Fact Check: Did Matt Gaetz Seek Trump Pardon Over Trafficking Allegation?

Donald Trump’s nomination of former Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz to attorney general generated scrutiny from the public and his party, with a House Ethics Committee report documenting an investigation of alleged misconduct still in the air.

The House Committee on Wednesday said it did not agree to make its report public. In June, the committee said it was investigating whether Gaetz engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, accepted improper gifts, and sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct.

Gaetz has denied any wrongdoing and has not been criminally charged but, amid the controversy, he withdrew as the attorney general nominee on Thursday.

Following his nomination, a Democratic strategist suggested that Gaetz had tried to seek a presidential pardon from Trump relating to a now-closed Justice Department investigation that examined allegations of violating federal sex trafficking laws.

The Claim

A post on X, formerly Twitter, by Democratic strategist Adam Parkhomenko, posted on November 19, 2024, said: “Matt Gaetz asked Trump for a pardon for sex trafficking a child. He didn’t get that pardon. So he came back and asked to be Attorney General.”

The Facts

The claim from Parkhomenko is based on the testimony of Trump aide John McEntee who told the January 6 House committee in 2022 that Gaetz had approached him about a pardon from Trump regarding the Justice Department investigation into allegations of “child trafficking.”

However, McEntee did not state whether the allegation against Gaetz was accurate and Gaetz has not confirmed whether McEntee’s comments were correct.

A spokesperson for Gaetz told Newsweek that the matter had been addressed in a statement provided to the media in 2022. Speaking to CNN in 2022, a Gaetz spokesperson said: “Congressman Matt Gaetz discussed pardons for many other people publicly and privately at the end of President Donald Trump’s first term.

“As for himself, President Trump addressed this malicious rumor more than a year ago stating, ‘Congressman Matt Gaetz has never asked me for a pardon.’ Rep. Gaetz continues to stand by President Trump’s statement.”

Newsweek has reached out to McEntee through a contact email address for The Right Stuff, a dating app McEntee cofounded.

As reported by Newsweek, in December 2022 the January 6 House Select Committee released interview transcripts of McEntee saying under oath that Gaetz had sought a pardon from Trump before he left the White House about the sex trafficking probe.

The transcripts showed that McEntee told the committee how Gaetz had asked him about seeking a pardon from Trump via then White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.

McEntee testified that Gaetz told him he was aware of an investigation into the congressman, saying Gaetz had said “he didn’t do anything wrong, but they’re going to try to make his life hell.”

The transcript between McEntee and the Committee is as follows:

Q What can you recall about what he said?

A That they’re launching an investigation into him, or that there is an investigation into him, and he didn’t do anything wrong, but they’re going to try to make his life hell. And, you know, if the president could give him a pardon, that would be great. Something along those lines.

Q What did you say in response?

A I just said, ‘oh, OK.’ I said, ‘who knows about this?’ I think he referred to maybe Meadows, plus one other person he told. But it was pretty, pretty tight hold. And then I remember asking about it later, and they said, no, we’re not doing that.

Q Who was it who said they weren’t doing it?

A I’m pretty sure it was Meadows.

Q Did he say anything about why they weren’t going to give him a pardon?

A No.

Q In the pardon, was this in the context of ‘I think it was a child trafficking investigation’?

A I think that was the context, yes.

McEntee said he could not recall responding to Gaetz about the pardon, that he didn’t believe he discussed the possibility again with Mark Meadows or with anyone else, and had not discussed the possibility of the pardon before the dinner, testifying: “That’s when I first learned about it.”

Newsweek has contacted a media representative for Trump via email for comment.

The Justice Department started investigating the Florida congressman in the summer of 2020, and the FBI executed a search warrant on Gaetz later that year, seizing his cellphone and a cellphone belonging to his ex-girlfriend.

The public learned of the existence of the investigation in 2021, when The New York Times reported that prosecutors were investigating whether Gaetz had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old in 2019 and paid for her to travel with him, in violation of federal sex-trafficking laws.

The investigation into Gaetz stemmed from a broader Justice Department inquiry into Gaetz’s longtime associate, Joel Greenberg. Greenberg pleaded guilty in 2021 to six felony counts of sex trafficking, wire fraud, conspiracy, identity theft, and stalking.

In September 2022, after more than two years of investigating Gaetz, prosecutors recommended that no charges be filed against the Florida congressman. The investigation was formally closed in February 2023.

Gaetz denied any wrongdoing throughout the course of the investigation and claimed it was an “organized criminal extortion” scheme against him and his family.

The Ruling

Needs Context.

Former Trump aide John McEntee testified to the January 6 House Committee that Gaetz had asked for a pardon from Trump regarding a “child trafficking” allegation the Justice Department had investigated.

McEntee said Gaetz had said “he didn’t do anything wrong” but that the investigation was “going to try to make his life hell.”

Gaetz denied wrongdoing throughout the DOJ investigation which formally closed in February 2023 after prosecutors recommended no charges be filed.

The House Ethics Committee also investigated the allegations, but said on Wednesday it would not agree to make its report public.

FACT CHECK BY Newsweek’s Fact Check team