A former member of Rep. Matt Gaetz’s congressional staff added yet another strange twist to the damage-control effort following bombshell news of federal investigators looking into whether his former boss paid for sex or had sex with a 17-year-old.
Nathan Nelson, a retired Air Force captain and wheelchair-bound Purple Heart recipient due to being wounded in Afghanistan, worked for the Florida Republican congressman’s office from January 2017 through late 2020 as his director of military affairs.
In a press conference on Monday organized by Gaetz’s congressional office, Nelson described an encounter with the FBI that he said reinforced his belief that Gaetz did not do anything illegal.
“Last Wednesday afternoon, two members of the FBI came to my house unannounced to question me about allegations surrounding congressman Gaetz,” Nelson said. “They told me that members of the media reached out to them, asserting that I had previous knowledge of congressman Gaetz’s involvement in illegal activities. They asserted that because of that knowledge, I resigned my position as director of military affairs.”
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“Nothing could be further from the truth,” Nelson said.
He said that he has known Gaetz for over six years, that he had no knowledge of any illegal activities, and that his end of October 2020 departure was pre-planned.
“This baseless claim against me leaves me further convinced that the allegations against congressman Gaetz alike was fabricated and merely an attempt to discredit a very vocal conservative,” Nelson said.
Nelson said that he contacted Gaetz’s office after the encounter but claimed that he had not spoken to Gaetz himself in several months.
The press conference took place outside Nelson’s Florida home, which was gifted to him mortgage-free by the nonprofit organization Building Homes for Heroes. He and his wife discussed the organization and their home in a March 2019 Fox News segment.
Asked about an alleged FBI presence at Nelson’s home on the evening of March 31, an FBI spokesperson said: “We do not have a comment for you.” A Department of Justice spokesperson declined to comment, citing department policy not to confirm or deny the existence or status of an investigation.
Gaetz dug in on his denials of doing anything illegal in a Washington Examiner op-ed published Monday.
“Just like the mafia, the D.C. swamp protects its ‘made men,’” Gaetz said. “Since I’m taking my turn under the gun, let me address the allegations against me directly. First, I have never, ever paid for sex. And second, I, as an adult man, have not slept with a 17-year-old.”
Nelson’s press conference marks one of the few instances of public support for Gaetz in the wake of the news about the investigation.
Few Republicans, other than firebrand Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, have come to Gaetz’s defense. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told reporters that Gaetz could lose his committee seats if the allegations turn out to be true, and The View host Meghan McCain called on Gaetz to resign. His congressional office’s communications director, Luke Ball, left his office on Friday.
The damage-control press conference follows the congressman’s initial defensive claims that the investigation into him is related to thwarting a separate FBI investigation into an alleged scheme to secure a $25 million loan payment from his father, Don Gaetz. Last week, the Washington Examiner reported screenshots, an email chain, and a typed document in Gaetz’s possession that purportedly support his claims about the operation.
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The scheme, allegedly proposed by Bob Kent, said that the funds would be used to “free” ex-FBI agent Robert Levinson from Iran. Kent, who has long been insistent of Levinson’s whereabouts, though Levinson is presumed dead, would then either have made an investigation into Gaetz disappear or secure a pardon from President Joe Biden. Gaetz also alleged that former federal prosecutor and Levinson family attorney David McGee was part of the scheme, which McGee has denied.
Skeptics of Gaetz note that any shakedown attempt by Kent could be completely separate from the investigation into possible sexual misconduct and not related to a DOJ plot against him.
