The sleazy, sordid Matt Gaetz scandal: are the walls now closing in on him?

T here could have been no more fitting venue for the bellicose US congressman Matt Gaetz to launch his nationwide “America first” speaking tour than The Villages. Where better to perpetuate the fantasy that all is going well for a politician seen as the “ultimate Maga bro” than Florida’s ultra-conservative “Disney World for retirees”?

The Republican loyalists who filled the ballroom of the Brownwood hotel and spa on Friday night didn’t come to hear whether the embattled Gaetz ever paid a 17-year-old minor for sex, took sleazy sex-trafficking trips to the Bahamas or assisted in his disgraced former “wingman” Joel Greenberg’s efforts to install cronies in well-paid positions of political power.

But the scandal now engulfing Gaetz is truly one of the most remarkable, sleazy and tabloid-ready in recent American politics. Away from all the Donald Trump cheerleading by Gaetz and his fellow rightwing fire-starter Marjorie Taylor Greene during their national tour of distraction, it is hard to escape the notion that the walls are closing in.

Much of the focus is on a justice department inquiry into the 39-year-old Florida congressman that, in recent days, is reported to have grown beyond initial sex trafficking allegations to an inquiry involving alleged corruption.

According to the Associated Press, federal investigators are now looking into Gaetz’s connections with medical marijuana, and whether certain friends and associates with interests in the nascent yet lucrative industry in Florida influenced or enriched themselves from legislation the politician was sponsoring.

Neither Gaetz or the justice department responded to requests for comment, and the FBI has previously told the Guardian that it “declines to confirm nor deny the existence or status of an investigation”.

But it is the salacious side of the allegations, and his friendship with Greenberg, the former Seminole county tax collector now in jail on 33 federal charges from stalking to sex trafficking a child, which have garnered most attention.

Gaetz, who represents a large swath of Florida’s panhandle, has tried to distance himself from Greenberg, despite an avalanche of evidence that the pair were close. It includes tweets showing the two friends with Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis; receipts of Venmo payments from Gaetz to Greenberg in the same amount that Greenberg then immediately paid to a teenage girl; and a “creepy” voicemail the pair sent in 2019 to Anna Eskamani, a young Democratic state congresswoman.

Perhaps the most damning development came a week ago when the Daily Beast published a stunning “confession” letter it said was written by Greenberg to Roger Stone, a close ally and political “fixer” of Trump, allegedly seeking a pardon from the then president in exchange for $250,000.

Notably, it implicated Gaetz directly in paying numerous women for sex, including a girl who was 17 at the time and who is now said to be a sex industry worker. “My lawyers, that I fired, know the whole story about MG’s involvement,” Greenberg allegedly wrote in one text to Stone, according to the Beast.

“They know he paid me to pay the girls and that he and I both had sex with the girl who was underage.”

Stone acknowledged to the Beast that Greenberg had tried to hire him to secure a pardon from Trump, but denied seeking or receiving payment for his assistance.

Gaetz, meanwhile, has always insisted the claim he had a relationship with a minor is “verifiably false”. In a bizarre, freewheeling appearance on Fox News in March, the same day the New York Times first reported the existence of the federal inquiry, Gaetz claimed he was himself the victim of an $25m extortion plot involving a justice department official.

He also attempted to draw the Fox host, Tucker Carlson, into the scandal by claiming that Carlson and his wife had been to dinner with Gaetz and a female friend whom he said was later “threatened by the FBI”.

A surprised Carlson said he did not recall meeting the mystery woman, and subsequently called it “one of the weirdest interviews I’ve ever conducted”.

Prosecutors, meanwhile, have a 15 May deadline to strike a plea deal with Greenberg, set by US district court judge Gregory Presnell in April. Greenberg’s attorney Fritz Scheller said after the hearing that his client was cooperating, telling reporters: “I am sure Matt Gaetz is not feeling very comfortable today.”

Outwardly, Gaetz has remained defiant, ignoring some calls from within his own party to resign while still enjoying the support of Republican leadership. The House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, has said he will not take any action unless charges are filed.

But the scandal has caused two Gaetz aides to resign, and political opponents in Florida have stepped up their criticism as the Greenberg plea deal deadline approaches.

Eskamani said she went public with the voicemail partly to expose the “bro culture” in Tallahassee politics within which, she said, Gaetz and Greenberg flourished.

“Political institutions as a whole are very male-dominated, there’s a sense of privilege and often those in public office come from a family lineage or wealth or establishment,” she said. “It’s hard to get in if you don’t come from those experiences.

“It’s not like Matt Gaetz created bro culture, but he absolutely benefited from it, exploited it and is being protected by it today. It’s slimy characters, tons of money, inappropriate use of power when it comes to lavish trips, and the use of sex and drugs to also exhibit your power. It’s just gross all around.”

She added: “[But] there is no doubt in my mind that there will be charges he will face. I think it’s going to take time for the DoJ to build that case, but I feel confident there will be consequences for his behavior.”