Free Republic

Rep. Matt Gaetz possesses text message screenshots, an email, and a typed document that purportedly support his claims that a federal investigation into his relationship with a 17-year-old is related to an extortion scheme against him. On Tuesday, the New York Times reported that the Justice Department is investing whether Gaetz had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old and paid her to travel with him. Gaetz has called the report "totally false." Gaetz told Axios that his lawyers told him that he "was not a target but a subject of an investigation regarding sexual conduct with women." The Florida Republican...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Rep. Matt Gaetz’s father, Don, a former Florida Senate president, said he is working with the FBI, including wearing a wire on more than one occasion as part of an investigation into an alleged extortion plot that the pair said was organized by former federal prosecutor David McGee. “The FBI asked me to try and get that information for Matt and an indication we would transfer money to Mr. David McGee,” Don Gaetz said in an interview late Tuesday, without specifying what information he was referring to. McGee, who is now in private practice with a Pensacola,...

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Three UCLA basketball players accused of shoplifting in China apologized Wednesday before coach Steve Alford announced they were being suspended indefinitely. LiAngelo Ball, Jalen Hill and Cody Riley were described as "good young men" by Alford at a campus news conference. The coach said the trio wouldn't be allowed to suit up, practice or travel with the team while the university continues to sort out the circumstances of last week's incident in Hangzhou, China. Ball, Hill and Riley took turns acknowledging their actions and apologizing while also thanking President Donald Trump for intervening on their behalf...

President Donald Trump confirmed that he did intervene with China President Xi Jinping in the case of three UCLA basketball players who were arrested after shoplifting in China and those players are set to leave the country. LiAngelo Ball, the younger brother of Los Angeles Lakers rookie guard Lonzo Ball, Cody Riley and Jalen Hill, were arrested last Tuesday for allegedly stealing from a Louis Vuitton store next to the team's hotel in Hangzhou before their season opener against Georgia Tech.