Matt Gaetz, American Impunity, and When Child Rape Still Isn't A Dealbreaker

Mike Johnson, America's Creepiest Youth Pastor, was covering for predators a year before Pam Bondi made it trendy

Friends, I know that between Epstein files, government lies about the murder of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, and Trump suing to block the release of Jack Smith’s evidence, there are far too many right-wing government cover-ups in progress, all at once.

So I hope you won’t mind recalling another, less successful cover-up, that deserved more attention than it got.

Last week, the Florida Bar decided not to reprimand or disbar former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz after the House Ethics Committee found “substantial evidence” he had sex with a 17-year-old girl and frequently used illegal drugs while partying with disgraced Seminole County Tax Collector Joel Greenberg.

That would be the same Matt Gaetz was arrested for DUI in the great state of Florida back in October 2008. At the time of the arrest - where young Mr. Gaetz refused a breathalyzer - his father, Don Gaetz, was a prominent member and future president of the Florida Senate.

Oh, and that case that was later dropped, in the great state of Florida.

That would be the same Matt Gaetz who then went to Congress; and then resigned from Congress in November 2024 after being nominated for Attorney General by Donald Trump, amid highly publicized investigations and allegations of misconduct, including paid sex - and drug use - with said minor.

That Matt Gaetz.

Congress didn’t uncover wrongdoing; they just confirmed the brand.

In late December of 2024 the House Ethics Committee report on Matt Gaetz was finally released, and millions were shocked to learn that a smug, privileged cretin like Matt Gaetz was exactly what we always knew he was.

Speaker Mike Johnson, America’s Creepiest Youth Pastor, had publicly opposed releasing the House Ethics Committee’s report on Gaetz, claiming that possible accountability for statutory rape might set a bad precedent, after Gaetz’s resignation.

Johnson requested the committee keep their findings hidden, but they voted to release it anyway in December 2024.

Gaetz actually filed a lawsuit in federal court to block the publication; however, the committee published it on their website within hours, because the Republicans on the Ethics Committee don’t work for the great state of Florida.

Nothing in that House Ethics report was a shock— just more receipts. This is, after all, the same Matt Gaetz we all clocked years ago as “Creepy Florida Nepo-Brat With a Venmo Account.”

But let’s recall what the bipartisan House Ethics Committee concluded after years of investigation:

Substantial evidence that Matt Gaetz paid women for sex, used illegal drugs, accepted improper gifts, misused his staff for a sexual partner’s passport, and—most explosively—sexual activity with a 17-year-old, still illegal in the great state of Florida, as of this writing.

This wasn’t on some guy’s TikTok video. This was Congress’s own watchdog.

And what happened next?

Nothing. No handcuffs, no perp walk, no dramatic “law and order” speeches from the party that claims to be obsessed with child trafficking.

Just silence. Nary a shrug. Why?

Because this regime doesn’t fight predators. It protects them.

This wasn’t justice delayed, it was justice declined.

So again, the Florida Bar declined to discipline this privileged son of the Republican President of the State Senate last week; explaining that child rape is unrelated to his legal practice.

And none of this is even the crazy part yet.

The crazy part is that 13 months ago, Donald Trump tried to make that same Matt Gaetz the Attorney General of the United States.

America’s top cop. The person in charge of enforcing federal law. The guy who decides who gets prosecuted.

Donald Trump looked at this petulant knob’s résumé and said, “Yes. That one. Put him in charge of justice.”

Friends, that’s not incompetence. That’s recognition. In MAGA politics, ‘innocent until proven guilty’ has become ‘promoted despite proven guilty.’

This scandal, you’ll recall, is also why Gaetz torched Kevin McCarthy’s speakership. That wasn’t ideological courage—it was mutually assured destruction. Gaetz didn’t drain the swamp, he just kept himself, temporarily, from being drained. In the Gaetz/McCarthy blood feud, I still don’t know who I was supposed to root for.

The cover-up wasn’t subtle; it was procedural

But let’s get back to the cover-up, shall we? The Ethics Committee finished its work. The report existed. And Speaker Mike Johnson kept it sealed.

And they knew. They all knew.

The US Speaker of the House knew what the committee had found, and his choice was to protect Matt Gaetz. And if a politician will protect a colleague they knew was credibly accused of sexually exploiting a minor, you have to ask the obvious question:

Who else are they protecting right now?

This is the same Matt Gaetz who rocketed to MAGA fame in 2018 by inviting a known Holocaust denier to the State of the Union, like it was a prom date. And Republicans didn’t recoil then—they rewarded him.

Because the petulant brattiness, the cruelty and provocation, the moral sewage— that is, at present, the brand.

The ethics report didn’t bring accountability; it explained the movement.

And now it’s been over a year since these findings became public. No criminal charges, no accountability. Just the slow, strategic GOP hope that time will numb the outrage.

I mean, Gaetz screamed that it was political hit job (by other Republicans). He sued to bury the report, and failed. The facts came out anyway.

And still—nothing.

The Florida Bar is not disputing that Matt Gaetz fucked a child. They’re going to let him continue to practice law anyway.

One America News is not disputing that Matt Gaetz fucked a child. They’ve given him his own TV show.

So when people ask, “Why isn’t Matt Gaetz in jail?” the answer isn’t complicated.

This current right wing political movement we’re all living through doesn’t believe in accountability. It believes in hierarchy.

Rules are for enemies, protection is for insiders. And if you’re vicious enough, loyal enough, and shameless enough—you won’t get punished. You get promoted.

And if, like Mr. Gaetz, you can’t get promoted - they’ll make sure you get protected.

This wasn’t Trump’s mistake pick for Attorney General; it was a mission statement. The system didn’t fail; it recognized one of its own.

And if you’re is still wondering how a movement that screams about “saving the children” keeps shielding men accused—by their own institutions—of abusing them?

Stop listening to what they say, and start watching who they protect.