The Dworkin Report: The Enormous Gaetz Report Scandal Hidden in Plain Sight

[Dennis Donovan]

The Dworkin Report - The Enormous Gaetz Report Scandal Hidden in Plain Sight

We won't let them bury it

Scott Dworkin
Dec 24, 2024

By now you might have seen the House Ethics report on Matt Gaetz was released yesterday. The details are beyond disturbing—even worse than we had imagined.

But the other scandal here is the fact that countless Republicans, like Mike Johnson and Kevin McCarthy, have covered up these allegations for years. I have no doubt that Donald Trump also knew about details outlined in the report, but he picked Gaetz to be the next Attorney General anyway.

It’s an enormous scandal, and the corporate media needs to start acting like it. After the holidays, we’ll make sure this gets the spotlight it deserves.

And let me be clear, none of this would’ve happened without our overwhelming public pressure. Several folks in Congress told me the same thing: if it weren’t for our pushback, Gaetz would still be the nominee, and the report would’ve never seen the light of day.

Our Watchdog Coalition led the charge. We made countless phone calls, and sent thousands of letters to Congress from constituents, demanding they oppose Gaetz and release the report.

/snip/

Merry Christmas Eve and happy holidays, no matter what you celebrate.

Onward!

Scott

/snip

He's right. The real scandal is the coverup that took place for years!

[BoRaGard]

1. Repubes have great fun pretending they are honest and dutiful

[Walleye]

2. Republican men in power, they don't think he did anything wrong. They think men are entitled to this.

[JCMach1]

3. Hold up though, a big percentage of this report was known by media previously

May sound like a modest proposal, but why didn't they just do their job?

[sop]

8. Years ago, when all this first came to light, Gaetz was hanging on to his freedom and political life by a thread.

There were hundreds of posts here on DU predicting his imminent arrest and expulsion from the House. Everyone thought he was toast. No one thought he would survive. But, like the cockroach he is, Gaetz managed to stay alive.

Gaetz denied everything, expressed his outrage, blamed the "deep state," attacked his victims and all his political friends rallied around him. And nothing happened. It was all just swept under the rug by corporate media. This whole sordid mess just underscores the rot and corruption of our political and judicial systems.

[Bluetus]

29. That, plus Merrick Garland had access to 100% of it

If he chose to do his job. Garland decided you don't prosecute these things because voters will have an opportunity pass their own judgment. Of course, in this case, voters had no such opportunity because Gaetz decided not to run hoping that would be enough to keep the report secret.

[reACTIONary]

37. I don't believe that Garland ever expressed the idea..

.. that crimes are not to be prosecuted so that the voters can decide for themselves. I don't think he explained why he didn't prosecute him at all, which would have been inappropriate.

The only reason Garland would not have prosecuted him would be because there would not have been sufficient evidence to do so, at the federal level.

[Bluetus]

38. Huh?

The only reason Garland would not have prosecuted him would be because there would not have been sufficient evidence to do so, at the federal level.

You forgot the sarcasm flag.

[reACTIONary]

40. There isn't sufficient evidence to prosecute him at the federal level...

... That was decided by the professional prosecutors who were in charge of the investigation. Garland never said anything about "let the voters decide".

[Bluetus]

43. But now we see, beyond any doubt

there was PLENTY of evidence to prosecute.

[reACTIONary]

52. The recommendation not to prosecute him was made by...

... the professional, career prosecutors assigned to the case. If there was enough evidence and a reasonable probability of conviction, they would have recommended to prosecute him. The fact that they recommended otherwise shows that there wasn't.

This investigation was largely carried out by a Democratic administration under the direction of a Democratic AG. The final decision was made by that Democratic AG. I don't see how defending Democrats from bulllshit conspiracy theories can be considered "right wing talking points."

[reACTIONary]

55. Well, it's not my "opinion" that the recomention ....

... not to prosecute was made by the carrier professionals assigned to the case. That was reported at the time that the decision was made.

Have a happy holiday!

[Bluetus]

47. Here is the central Dem problem.

I was talking about how Garland's actions are perceived. As you noted, there is absolutely no ambiguity about what Garland's actions said. They said he wanted no part of holding any politicians accountable for anything, at least no Republicans. The public gets that. They don't need a verbatim quote. They understand the meaning.

