Senate Democrats ask FBI for files on Gaetz sex trafficking probe

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee have sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray asking for “the complete evidentiary file” from the bureau’s investigation into allegations of sex trafficking of minors against former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), whom President-elected Trump has tapped to become the next attorney general.

The Democratic senators, led by Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin (Ill.), say the allegations against Gaetz are “significant” in light of his associate, Joel Greenberg, having pleaded guilty to the sex trafficking charge for which the Florida Republican was also investigated.

“In order for the Senate to perform its constitutional duty in this instance, we must be able to thoroughly review all relevant materials that speak to the credibility of these serious allegations against Mr. Gaetz,” the senators wrote in their letter to Wray on Wednesday.

The senators wrote that “the grave public allegations against Mr. Gaetz speak directly to his fitness to serve as the chief law enforcement officer for the federal government.”

They argued there is “substantial precedent” for providing such materials to Congress, citing the acknowledgment of Dan Bryant, the Justice Department’s assistant attorney general for legislative affairs, during a House Government Reform hearing in 2002 that the FBI has shared documents related to open and closed investigations with members dozens of times.

Democrats noted the FBI in the past provided to Congress more than 2,000 pages of bureau interviews and summaries related to its investigation of allegations of improper fundraising by the 1996 Clinton-Gore campaign, and more than 880,000 pages of documents related to the decision not to charge former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server to transmit and store government documents.

The letter was signed by Durbin and Democratic Sens. Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.), Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), Mazie Hirono (Hawaii), Laphonza Butler (Calif.), Chris Coons (Del.), Peter Welch (Vt.), Cory Booker (N.J.) and Alex Padilla (Calif.).

Sen. Chuck Grassley (Iowa), who will take over as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee next year, has urged the House Ethics Committee to provide its report about the allegations against Gaetz to the Senate Judiciary panel.

“I think that they should — if they want this process to go smoothly, they shouldn’t inhibit anyway of getting any information the committee needs,” he said of the FBI’s findings related to the allegations against Gaetz.

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