy Braces
She was literally underage. She needed money for braces. It's not a misleading headline AT ALL and wanting to put nuance on a headline about a guy treating a child like a prostitute is not a good look for you.
oh go find someone else to pretend like they’re on gaetz’s side… you can get super mad at them and yell at them while having an imaginary argument where they’re suddenly a Matt Gaetz sympathizer….
maybe go punch a pillow or something, i’m not the one you’re upset with.
he’s a horrible person, this is one of the many reasons why…
he didn’t buy her braces for sex.
he had sex with an underage girl, for money, gave her drugs….
her being homeless or needing dental care was far from his mind, i’m sure….
Your only remaining reason to pointlessly criticise the headline is that you missed the distinction between the role of subject and object in a sentence? What a hill to die on!
Devastating Report Details How Underage Homeless Girl Allegedly Had Sex With Matt Gaetz For Money to Buy Braces
Reread it.
There are always people defending these creeps who seek out the youngest most vulnerable sexual partners they can legally fuck. You don't realise that in saying "he didn't know she was 17" you're claiming this behaviour is otherwise okay.
An old man, fucking an 18 year old is like a fast food boss paying his employees minimum wage: if you could legally get away with less you would. Finding these creeps "accidentally" fucking children is like the manager "accidentally" entering fewer hours on your timesheet every week. You have to be a real dope to believe it was an accident.
there’s a difference between something being wrong and illegal, and something being much more wrong and much more illegal….
legally i don’t think “but i thought she was 18” counts. not that he was prosecuted anyways.
….
i don’t know who’s defending him, personally i’m just talking about exaggerated headlines and accuracy.
for all i know, he knew she was 17 and required her to make a profile saying she was 18 and pretend to meet him through there so he can have plausible deniability…. actually i’d say that more likely, but i don’t know
Can't say I'm shocked that pointing out clickbait and misleading elements in the headline led to a bunch of downvotes. He's on the Wrong Team, you see, so if you do anything but swallow the headline whole, reading not a single word past it, with absolutely zero scrutiny, you're defending him, defending child molestation, and basically a pedophile yourself, you know. /s
i still think a lot of it is vote manipulation.
if leftist online spaces always scream at rational discussion and promote irrational ones, it’ll seem like that’s how they all are and drive them away.
irl leftists are way way more considerate and go out of their way to respect other people….
they love debating minutiae….
but with 10 bots per human these places will always get fucked with like this.
one dead giveaway is i’ll have -22 votes but the highest vote count is 10….
and with the way Lemmy sorts comments, once i hit -5 it’s collapsed and buried at the bottom… so if that were real, way way more people are skipping every other comment and just going to the bottom to downvote people.
or only downvoting and not upvoting a single comment….
i mean, chuds come in and try to troll and they don’t get downvoted like someone reasonably discussing a couple of points….
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Always knew this sanctimonious douchebag was a creep. Now it looks like he's a criminal one.
Is anyone surprised?
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