But Dems instinctively want to turn that obvious observation into a debate about precise citations. This is why so many people just can't vote for Dems anymore. At some level, we supposedly have a set of values that are honorable, but rather than making sure our talk and actions align with those principles, too often that just becomes empty rhetoric.

For 14 years, we have not had a functioning majority, but the public perceived us as being in charge for 12 of the past 16 years. Everyone here can play the Manchin or Sinema card to explain why we have not accomplished much real progress (and done a lot of backsliding in some areas). But the public no longer hears any coherent messages from the Dem Party, and they can't really judge us by our results, because that has been messy.

We will never have a functional majority until we have leaders who present a few big, bold ideas that connect with the public, and the party rallies around those ideas.

Explain it to me like I'm a 5th grader.Tell me what Democrats are willing to fight for today. Give me the three big bold ideas that the vast majority of Dem politicians will fight for. If we can't do that, then don't expect the public to vote for us.

[Bluetus]

49. Yep. It is HOW we say it, but also WHAT we say.

No small ideas. There are plenty of bureaucrats to take care of the small issues. The issue is to get elected so that we can direct the bureaucrats to deal with the smaller issues the right way.

But you can't win elections talking about minutia. Ted usually talked about very consequential, bedrock issues, and with a passion that earned him the title of "Lion of the Senate".

Bernie talks about a lot of the really important issues. Unfortunately, his age and accent (and an almost total lack of support from other Dems) kept Bernie from being as persuasive as he needed to be. Ted was much like Bernie, in that he was never afraid or apologetic to discuss the big issues. And Ted had a more ingratiating oratorical style.

It is a problem when the only ones we can name who can be compared with people like Ted are Bernie, Elizabeth, AOC and a couple of others. There are many other "progressives" who are fine, honorable, decent people, but they tend to react to the issue of the moment rather than advocating for the really important big issues, mostly connected with the systematic economic unfairness we have today.

We need to get a leader who will be out front on the issues that have Americans so angry they are willing to vote for a mobster, rapist, serial liar. We must not dismiss what Americans told us to our faces last month.

[Bluetus]

51. Be that as it may, 70+ million people voted for what we see as insanity

Yes, if the election was rigged so cleverly in 10 states that a month later, we still have no evidence, that deserved to be examined closely.

But that is my point about big issues. Why did 70+ million Americans go there?

I put it to you that the Dem Party had clear values in the FDR and post-FDR years, and most of these were based on economic fairness. And we need to be honest that minorities did not receive their fair share of economic fairness, even with all the progress made under FDR. But the country had a clear direction, which was away from robber barons and monopolists and toward worker rights, affordable education, affordable health care, affordable housing, and so on.

Ask 100 people what Democrats stand for today and you will get mostly blank stares. Ask 100 people who bold plans for the future Democrats are fighting for -- crickets. This is a problem.

Trump says he is for beating down foreign competition, especially the Chinese. He says he is for getting rid of the brown people who are taking our jobs. He is in favor of annexing Greenland, Canada, Panama and ??? because dammit, we are the freaking USA and we can do what we want. He's in favor of ending the Ukraine war on day 1 and solving the Palestinian war later that same day. That's a plan. It is an insane plan, but what we should have learned, above all else, from this election is that an insane plan beats no plan every day of the week.

[Bluetus]

57. I don't believe 7 million votes were rigged.

We must insist on clean, accountable elections, where 100% of the votes have an auditable paper trail. That's one of the big issues, IMHO.

But there is no way 7 million votes were flipped and nobody noticed anything wrong. We lost this election because of our own mistakes, because we aren't speaking to the issues that cause 70% of Americans to say we are on the wrong track. And blaming that on election fraud without any evidence doesn't help our cause one bit. We need to address OUR issues.

[SheltieLover]

4. Every one of them should rot in prison

[magicarpet]

5. BOYS WILL BE BOYS,...

.... even if they are damn well near 40 years old. White male privilege permits and encourages this.

[Irish_Dem]

6. They were protecting themselves more than Gaetz.

Many of them do the same thing, enjoy the drug and sex trafficking made available to them.

[mopinko]

10. where did he get the money?

he shelled out half his cong salary on sex. who knows how much on blow.
we dont talk enough about how rich these ppl get.

