Rep. Matt Gaetz’s wingman just struck a plea agreement that could see him offering evidence against the Florida Republican in a sex-trafficking probe. But in a speech in Ohio this weekend, Gaetz tried to downplay the scandal—and compare it to a Congressional budget procedure. “I’m being falsely accused of exchanging money for naughty favors,” Gaetz said at the Ohio Political Summit in Strongsville on Saturday, according to NBC News. “Yet, Congress has reinstituted a process that legalizes the corrupt act of exchanging money for favors, through earmarks, and everybody knows that that’s the corruption.” Last week, The Daily Beast reported that witnesses can place Gaetz in a hotel room after a 2019 GOP fundraiser, snorting cocaine with an escort.
