years, i think you remove that kind of intense, legitimizing force. we are treating cure non-linked accounts [indiscernible] -- qanon that does not make it better. >> all right. thank you, everyone. it has been a really great discussion, and i look forward to more, so have a good evening, everyone, and thanks again.

>> good meeting, you all. >> nice to see you again. >> nice to see you again. to matt sapolsky, national security reporter for the washington post. good morning. caller: thank you for having me. host: give us the lay of the land. one of the allegations against representative gaetz? guest: it is important to note that he is not charged with anything. this is just an investigation and he has been very eager to say, or staff is been eager to say that no women have publicly come forward and accused him but we know the justice department is investigating that he had sex with a 17-year-old girl that may have violated federal trafficking laws. he may have paid women for sex,

including in ways that violated federal trafficking laws because the crossed state lines. investigators have focused on a trip he took to the bahamas on a private plane that had some women on it and another florida political hand surgeon in orlando. that is the broad strokes of what they are looking at. generally speaking they are looking at whether he violated sex trafficking laws and whether he had sex with a minor at the time. host: who was investigating all these charges? is this state-level crime, federal crime, just the house ethics committee? guest: the most serious investigation is being done by the justice department. federal prosecutors based in washington, d.c. his case grew out of a different

federal investigation run by federal prosecutors in the middle district of florida. they were investigating this local republican by the name of joel greenberg. the house ethics committee investigation is a separate matter. that was announced yesterday and more of an internal personnel thing. that is congress investigating one of its own. the more serious investigation, because he could face legal consequences, is by the justice department's public integrity section. host: you mentioned his name but tell us who joel greenberg is and what he has to do with his entire allegation investigation. guest: joel greenberg is the former tax collector, elected tax collector, of seminole county and he was a friend of gaetz. you can see pictures of them together on twitter. he is a colorful character. he got in a lot of trouble when

he was the tax collector, generating a lot of controversy over allegations of misspending the office's money. he was eventually charged with that a campaign opponent in the tax collector race. stalking is a misleading word. he fabricated evidence of misconduct that he alleged his opponent committed. it was all a lie. he created a facebook and twitter to get this on the radar of the opponent's employer. they charged him with that. they brought a whole slew of other charges against him. he stands accused of 33 different federal charges including the stocking, stealing from tax collectors, including when he was out on bond trying to defraud a coronavirus program, and for gaetz accused of sex trafficking a minor.

investigators believe they might have both had sex with the same 17-year-old. the 17-year-old at issue in joel greenberg's case is the same involve the matt gaetz's case. host: has greenberg agreed to a plea deal and that is what is bringing this around to matt gaetz? or something separate going on? guest: the investigation was already around matt gaetz before we learned joel greenberg it is in negotiations to possibly plead guilty. earlier this week there was just a status hearing in joel greenberg's case and a prosecutor on that case indicated we are probably not going to need the summer trial date. let's set a different date, may 15, by which we think we can come to a plea agreement. that is pretty bad news for matt gaetz.

the way we are told from sources and the way joel greenberg's lawyer describes it, joel greenberg has potentially pivotal information that could help investigators in the matt gaetz investigation. as i mentioned they both allegedly shared this same girl for sex which would be illegal. we understand from talking to people in this world and other officials that investigators are exploring allegations joel greenberg was the guy that procured women for gaetz. greenberg has credibility issues. one of the things that first got him on the radar was fabricating evidence against another politician. he is not the person you want as a cooperator or witness because jurors, if it came to that, would not very likely believe him. but he could point investigators in the areas they may be didn't think they go or evidence they

didn't know existed. his cooperation certainly ups the ante for gaetz but we will see if he pleads guilty, he is still just a negotiations, b, how much he cooperates and c, how honest he is. host: gaetz insists the claims are false but also talked about extortion issues. can you tell us what that is about? guest: yeah and i would think about this as a related but separate thing from the investigation into gaetz himself. investigators have been exploring gaetz on this alleged sex trafficking since last year. it was kind of preceding the pace. in march of this year a group of guys find out about the investigation. we don't exactly know how but

they seem to get pretty specific information on it. there are three people we know to be loosely involved in this. a former air force intelligence analyst, another guy who is a florida real estate developer who has been in trouble for fraud before, and gaetz has referenced a former federal prosecutor in florida. the first people i mentioned, he didn't touch with gaetz's father and they proposed to his father, don gaetz, they write him a letter and say hey, we know about the investigation into her son and we can help make the problems go away if you give us a huge sum of money.

it will help us rescue this long-held former fbi agent. i know this is a circuitous plot. because of the fame it will generate and the goodwill it will help your son's political and legal woes. don gaetz says this is extorted ive. he goes to the fbi and he also goes to one of these guys and he asks about these guys. don gaetz says he wears a wire and david mcgee says i am not involved in anything like that. i just represent the levinson family. i was hoping to get help for them potentially but he has never truly confirmed they

talked about the levinsons. the fbi is investigating that separately. the fbi is concerned about someone who would throw this, at the time, nonpublic allegation of sex trafficking in the gaetz's family face. sources tell us look, none of those folks seem to have an apparent connection to the case except they found out about it. in other words they are not going to gaetz on behalf of the 17-year-old alleged victim in the case and saying you need to pay this woman money to make the allegations go away. they are referencing almost bizarre subplot having to do with bob levinson. he is also presumed to be dead. host: thank you for taking us through all of this. matt zapotsky, national security reporter for the washington post

>> c-span's "washington journal," every day. we are taking your calls live on the air discussing the news every day and discussing policy issues that impact you. coming up sunday morning, a crime analyst on the rise of the nation's murder and violent crime rate in 2020. then an associate journalism professor talks about his students' research on what types of questions are most frequently asked by the media at house briefings. and the latest on talks to revive the iran nuclear deal's. watch c-span's "washington journal" live at 7:00 eastern. be sure to join the discussion with your phone calls, facebook comments, text messages, and tweets.

>> c-span's long-running series "booknotes" is back as a podcast. here compelling in-depth interviews with authors and historians. new episodes are available every tuesday morning. on the latest episode, we look at the abraham lincoln presidential library and museum in illinois which ranks as one of the most diffident presidential libraries. here from the incoming director on the future of the museum and what she hopes to accomplish when she steps into the role this june. "booknotes+" wherever you get your podcasts. get information on more podcasts at c-span.org/podcasts. >> next, highlights from the recent conservative political action conference and presentations in several eric -- areas. first, health care, featuring

officials from a company that features voluntary sharing from members to pay each other's medical costs. then republican posters and fundraisers talk about crime. then antiabortion activists talk about the movement's future. here's the portion on health care. ♪ >> obamacare 2.0. is that something we shall be looking forward to? >> no! >> but if it is federal law and that individual mandate is there again, as the biden administration has promised, what are yr