[IbogaProject]

22. Family money and likely corruption

[Irish_Dem]

25. He is another privileged nepo baby with a rich daddy.

And he most likely takes bribes.

[Think. Again.]

7. So does the "Ethics Committee" just write "reports"?

Or do they have any authority to act in any way (that they didn't do)?

[Wounded Bear]

12. Definitely the former, not the latter. All they can do is issue their reports...

and wait/hope for others to do whatever enforcement might be warranted.

[Think. Again.]

17. I see. And do we have some kind of "legality" Committee...

...that can also do reports but not do anything meaningful when they have evidence of criminality?

Or is that the same as the "Ethics" committee?

[UTUSN]

9. Drumpf's knowledge was to blackmail him to do his bidding as AG.

[Kid Berwyn]

14. Co-conspirators.

As well as perverts who think exactly alike.

[usaf-vet]

18. EXACTLY.... Djt learned some things from Putin's use of kompromat to keep Djt doing Putin's bidding.

P..... tapes? Or something equally threatening.

[70sEraVet]

19. You are right.

Trump wants to accumulate corrupt people in his administration, so that they HAVE to obey him. The same thing Putin did with him!

[Wounded Bear]

11. The entire republican party is corrupted and sick...

a bunch of hedonistic assholes.

[Kid Berwyn]

13. Trump wanted Gaetz as Attorney General of the United States.

Says it all, Al Capone.

[NJCher]

15. Go ahead and laugh, but,

For a period of about eight years, the looney Coast Coast show had a guest who regularly appeared. I can’t remember his name exactly, but it had Jordan in it.

This guest often seemed fearful, but he came on the show anyway to predict that criminals would take over the United States government. If I recall correctly, the guest had some credibility, having had some type of job where he was an assistant to someone high in the power structure.

Of course we all laughed.

[Old Crank]

16. Unfortunately nothing will happen

After Christmas means then New Years. Any look means another fire hose of garbage from trump to distract the press. A dayly occurance. Every one with a GOP senator should be calling, emailing etc. about the scandal and the manure sacks that trump is pushing for his cabinet.

[usonian]

20. Omerta: Mafia Code of Silence

It really is golden!

[Diraven]

21. Republicans scandals aren't a thing anymore

They're not disqualifying for Republican voters and the media has decided they're not newsworthy.

[Silent Type]

23. Think we've known this for several years. If it was a cover up, it failed. Like with trump, GOPer voters didn't care.

[mgardener]

24. I am angry

That the, oh so moral, Elise Stefanik did nothing.

She is a sniveling, moral coward.
They all are.

[SergeStorms]

30. Her morals are extremely flexible....

when it comes to the Big Orange Pig. She's a real fangirl.

[Ocelot II]

26. Trump must have known all along what was in the House report

and chose Gaetz for AG anyhow. Or maybe he chose him because he knew the dirt would come out eventually, as a big ol' fuck you to everybody who cares about such things.

[JCMach1]

32. 100% the point of his appointments. Understand it's all trolling

With no guardrails he can continue trolling as he pleases.

Pam Bondi is almost as big a troll as Gaetz.

[rubbersole]

33. Distractions-R-Us

Raiding the Treasury on page A-23, under the story about flying pigs...

[Orrex]

27. The most important thing is that Garland not appear politically motivated

[SergeStorms]

28. Only sexual predators need apply.......

for even the lowliest position in the Trump administration. It's required.

[republianmushroom]

31. Cover, NO, they are within the republican family values.

These are the family values of republican politicians.

[Chicagogrl1]

35. What Has Happened to Our Country?

I remember a time not too long ago when Howard Dean was prevented from moving on because he had a “funny laugh”. Now you can be a rapist, sexual assaulter, druggie, felon, liar, and still allowed to be in Congress, or even the president United States.WTAF???

[Blue Owl]

36. I'll go tell the children

[Kaleva]

42. Dean lost badly in Iowa before the laugh

And it wasn't Republicans who prevented Dean from winning the primary

[moondust]

39. The world is watching.

I saw a couple EU news channels last night that covered the Gaetz report. The reporters didn't say it but the vibe was "Can you believe this? Trump tried to appoint THIS guy to be the chief law enforcement officer of the U.S."

[dchill]

41. Republicans are crooked and dirty.

But what else is new? It's the only way they win.