Former congressman Matt Gaetz found himself in the hot seat as he addressed controversies surrounding his alleged conduct with prostitutes. 

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From the hour long podcast, the segment that drew most attention involved a text message that reportedly referred to Gaetz and his ‘wingman’ during what was described as a ‘customer appreciation week.’ 

The text, allegedly from a woman associated with Gaetz, claimed that ‘the guys are a little short this week’ and implied some sort of payment was expected.

Maher, never one to shy away from uncomfortable questions, pressed Gaetz for an explanation. 

‘Were there coupons involved?’ Maher quipped. 

Gaetz’s response was a firm denial of being directly involved, claiming, ‘This is a text message I neither sent nor received. Another person is sending this message, presumably about me, to tell other women that they shouldn’t ask for money.’

Gaetz went on to argue that the text was taken out of context and framed to make him look guilty. 

‘The person who sent that message really wanted to be the great recipient of any generosity and didn’t want her friends to also be the recipient of that generosity,’ he said, adding, ‘You’re telling me that makes me some sort of criminal?’

But the controversy didn’t end there with Maher bringing up allegations that Gaetz met women on platforms like Seeking Arrangements, a site known for facilitating ‘sugar dating.’ 

Gaetz dismissed the claims outright, citing a statement from Seeking Arrangements itself, which he claimed confirmed he never had a profile on the site.

‘The media was reporting that I was meeting women on Seeking Arrangements,’ Gaetz said, adding that the platform publicly denied his involvement. 

‘If Seeking Arrangements themselves are saying this is false, I have to combat these things in the media that are not true.’

Maher, however, pushed back on Gaetz’s complaints about media coverage, noting that ‘cherry-picking’ and ‘lying by omission’ are common issues on both sides of the political spectrum.

The most eyebrow-raising moment of the discussion came when Maher and Gaetz delved into the broader definition of prostitution. 

Maher, drawing comparisons, said, ‘The Beverly Hills housewife who really hates her husband but sticks around and f**** him a few times a year because she doesn’t want to give up the big house… to me, that’s much more prostitution.’

Gaetz agreed with the sentiment, calling such arrangements ‘textbook doing something you hate for money.’ 

But he bristled at attempts to label his relationships as ‘transactional,’ pointing out that a Washington Post report referenced two women, aged 25 and 27, who said that they did not view their relationships with him as transactional. 

‘Sounded scandalous, me dating a 25-year-old woman and a 27-year-old woman and having a non-transactional relationship,’ he quipped.

Gaetz was once embroiled in a sex trafficking investigation by the Justice Department and had been under scrutiny by the House Ethics Committee over allegations including sexual misconduct. 

That probe effectively ended in November when he resigned from Congress after Donald Trump picked him for attorney general – a move that backfired leading to Gaetz withdrawing his nomination.

Gaetz has always vehemently denied any wrongdoing, and said in 2023 that the Justice Department’s investigation into sex trafficking allegations involving underage girls had ended with no federal charges against him. 

Adding fuel to the fire, Maher highlighted the fact that findings from the House Ethics Committee were made public despite Gaetz’s resignation from Congress – a move that broke with tradition. 

Gaetz seemed unfazed and dismissed the significance of the release, framing it as part of a political vendetta.

‘I have a lot of enemies on the Republican side, more so than most Republican members,’ he said, accusing former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of orchestrating the leaks through allies on the committee. 

‘I wasn’t exactly being judged by some non-biased arbiter. These were people with an ax to grind against me.’

Maher, known for his blunt style, seemed unconvinced by the end of their exchange but touted the podcast episode as being a rare opportunity for some open and  honest dialogue.

Despite their clashes, the conversation ended on an amicable note, with Gaetz inviting Maher to appear on his upcoming podcast.

The federal sex trafficking investigation into Gaetz began under Attorney General Bill Barr during Trump’s first term and focused on allegations that he and onetime political ally Joel Greenberg paid underage girls and escorts or offered them gifts in exchange for sex.

Greenberg, a fellow Republican who served as the tax collector in Florida’s Seminole County, admitted as part of a plea deal with prosecutors in 2021 that he paid women and an underage girl to have sex with him and other men. 

The men were not identified in court documents when he pleaded guilty. Greenberg was sentenced in late 2022 to 11 years in prison.

Federal investigators scrutinized a trip that Gaetz took to the Bahamas with a group of women and a doctor who donated to his campaign, and whether the women were paid or received gifts to have sex with the men, according to people familiar with the matter who were not allowed to publicly discuss the investigation. 

Prosecutors also investigated whether Gaetz and his associates tried to secure government jobs for some of the women, and scrutinized Gaetz’s connections to the medical marijuana sector, including whether his associates sought to influence legislation Gaetz sponsored, the people have said.

All the while, Gaetz had remained under investigation by the House Ethics Committee over allegations that he was part of a scheme that led to the sex trafficking of a 17-year-old girl.

The committee began its review of Gaetz in April 2021, deferred its work in response to a Justice Department request, and renewed its work shortly after Gaetz announced that the Justice Department had ended a sex trafficking investigation.

Last summer, the committee provided an unusual public update into its long-running investigation, saying its review also included whether Gaetz engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, accepted improper gifts and sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct. 

Gaetz had categorically denied all the allegations put before the committee.