Bizarre Twist: Documents Seem to Indicate That the $25 Million to be Extorted from Don Gaetz Was to Be Used... as Ransom to (Supposedly) Free Robert Levinson, a Hostage Held By Iran

We gave these fuckers over a billion dollars and they got to keep their kidnap victims, huh?

"Partners in Peace" FTW.

I.. don't even know what to say about any of this.

The Florida Republican countered the report on Twitter and in statements to Axios and Fox News with a claim that his family is being extorted for $25 million and that the people pushing stories about an investigation into his relationships with women are the people extorting him and the subjects of an FBI extortion investigation over the last few weeks.

The documents in Gaetz's possession detail an alleged scheme that revolves around attempts by former Air Force intelligence officer Bob Kent and Beggs & Lane attorney David McGee, a former federal prosecutor, to free ex-FBI agent-turned-private investigator Robert Levinson from imprisonment in Iran.

Levinson went missing in Iran in March 2007. McGee is the attorney for the Levinson family. Kent in December 2018 had planned a secret mission to try to rescue Levinson, but he was reportedly thwarted by the federal government.

Screenshots provided to the Washington Examiner show a message that his father, Don Gaetz, a former Florida state Senate president, said he received from Kent on March 16. The message proposes "a plan that can make [Matt Gaetz's] future legal and political problems go away." Gaetz has denied any relationship with a minor.

That's a classic extortion pitch.

Extortion is an interesting crime in that two thirds of an extortion demand are legal.

It is legal to ask for money, or even demand it.

Is is also legal to threaten to reveal damaging information, and of course it's legal to promise to keep it secret.

The crime of extortion comes when you link the demand for money with the threat of revealing information (or the promise of not revealing it).

It's only the linkage between demand and threat that's illegal.

That's why extortion demands are conveyed in a convoluted way. They don't want to be caught on paper -- or on tape -- making the connection between the demand and the threat explicit.

Which is why the cops often rig someone with a wire to get the blackmailer to be very clear about the deal he's offering and the money he's demanding and the link between them.

...

Despite the family members of Levinson saying in March 2020 that they presumed him to be dead based on information given by U.S. officials, the alleged message from Kent said he had located Levinson in Iran and has two "proof of life videos." Kent also requested the Gaetz family's help returning Levinson in exchange for giving Matt Gaetz credit for the operation and promising a presidential pardon for unnamed legal issues.

See below for previous, um, "efforts" to free Levinson.

The next day, on March 17, Don Gaetz purportedly met with Kent, and Kent handed him a three-page document outlining "Project Homecoming." That document detailed a plan to save Levinson at the cost of a $25 million loan.

Right, a "loan."

For those of you wondering, "Why blackmail Don Gaetz's father?," here's your answer:

In 1983, Don Gaetz co-founded VITAS Healthcare, and in 2004, he and his co-founders reportedly sold their stock in the company for $406 million.

In the Project Homecoming document, Kent then asked that the loan should be deposited in the trust account of Beggs & Land, naming David L. McGee, and deposited no later than March 19.

The Project Homecoming document states that Gaetz is "under investigation by the FBI for various public corruption and public integrity issues" and alleges that the FBI is aware of photos depicting Gaetz in a "sexual orgy with underage prostitutes."

"In exchange for the funds being arranged, and upon the release of Mr. Levinson, the team that delivers Mr. Levinson to the President of The United States shall strongly advocate that President Biden issue a Presidential Pardon, or instruct the Department of Justice to terminate any and all investigations involving Congressman Gaetz," the document reads.

Yeah, this sounds like nasty bullshit to me.

For how many years were we promised a smoking-gun photo a drunk George Bush standing on a table waving his dick around?

How many times were we promised that there were pictures of Trump's sexual assaults? And his Russian connections?

I don't know if this is blackmail, though, because it's not threatening to reveal information unless the "loan" is given, but to use influence to get a pardon if the money is supplied.

I imagine that is possibly a smokescreen to cover up an actual threat of blackmail, and that's why the FBI needed Don Gaetz to wear a wire to see if these guys would explicitly say they were threatening him and his son.

The ridiculousness of the claims convinces me that my initial hunch was right, and this is all more leftwing Deep State lies.

I feel like this explains Matt Gaetz's weirdness in refusing to fully explain the blackmail plot (or the "promise of a pardon for a 'loan' plot") -- he was probably worried the government would investigate him for "leaking national security secrets" if he explained the plot's Iranian Hostage angle.

Documents supporting this bizarre story at the link (to Washington Examiner).

More background on the unlikely plans to rescue Levinson here.

Update: Jordan Schechtel points out that this guy Bob Kent has had a history of seeking money to free Robert Levinson.

posted by Ace at 05:45 PM

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