| | | | | |  | | By Michael Grunwald | Presented by Facebook | | 
An airplane flies with a banner in tow reading "Tick Tock Matt Gaetz" over the United States Federal Courthouse in Orlando, Fla. | Getty Images | WINGMAN OR LEAD PILOT? You've heard about "Gaetzgate," the prurient scandal engulfing the provocative Trump ally Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.). His reputed wingman, a county tax collector named Joel Greenberg, pled guilty to federal charges including the sex trafficking of a 17-year-old — and Greenberg reportedly claims Gaetz had sex with that 17-year-old. It's a big story about a big MAGA-world star. A plane flew over the courthouse with a banner that read "Tick Tock Matt Gaetz." But you haven't heard enough about the bomb that's already exploded in this scandal, because it doesn't fit the "Gaetzgate" story line of a prominent Trumper in trouble. That bomb is the spectacularly sleazy record of Greenberg, who's now in the spotlight for apparently flipping on his famous congressional running buddy, but ought to be famous in his own right as one of the most vile creatures ever to slither out of Florida's political swamp. It's not just that Greenberg had sex with the same 17-year-old he's accusing Gaetz of having sex with, an accusation Gaetz denies. It's not just that Greenberg was the pimp in the sex-for-cash operation in which he claims Gaetz was a john, another accusation Gaetz denies. It's that Greenberg also converted the Seminole County tax office into an X-rated criminal enterprise, abusing his power and ripping off the public in a variety of almost comically egregious ways: | • | He looted taxpayer funds to buy himself not only illicit sex but also cryptocurrency and Kobe Bryant memorabilia. | • | He bribed a federal official to help him rip off a Covid relief program. | • | He committed identity fraud with driver's licenses he stole from his office. | • | He hatched an elaborate plot to frame a political rival as a child molester, and posted racist rants from a fake social media account he opened in his rival's name. | | My POLITICO colleague Marc Caputo described Greenberg in a news story as "one of the most corrupt Florida politicians of all time," a superlative akin to being one of the most shallow Kardashians or most racist Proud Boys. It would be inaccurate to call Greenberg pond scum, because he doesn't live in a pond, but he did stash a paramour on the county payroll, run a cryptocurrency mining business on the public dime, and steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from taxpayers. He posed a typically thoughtful question to a collaborator in his Covid relief scam: "How quickly can I blow it all on [genitalia-based synecdoche for intimate female companionship]?" Nevertheless, it seems that Greenberg won't face the full consequences of his depravity because he's willing to dime out a pal who happens to serve in Congress. He pled guilty to only six of the 33 charges he originally faced, and while it's still unclear how long he'll serve, he'll clearly benefit from blabbing. Prosecutors often offer deals to little fish, even despicable little fish, to help them go after bigger fish. But based on what's known so far, the only sense in which Gaetz is a bigger fish than Greenberg is that he has a more prominent job. Trump haters are having fun watching Gaetz on the legal and political griddle, and he deserves to be there if Greenberg's claims about him are accurate. But beyond the sugar daddies and schadenfreude, there's an inconvenient truth about political prosecution at the heart of "Gaetzgate." The Supreme Court has made it almost impossible to nail politicians on traditional corruption charges like bribery or "theft of honest services," throwing out convictions of Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, who let an oil executive pay to renovate his home, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, who took cash from a vitamin executive, and even Louisiana Rep. William Jefferson, who was caught stashing $90,000 in bribe money for a Nigerian politician in his freezer. These days, prosecutors who want the scalps of politicians on their wall usually need to nail them for behavior unrelated to their official duties. "It's so hard to get a politician for theft of honest services, so they try to find something else to prosecute," said legal analyst Katie Phang, a former Miami prosecutor. University of Michigan Law School professor Barbara McQuade, a former prosecutor who put Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick in jail before Trump commuted his sentence, calls this approach the "Al Capone theory," a reference to the former mobster who was finally put away for tax evasion. "The courts have really chipped away at traditional corruption prosecutions, so you might see a lot more of the Al Capone route," McQuade said. The irony of "Gaetzgate" is that even though modern politicians have to be flagrantly larcenous to get busted for corruption, Greenberg was brazen enough to qualify — and now he's getting a lighter sentence for ratting out a friend who isn't accused of corruption. It's as if Capone got to cut a deal to take down an associate. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas for us at mgrunwald@politico.com and rrayasam@politico.com, or on Twitter at @mikegrunwald and @renurayasam.
