Matt Gaetz was the only member of Congress to vote against a human trafficking bill in 2017 when he was the representative for Florida's 1st Congressional District.
Gaetz, who removed himself from the running for Donald Trump's attorney general pick, was the solo "nay" vote on the Combating Human Trafficking in Commercial Vehicles Act.
This bill—which designated a human trafficking prevention coordinator at the Department of Transportation (DOT) and would coordinate human trafficking prevention efforts across the DOT and other federal agencies, as well as establish an advisory committee on human trafficking—passed the House with bipartisan support of 418 votes to one. 12 House members did not vote.
The congressman defended his "no" vote on Facebook Live in 2017. As reported by the Pensacola News Journal, Gaetz said he had a track record of combating human trafficking but was voting against the "mission creep" of the federal government.
Gaetz told his constituents: "Unless there is an overwhelming, compelling reason that our existing agencies in the federal government can't handle that problem, I vote no because voters in Northwest Florida did not send me to Washington to go and create more federal government."
Gaetz added: "If anything, we should be abolishing a lot of the agencies at the federal level, like the Department of Education, like the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), and sending that power back to our state governments."
Other prominent Republicans who are outspoken about the reach of the federal government, such as Marsha Blackburn and Kristi Noem (who was a representative for South Dakota at the time), voted in favor of the bill.
Three years after his "no" vote, Gaetz was investigated by the Justice Department over whether he violated sex trafficking laws.
Newsweek has contacted Matt Gaetz via email for comment.
A 2021 report by The Daily Beast uncovered two Venmo transactions in 2018 between Gaetz and convicted sex trafficker Joe Greenberg—a man currently serving 11 years in prison—where Gaetz appeared to send Greenberg a total of $900.
Greenberg then sent the money to three teenage girls in transactions labeled "tuition" and "school."
Jillian Lane Wyant, Gaetz's chief of staff, told Newsweek in a statement in 2021: "Once again, the office will reiterate: These allegations are blatantly false and have not been validated by a single human being willing to put their name behind them."
New details on Gaetz, reported by Newsweek, and a House Ethics Committee investigation into his conduct allege that Gaetz paid two underage girls for sex via Venmo and that the girls attended five to 10 sex parties with him between 2017 and 2018.
Donald Trump's new choice for US attorney general is former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Writing on Truth Social, Trump said: "Pam was a prosecutor for nearly 20 years, where she was very tough on Violent Criminals, and made the streets safe for Florida Families."
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