you could have just went to him and said help bob levinson.d him, it will be good for your son. you could have left it at that. you didn't. how come, mr. kent? >> i wanted to meet with matt gaetz. i believe he had the ability to raise the money quickly, and yes, i did put that in there as a teaser, because as i said, mr. gaetz was in need of some good will, and we worked with multiple people over the years. and all of them have been in similar situations. a lot of them have been facing indictments or all looking for goodwill from the u.s. government. >> one of the things you have circumstanceally without getting too in the weeds against you, is one of the guys who you were working with on this and approaching the gaetz has a criminal record. for being a fraudster. why would you be associated with somebody like that? >> so i was contacted by david mcgee in october. and he asked me to meet with somebody, which steven offered, because he wanted to help with levenson, and believed he could get him out. after the rescue attempt fell apart in july,

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

bob levinson is a former-fbi agent, who disappeared in iran more than a decade ago. family says that -- they have been told that he is no longer alive. so this -- these two men, apparently, said that gaetz could -- could, essentially, get rid of his problem with this investigation, that you just outlined, at the top there. there is -- that's -- in "the washington post" describes some of this. "the washington examiner" had some of the documents that they say described this proposal, which was called project homecoming. and again, these text messages, allegedly, say that they were -- they would help matt gaetz get rid of his legal and political problems. the -- the -- the long end short of it, though, is that this is a separate investigation. this is something that's being investigated by prosecutors, in florida. as separate from this investigation that is being done by public-corruption prosecutors here, in washington. and they are looking at these very serious allegations that matt gaetz was involved with prostitution and sex trafficking, including of a minor. includ

he was trying to take advantage of it as an opportunity to pursue his own interest in getting bob levinsoneenberg is a totally different character. greenberg has a lot on the line. he is currently facing very serious charges, extensive time in jail. and he is a desperate man. and desperate men talk to the authorities to try to get themselves a better deal. and if greenberg flips and provides evidence against matt gaetz, the expanse and possibility of that evidence is really endless. that could turn this into a much, much more serious situation for congressman gaetz. >> you're not a politician, but it's an interesting tactical play by gaetz. he's been very aggressive in coming out. he picked a dummy forum to come out and have his tv interview just to get his message out there, wasn't asked the right questions because the guy was on his heels to go him the whole time, but he's never mentioned greenberg and that may be the name that matters most. andrew mccabe, to be continued, thank you. >>> president biden moves the vaccination goalposts for all adults up, not back. and he says no more conf

bob levinson is a man who was taken hostage by the iranian government he's a u.s.ay they were pressured to put up $25 million to help fund his rescue from iran and they say that the offer was pay up this $25 million and it will make you an american hero, it will make the biden administration delighted with you, it will fix your reputational problems and then, problem solved, this whole fbi problem will go away matt gaetz and his father say that was an extortion plot and the allegations are specious and people need to focus on talgzs they're make instead critics of the gaetz family say this is a distraction and it's possible there is more than one cohort of shall we say questionable folks involved in this increasingly lurid political saga >> explain the bill barr angle of this. this started under his time serving as attorney general. >> that's right. what i can tell you is that the then attorney general bill barr was briefed multd many times on the gaetz investigation starting in summer of 2020. early in 2020, he sent down a memo requiring that senior doj leadership

they are referencing almost bizarre subplot having to do with bob levinson.e 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, thank you for getting us up-to-date. guest: thank you. host: we want to know what you think about these allegations against representative matt gaetz. let's go to the phone lines and start with dylan calling from auburn, alabama on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. i just want to say that whatever the hell matt zapotsky, whatever his name is, this is a sham to block away from andrew cuomo. are you kidding me? you are saying matt gaetz is sex trafficking children in florida? after andrew cuomo has had nine credible allegations against him and out of nowhere matt gaetz, one of the most prominent republicans right now in the maga sphere, is getting accused of sex trafficking children? the media hops on it so hard but andrew cuomo has nine allegations of sexual harassment and the media just stops talking about it. but al

what is being alleged is someone came to him and said, if you pay me $25 million, i will go save bob levinsoncriminal extortion. what i'm hearing is just what a lot of lobbyists do, especially those in crisis management. pay me money and i will make sure it goes away. those seem to be a smokescreen than anything that would provide a real defense for him. >> state attorney for palm beach county, dave aaronburg. thank you. >>> legendary actor nathan lane joins us fresh off his weekend performance designed to bring broadway back. we will be right back in a second. we made usaa insurance for members like martin. an air force veteran made of doing what's right, not what's easy. so when a hailstorm hit, usaa reached out before he could even inspect the damage. that's how you do it right. usaa insurance is made just the way martin's family needs it with hassle-free claims, he got paid before his neighbor even got started. because doing right by our members, that's what's right. usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. ♪ usaa ♪ obsession has many names. this is ours. the lexus is. all in on the spo