Part I: The Tax Collector
This story begins in the Fall of 2019 in Florida, with this man: Joel Greenberg. At the time, Joel Greenberg was 2.5 years into his first term as the Tax Collector for Seminole County.
Greenberg is your classic rich kid who dinks through life, lighting fires that everyone else is forced to put out. He never lands hard because Daddy's money always catches his fall. You know the type. We all do. Joel approached his role as a tax collector no differently than any other. By Fall 2019, Seminole County was awash with rumors about the federal investigation into Greenberg's crypto scam with tax collector dollars.
These rumors inspired a local music teacher, Brian Beute, to throw his hat in the ring and challenge Greenberg in the Republican primary slated for the following year. Despite the many advantages Greenberg held over Beute in the race (incumbency, wealth, name recognition, etc.), Greenberg's significant criminal activity as a tax collector likely contributed to his obsession with destroying Beute publicly and privately.
So, throughout late 2019 and into 2020, Greenberg rolled out a series of ever-escalating smear tactics targeting Beute. They started rather typical, labeling Beute, who is from Michigan, as a carpetbagger. But they grew increasingly vicious. He created fake Facebook profiles pretending to be Beute's students, leaving comments on public posts trashing Beute as an awful teacher and a pervert.
Greenberg's antics finally reached an apex when he mailed handwritten letters to the administrators at the school where Beute taught, accusing him of sexually assaulting his students. Greenberg probably didn't expect those letters to be taken so seriously, or he likely would've been a little more careful. But alas, he was not, and when the letters were turned over to the local sheriff's office, both his fingerprints and DNA were lifted from them, and he was arrested on June 23, 2020, and charged by the DOJ with stalking.
Greenberg's phone was confiscated and searched at the time of his arrest. Believe it or not, this is where his real legal troubles began. On his cellphone (and later home computers), police found evidence of Greenberg committing damn near every crime in the book: embezzlement, drugs, prostitution, identity theft, wire fraud, crypto market manipulation. But the silver tuna was a series of messages that occurred in the late spring through early Fall of 2017 between Greenberg and a then 17-year-old girl discussing, among other things, their many sexcapades around Florida and beyond. Further investigation revealed that from December 2016 through 2018, Joel Greenberg was a customer on a "Sugar Daddy" website where he solicited various women for sex and escort services. This is where he met the aforementioned 17-year-old.
All told, Mr. Greenberg spent over $70,000 on hookers he met on the Sugar Daddy website, much of which he paid for with his government-issued AMEX card.
In August 2020, the DOJ charged Joel Greenberg with sex trafficking of a minor, identity theft, and production of false identification documents, among other things. It turns out that in Florida, the office of county-tax-collector doesn't just collect taxes; they also issue driver's licenses and state IDs. Mr. Greenberg took full advantage of this privilege during his time in office. Greenberg had not only created multiple false Florida ID cards for himself, but he also created a fake ID for his underage lover after finding out that she had been lying to him about her age. And this is where Matt Gaetz comes into the story.
From what I can gather, Gaetz and Greenberg became acquainted sometime in the first half of 2017. The first public record of them associating on a private level comes from a picture posted to X (then Twitter) on July 8, 2017, with Roger Stone.
I think it's safe to say that the two did become friends. How good a friends? That's up for debate. But there was a relationship.
After getting arrested in June 2020, at some point, Mr. Greenberg (lawyer?) approached Bill Barr's DOJ with a proposition: he claimed he could provide evidence that a sitting Congressman (Gaetz) had engaged in sex acts with a minor. Bill Barr's DOJ then proceeded to open a secret investigation into these allegations, which remained a secret until it was leaked the following spring, on March 30, 2021, by The New York Times.
PART II: The Man In Iran
Faithful viewers of Tucker Carlson were treated to a peek behind the DC curtain on a random Tuesday night in late March 2021. Earlier that day, The New York Times had released a bombshell story alleging that the DOJ had opened an official investigation into Gaetz over allegations he had engaged in sex with an underage girl. Following Tucker's opening monologue, he introduced Matt Gaetz and gave him free rein to tell his side of the story. Anyone watching is unlikely to forget soon the absolutely bizarre story that Gaetz proceeded to tell.It involved a $25 million extortion threat against his father to help free an American hostage in Iran that would then be paid back with a presidential pardon for Gaetz on all these charges. Gaetz demanded that the FBI release the tapes they had in their possession of the recordings made by his father in interviews with his extortionist. He didn't hesitate to name the alleged extortionist David McGee. Matt Gaetz said he was a former prosecutor for the Northern District of Florida and now works at the prestigious Biggs & Lane law firm in Pensacola.
He was resolute and unafraid when talking, yet he sounded like an absolute lunatic. I know. I was watching live, and I wasn't the only one. Tucker was highly annoyed and unconvinced by the end, yet 3.5 years later, I know everything he said was TRUE.
Bob Levinson was the man in Iran. The official story is that he was a retired FBI agent who was contracted by a semi-off-the-books CIA unit to run a covert operation in Iran. He was kidnapped from Kish Island following a meeting with an American fugitive living in Iran that had been arranged by a former NBC producer named Ira Silverman. So Levinson was kidnapped in March 2007, and George Bush acknowledged his disappearance in June 2007 as "concerning." However, no one from the federal government will admit that Levinson worked for the CIA.
Unbeknownst to anyone at the time, from 2009 to 2011, the FBI was running its own covert operation to get its retired agent back. They had devised an ingenious plan to keep the whole thing off the books: They contracted with a Russian billionaire, Oleg Deripaska, to pay for the rescue mission ($20 million) in exchange for fast-tracked green cards for Deripaska and his family. Enter David McGee. While at the DOJ, McGee worked on an organized crime task force. That's how he knew Bob Levinson, who specialized in Russian money laundering. McGee became a liaison between the Levinson family and Deripaska.
