Federal prosecutors investigating Rep. Matt Gaetz over sex-trafficking allegations are also considering whether he talked about running a fake candidate in a Florida Senate election to skew the results, The New York Times reported on Thursday. Funding “ghost candidates” is considered a violation of campaign finance law, the report said.
In November, the GOP candidate in the race, Jason Brodeur, an associate of Gaetz, beat the Democratic candidate, Patricia Sigman, to win a seat in the state Senate.
However, as The Times reported, investigators had been told about a conversation in which Gaetz and Chris Dorworth, a prominent Florida lobbyist, discussed running a fake third candidate to siphon votes from Sigman and boost Brodeur’s chance of winning.
A third-party candidate, Jestine Iannotti, did run in the race. Brodeur ultimately beat Sigman by more than 7,000 votes, more than Iannotti got.
The Times’ sources said that this line of inquiry was in its early stages.
Gaetz’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.