Rep. Matt Gaetz is finding it hard to find friends within his own party as details emerge about the federal investigation looking into his activities.
That would appear to extend to his staff, as it was announced on Friday that Luke Ball, the Florida Republican’s congressional communications director, has stepped down.
In a statement, Gaetz’s office said: “The Office of Congressman Matt Gaetz and Luke Ball have agreed that it would be best to part ways. We thank him for his time in our office, and we wish him the best moving forward.”
Ball resigned from his position “out of principle,” NBC reported on Friday. Ball did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner’s requests for comment.
Ball worked in Gaetz’s congressional office starting in 2018, starting as a scheduler and then serving as a press assistant to the director of communications. In November 2020, he started a digital production company called RightLife Media.
FEW REPUBLICAN LAWMAKERS STEP UP TO DEFEND GAETZ
On Tuesday, the New York Times reported that the Justice Department is investigating whether Gaetz had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old and paid her to travel with him. Gaetz has called the report “totally false.” Gaetz told Axios that his lawyers told him that he “was not a target but a subject of an investigation regarding sexual conduct with women.”
The investigation, according to subsequent reporting, is said to focus on cash payments and gifts given to women recruited online for sex. The look into Gaetz spun out of an investigation into his associate Joel Greenberg, a former tax collector in Seminole County, Florida.
“Providing for flights and hotel rooms for people that you’re dating who are of legal age is not a crime,” Gaetz said on Fox News on Tuesday.
Gaetz said this week that he suspects that a leak to the New York Times is related to thwarting a separate FBI investigation into an alleged scheme to secure a $25 million loan payment from his father, Don Gaetz. The wild scheme proposed that the funds would be used to “free” ex-FBI agent-turned-private investigator Robert Levinson, who is presumed dead.
The Washington Examiner on Wednesday reported screenshots, an email chain, and a typed document in Gaetz’s possession that purportedly support his claims about the extortion operation.
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An additional CNN report on Thursday alleged that Gaetz showed nude photos of women whom he slept with to other lawmakers, including while on the House floor.
