Rep. Matt Gaetz not charged in DOJ sex trafficking probe

Far-right Rep. Matt Gaetz won’t face any charges following a years-long sex-trafficking probe by the Department of Justice, his office confirmed Wednesday.

DOJ officials started reaching out to witnesses in the case on Wednesday to notify them of the decision not to prosecute the 40-year-old congressman, a source familiar with the matter told CNN.

The probe, which started in 2020, was based on Gaetz’s alleged relationship with a then-17-year-old girl and whether he paid for her to travel across state lines for sex several years earlier.

Gaetz had repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and slammed the DOJ probe as bogus.

The Justice Department did not immediately comment on its decision to drop the case.

The formal decision comes months after federal investigators reportedly recommended against charging Gaetz due to credibility concerns with two main witnesses — including the woman at the center of the probe.

A federal grand jury had heard testimony last year from some of Gaetz’s associates, including a former girlfriend of the congressman who was granted immunity ahead of testifying.

Gaetz’s ex was among several women — including the one on whom the probe focused — who had allegedly traveled with Gaetz to the Bahamas in 2018.

While the girl had turned 18 by the time of the trip, officials were investigating whether she was underage when her alleged relationship with Gaetz began.

The second witness with reported credibility questions was Gaetz’s friend Joel Greenberg, who had allegedly introduced the congressman to the girl.

The now-shuttered investigation into Gaetz ramped up after Greenberg, the former tax collector for Seminole County, Fla., pleaded guilty in 2021 to a slew of charges, including sex-trafficking a minor.

That August, Gaetz married his girlfriend Ginger Luckey.

Former Trump White House personnel office director John McEntee told the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot that the congressman had approached him about receiving a presidential pardon in connection with the trafficking investigation.

“[Gaetz said] 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,” McEntee recalled in a deposition taken March 28, 2022. “And, you know, if the President [Trump] could give him a pardon, that would be great. Something along those lines.”

McEntee added that he was “pretty sure” that Gaetz’s request was shot down by then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.