--Now, let me stop here and say this whole thing is NUTS and stinks to high heavens. To make matters worse, who was the FBI point man on the Deripaska deal? Andrew McCabe. Yep. That Andrew McCabe.
The FBI team gets a couple of proof-of-life videos, and they have a soft arrangement in place when the Clinton State Department steps in and shuts the whole thing down. Something got them spooked, but what that was has never been disclosed.
After 2011, Levinson has never been heard from again. All along, the Iranians deny any involvement in his disappearance (expected), so eventually, the CIA gets desperate, and a handful of classified documents confirming Levinson's contract with the CIA are leaked to the AP in Dec 2013. Still, the Iranians don't budge. This was surprising because, at this point, they no longer had any reason to lie. The Americans weren't lying anymore. Time to start negotiations. But nope. The news was greeted with radio silence.
Years go by, and no more pictures or videos arrive. Then came the Iranian Nuclear Deal of 2016. Unbeknownst to most, the Obama team had negotiated the release of four Americans being held in Iran in exchange for the US dropping charges against seven Iranian nationals for sanctions violations. Bob Levinson was not one of those Americans.
The American Jewish community was furious. They already saw the Iranian deal as a stab in the back to Israel. But when word broke about the prisoner exchange, and Bob Levinson wasn't on the list, many took it as a deliberate betrayal of American Jews, too.
Undated handout photo shows retired FBI agent Robert Levinson. His family received these photographs in April 2011.
Flash forward some more; Trump takes office and cancels the Nuclear Deal; Christine Levinson sues Iran in US Courts and is awarded a $1.2 billion judgment in January 2020, and in March 2020, the US government declares Bob Levinson legally dead. Case closed, right?
Wrong.
At some point in the summer of 2020, a former Air Force intelligence officer named Bob Kent claimed to have received news from his "network in Iraq," alleging that Bob Levinson was still alive. Kent even claims he received pictures to prove it. So Kent contacts David McGee, who then tells Kent about the last privately funded search and rescue for Levinson. That's when Kent hatches the plan to rope Don Gaetz into paying for this one.
Now I know what you're all wondering: how did these men know about the Matt Gaetz investigation? To my knowledge, that has never been revealed. If I had to guess, I'd say someone in the DOJ or FBI leaked that info to McGee, who then told Kent about it when he was contacted.
--This is the part of the story where I start spiraling. I started wondering just how long this plan had been in the works. Nothing adds up. But for now, I'll spare you my suspicions and stick to what I know.
Part III: The Grand Plan
On March 16, 2021, Don Gaetz received Bob Kent's first text message about his grand plan. In exchange for Don fronting Mr. Kent's rescue mission of Bob Levinson, unnamed agents with influential contacts in the Biden administration would convince the President to give Don's son Matt a full presidential pardon on his looming sex trafficking charges. The price: 25 million dollars. (I wish I had a picture of Don Gaetz's face when he read that.)Naturally, Gaetz Sr. was incredulous. What in the world was this man talking about? Matt wasn't facing any sex trafficking charges. Don called Matt, who immediately told him to contact the local FBI office. The FBI suggested Don meet with David McGee wearing a wire, and Don agreed. However, just before the meeting, Don requested a written acknowledgment from the FBI on the purpose of this investigation and meeting. He was worried that something he had said could be used against Matt if they still didn't know anything about it. The FBI was reluctant at first, but they eventually agreed.
The next day, The New York Times ran a leak about the DOJ's case against Gaetz.
After watching the Tucker/Gaetz interview again this week, everything he said finally made sense. The FBI had planned to use Don's meeting with McGee against Matt. Don's quasi-immunity demand quashed that, so they leaked the story to The New York Times and buried the wire tapes.
McGee and Kent denied everything. They said there was no extortion. It was a simple proposition. They accused Matt of using this to distract from his charges.
A third man was eventually charged with wire fraud in connection with the case. The FBI then dropped everything and pretended like none of that happened.
But wait, there's more! Because this story wasn't already weird enough, here's another twist: At the same time, Don Gaetz was getting those messages from Kent and McGee, Scott Adams, you know, the Dilbert guy, receives a message from an acquaintance of his, Jacob Novak, who works as the media director for the Israeli Consulate. The first one arrives the Saturday before the story breaks:
The following two arrive on Wednesday the 31st after Gaetz went on Tucker and revealed David McGee's name to the world.
To his credit, Scott Adams found the whole thing sketchy as hell, so he took it upon himself to release Novak's messages. The Israeli Consulate immediately distanced itself from Novak's messages, but he was not fired or disciplined.
Part IV: Wrap Up
Joel Greenberg pleaded guilty to sex trafficking, identity fraud, wire fraud, and a host of other charges in May 2021. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison, with 10 of those coming from the mandatory minimum imposed by the sex trafficking charge.
The DOJ did not close its case against Matt Gaetz until October 2022. They never publicly acknowledged why he was not charged, although it becomes pretty obvious once you learn that Joel Greenberg had produced fake IDs for the underage girl in question. How can you convict someone of statutory rape when this woman was using an actual state of Florida driver's license to present as being of age?
But of course, because it's the swamp, that's not where Matt's troubles ended. The snakes in DC were going to milk that investigation for all its worth, and when Gaetz went for McCarthy during the speaker fight, McCarthy and his allies plotted carefully to get their revenge.
We saw the culmination of that plotting on full display today. There are still lots of unanswered questions. Who is the "we" that Jacob Novak referenced in his texts to Scott Adams? Who leaked the info about the Gaetz case to Bob Kent? Was Joel Greenberg running a honeypot scheme? If so, for who? Sure, would be nice to get an Attorney General in office who actually gave a damn about answering any of those questions.
