The political fallout continues following the bombshell report about the Justice Department’s investigation into Florida GOP Congressman Matt Gaetz for possible sex crimes. Just the last 24 hours alone, reports have emerged that Gaetz allegedly shared nude photos and videos of women he slept with to impress his colleagues in Congress; that investigators have uncovered ties between Gaetz and a fake ID scheme; and even that he potentially paid for sex with women using the Apple Pay mobile payment platform.
Today, MSNBC’s Chris Jansing reported that Luke Ball has resigned “out of principle” from his job as Gaetz’s Media director, thus leaving the Florida congressman without a top communications strategist during a time of crisis.
Meanwhile, Gaetz continues to insist that he did nothing wrong, but so far only Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) have vouched for his innocence.
Also today, Florida State Rep. Anna Eskamni revealed that Gaetz and the target of the investigation, former Seminole County Tax Collector Joel Greenberg, sent her a “weird AF” voicemail message to her phone.
On Thursday, Eskamni posted a thread to Twitter saying that both the men called her phone on July 4, 2019, and left her unsolicited messages.
“He called me and I didn’t pick up (again, I barely talked to him),” said Eskamani. “He left a voicemail and it wasn’t just him, he was with Matt Gaetz too! I shared the voicemail with a few different people because again, it was SO WEIRD and I didn’t realize they were friends.”
“It was Joel wishing me a happy fourth and then he said there was someone who wanted to say hi and then it was Matt who said hi and referred to me as the future of the Democratic Party,” Eskamni tweeted.
“He pushed me to have lunch with him after he kinda/sorta apologized,” said Eskamani in another tweet. “I picked a very public place to meet in HD47 — it was the weirdest meeting I’ve ever had and I’m pretty sure he was high the entire time too.” she wrote.
“He also tried donating $100 to both my 2018 and 2020 campaign — unsolicited by me. I re-donated his first $100 to a Muslim-led organization and I refunded the second. We weren’t even in any communication yet he would donate to me. It was so weird!” Eskamni said according to the Orlando Weekly.
Listen to the voicemail in the audio link below via the Daily Beast:
