They say you can indict a ham sandwich. That is true, provided the prosecutor wants it indicted. If the prosecutor doesn’t want the possible target indicted, it can be nearly impossible, as we’ve seen with various decisions not to charge police officers around the country.
It appears that the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Florida wants to indict Matt Gaetz.
According to NBC News [1], Matt Gaetz’s old girlfriend testified to a grand jury today:
The ex-girlfriend, whose name is being withheld by NBC News to respect her privacy, has been in talks for months with prosecutors about an immunity deal. Under a possible deal, she would avoid prosecution for obstruction of justice in return for testifying in the investigation into whether Gaetz in 2017 had sex with a 17-year-old female for money and whether months later he and others violated a federal law prohibiting people for paying for prostitutes overseas.
Obstruction of justice could mean that she lied to the officers the first time or withheld items that might’ve proven the crime. The real key here is that the article states that she has reached a deal for immunity. Prosecutors do not give out immunity deals unless they involve testimony that practically – on its own – proves the target’s guilt.
It is even conceivable that the woman in question is the once 17-year-old who then turned 18 and lied to the FBI, and was then charged as an adult with obstruction of justice – though that is PURE speculation and mentioned only to enlighten our readers that it is a possibility that the “only” real witness was in the grand jury room today.
The one thing we know with certainty is that prosecutors don’t give immunity deals to people who cannot deliver the goods.
Remember indicting a ham sandwich? It is even easier when one doesn’t even have to prove whether the person knew the age of the girl. She could have shown him a state-issued Florida ID saying she was 25 years old and if her actual age was under 18, it doesn’t matter in the least. It is a crime.
** As an aside. Society must stop calling people involved in sexual relationships with teens “pedophiles.” A pedophile has a strict definition (in law and medicine) as someone who acts on an attraction to pre-pubescent children. An adult who has sex with a 16 or 17-year-old just because they’re “hot” is known as a rapist.
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Jason Miciak & Nicole Hickman