robert levinson is a constituents of matt gaetz, and you know, the congressman just made the levinson worse. if he is alive, he is directly impacting his predicament right now. >> in a letter that you sent, you said the fbi became aware of compromising pictures depicting congressman gaetz and an election official involved in a sexual orgy with underaged prostitutes in florida in an unrelated investigation into public integrity. subsequent information has resulted in congressman gaetz becoming a target of a widening investigation into serious underaged sex trafficking, political corruption, public integrity, and other criminal allegations. gaetz makes this seem like it is much more narrow than you suggest here. how confident are you in what you are told? >> so you can never be confident of rumors. those are just rumors that are rampant in north florida among the legal and journalist communities. >> pretty specific. >> that's what i was hearing. >> i hear you, but, like, were you surprised you had such detailed information of a federal investigation before it was ever made public? >> i

by two men who told him he could give a huge sum of money to fund their effort to locate one robert levinson, the longest held american hostage in iran whose family has said they are told they have been told he is dead. the post writes gaetz father was told if the operation was a success, he would win favor with the u.s. government and help alleviate gaetz legal woes fearing his family was being extorted, don gaetz contacted the fbi and told them he's working with the burro and has worn a wire. matt gaetz was asked about this sex trafficking investigation and about gaetz future on the committee. >> those are serious implications if it comes out to be true, yes, we would remove him if that were the case. right now as matt gaetz said it is not true so let get all the information. >> with that let's bring in our lead off guests on this wednesday night. peter baker, correspondent for "the new york times" and a.b. stoddard who wears glasses on occasion, veteran washington journalist and associate editor and columnist. i'm right there with you from real clear politics and chuck rosenberg, former u

him, we're also aware you have money we could use in order to do something great, bring back robert levinson, a man who diserpood in iraq, somebody who the government has declared deceased but people had been searching for a long time. they felt they had a lead on this and with don gaetz's money they could bring the man back to the united states. this is very convoluted scheme the hope would be the american government would be so happy and president biden would be so happy congressman gaetz would be pardoned for any crimes. don gaetz our sources tell us felt this was an unusual document, it was an unusual ask. he eventually contacted the fbi. he has worn a wire into two meetings with these men, at least two phone conversations. >> and that was the -- the wire was what matt gaetz revealed on twitter and then in his tucker carlson astonishing interview. cynthia, just pooebe clear if someone's wearing a wire in an ongoing investigation it's not wise to out that person with the wire especially if they're your dad, is it >> no, it's not wise but nothing is happening wise. it's not wise to go on t

they would help the congressman if his father donated money to help them find robert levinson a formeridea being that the congressman would get public credit for finding levinson. the source confirms to cnn the justice department is investigating the congressman over allegations of sex trafficking that involves a minor. >> it's part of a broader probe of another florida politician, that investigation began in the closing months of the trump administration under attorney general bill barr. cnn has learned he was briefed several times. gaetz claims he is the victim of extortion but a prominent florida official says even if there is extortion gaetz isn't off the hook. >> extortion is not a defense to child sex trafficking. it's a smoke screen in my opinion here because you can have both of these things. even if there is extortion here and the evidence does not bear it out, but we shall see, it does not negate the crime of child sex trafficking. you could have both things at the same time. >> house gop leader kevin mccarthy says if the allegations against congressman gaetz is true he would

gaetz survive the scandal if his rich father funded an effort to try to find an ex-fbi officer, robert levinson, who has been missing in iran for more than a decade the idea was, you fund the rescue effort for levinson if it turned out to be successful, then maybe congressman gaetz would look like a national hero because his family funded it and so then he wouldn't be prosecuted for child sex trafficking? yeah, i don't know the fbi is reportedly investigating that bizarre alleged extortion scheme as well as the child sex trafficking allegations against congressman gaetz, but these are separate matters, right whether or not somebody was trying to pressure congressman gaetz and his family over how much trouble the congressman appears to be in, it really does appear regardless of whether or not that extortion effort also happened that the congressman is under serious federal criminal investigation for sex trafficking of at least one child in at least one state. and that investigation started months ago and was approved of and regularly briefed to the highest levels of the trump justice department

prosecutor, as you're looking at the stew of elements that goes into this different story and robert levinsonstigations going on right now. it's a federal crime to induce a minor to travel over state lines for sex in exchange for money. that is what gaetz is being investigateded for, violating the federal sexual trafficking laws and then we have this extortion investigation. someone allegedly trying to extort gaetz and his family to make the justice department go away betsy is absolutely right, both things can be true gaetz can be the perpetrator of one crime and the victim of another. but gaetz has to be especially worried about this third investigation of joel greenberg. that is the florida official and good friend of gaetz who has already been indicted for child sex trafficking. and greenberg violated his bail, so he's locked up right now pending his trial in june. so, willie, he has a lot of incentive to cooperate in an investigation of gaetz so in that investigation of gaetz, if i'm a federal prosecutor, i'm trying to talk to joel greenberg to see if he wants to make a deal >> all right