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– Reforming Section 230 | | | | | | — House Republicans plan rebellion over mask rules: A GOP-led revolt over masks is brewing inside the House as the Capitol wrestles with how and when to return to pre-pandemic routines. Rep. Brian Mast of Florida stood up during a GOP conference meeting this morning and told his colleagues that he's "done" wearing masks and will refuse to wear them on the House floor going forward, even if it means being fined, according to multiple sources in the room. — McCarthy announces opposition to Capitol riot commission: House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy announced his opposition to a bill that would establish a bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection — rejecting a proposal brokered in part by a member of his own conference.
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| — Biden touts America's electric automotive future: Biden traveled to Michigan to drum up support for his plans to reorient the American economy toward a greener future , and to lavish praise on Ford Motor Co. as it shows off an electric version of its signature pickup truck, slated for next year. "We're at a great inflection point in American history," Biden said in Dearborn after touring Ford's electric vehicle production facility. "How we handle the next four to 10 years is going to determine where we are going to be 30, 40, 50 years from now." — National money floods New York mayor's race: Hedge fund billionaires, charter school boosters and prominent labor unions are pouring cash into the New York City mayor's race — contributing to a record haul intended to shape the outcome of the election at the same time new reforms seek to limit the influence of money in politics. A decade after the U.S. Supreme Court flung open the doors to unlimited special-interest money in elections, the Democratic primary is being infiltrated at every turn, with an unprecedented $11 million already committed in TV ads, according to a POLITICO review of spending calculated by AdImpact.
| | | | SUBSCRIBE TO WEST WING PLAYBOOK: Add West Wing Playbook to keep up with the power players, latest policy developments and intriguing whispers percolating inside the West Wing and across the highest levels of the Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today. | | | | | | | | Nightly asks you: CDC guidelines and the president say we can drop our masks if we're vaxxed. But to Nightly editor Chris Suellentrop, the real sign of our pandemic spring was the return of self-service fountain drinks at his local Panera. What small change have you witnessed recently that surprised and delighted you? Send us your answer in our form, and we'll include select responses in our Friday edition.
| | | THE ROAD TO A ROE CHALLENGE — For anti-abortion advocates, this moment has been decades in the making. In the latest POLITICO Dispatch, health care reporter Alice Miranda Ollstein reports on how Republican lawmakers have been intentionally passing strict abortion laws for years that will spark lawsuits in an effort to get a case challenging Roe v. Wade before the high court.
| | | | | | |   | | | | | | PALESTINIANS GO ON STRIKE AS VIOLENCE CONTINUES — Palestinians across Israel and the occupied territories went on strike in a rare collective protest today as Israeli missiles toppled a building in Gaza and militants in the Hamas-ruled territory fired dozens of rockets that killed two people. The demonstrations and ongoing violence came as moves toward a cease-fire appeared to be gaining more traction. U.S. officials said the Biden administration was privately encouraging Israel to wind down its bombardment of Gaza. Egyptian negotiators also were working to halt the fighting, and while they have not made progress with Israel, they were optimistic international pressure would force it to the table, according to an Egyptian diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was discussing diplomatic efforts. The general strike was a sign that the war could widen again after a spasm of communal violence in Israel and protests across the occupied West Bank last week.
| | | | JOIN WEDNESDAY - "THE RECAST" LIVE CONVERSATION: Earlier this year, we launched "The Recast" newsletter breaking down the changing power dynamics in America and how race and identity shape politics, policy and power. We are recasting how we report on this crucial intersection by bringing you fresh insights, scoops, dispatches from across the country and new voices that challenge "business as usual." Join Brakkton Booker, "The Recast" newsletter author and national political correspondent at POLITICO, for a live conversation with Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.); Malika Redmond, co-founder, president and CEO of Women Engaged; Sonal Shah, founding president, The Asian American Foundation; and Lauren Williams, co-founder, CEO and editor in chief of Capital B, about redefining power in America. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | GARDEN STATE HOPES LANE CLOSED FOR CHRISTIE — An overwhelming majority of Chris Christie's former New Jersey constituents think he would not make a good president , and just one in 10 say they'd like to see him run again, according to a Monmouth University poll released today. The poll comes as Christie, a Republican who served two terms as governor of New Jersey, teases a 2024 presidential run through media appearances and allies' anonymous leaks to the media, Matt Friedman writes. "Christie left a lasting impression on the state. Nearly every New Jerseyan still has an opinion of him. The problem is those opinions tend to be fairly negative," Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, said in a statement that accompanied the poll results. Christie ended his 2016 presidential run after finishing sixth in the New Hampshire primary. The amount of time he spent out of state while he sought the GOP nomination, along with the Bridgegate scandal, damaged the once-popular former governor's reputation among residents of his home state. The poll did find a sliver of good news for Christie: While he remains by far the least popular living former New Jersey governor, state residents feel somewhat more favorably toward him than they did three years ago, shortly after he left office.
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