Sounds like Matt Gaetz’s clipped wingman is singing like the proverbial canary. From The Orlando Sentinel:
Joel Greenberg, Seminole County’s disgraced former tax collector, has agreed to plead guilty to six federal crimes — including sex trafficking of a child — in a deal that calls for him to cooperate with federal investigators, according to a source with knowledge of the agreement.
The deal, which will be made official during a Monday morning court hearing Greenberg is required to attend, marks a turning point in the sprawling federal investigation that has roiled Florida politics and reportedly taken aim at Greenberg’s friend and ally U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz.
In addition to trafficking, Greenberg will plead to charges of identity theft, stalking, wire fraud and conspiracy to bribe a public official. Prior to striking a deal, he was facing 33 federal charges.
Greenberg is pleading guilty to some mighty serious charges, and one hopes he does hard time for those crimes regardless of his level of cooperation. He sounds like a psychopath who should be off the streets for public safety reasons. But here’s hoping he’s got tons of evidence that can help the feds nail Gaetz — and who knows, maybe take down some other prominent Republican sleazebags at the same time.
There are two reasons to believe Greenberg does have a ton of dirt on Gaetz and possibly others. Number one, Greenberg seems pretty fucking stupid. Case in point: he left electronic trails and physical evidence all over the place when he was paying “escorts,” attempting to frame political rivals for crimes he himself committed, abusing power, committing fraud, etc.
The dumb motherfucker actually managed to set a county building on fire by overheating servers purchased with public funds to launder bitcoin money from his side hustle. Einstein he is not!
The second reason to believe Greenberg may have the goods is that, like many criminals, Greenberg was apparently super-paranoid about being crossed. The stories about him trying to get a pardon from Trump via Roger Stone included the detail that Greenberg took screenshots of conversations with Stone on an encrypted messaging app Stone used expressly to avoid electronic trails.
In addition to Gaetz, let’s hope Stone is among those whom Greenberg implicates. It would be especially fitting if a dumb, small-fry, frat-boy shit-for-brains like Greenberg tosses Stone into legal peril once more after Stone went to so much trouble to corruptly obtain a presidential pardon for previous crimes.
It would also be lovely if Greenberg’s self-immolation manages to scorch FL Gov. DeSantis, who palled around with noted sleazebags Gaetz and Greenberg and appointed Gaetz as his gubernatorial transition chairman. But while DeSantis will never be invited to bring the noodle salad to the Mensa picnic, I don’t think he’s as dumb as Greenberg and Gaetz, so he probably covered his tracks better.
Still, if Gaetz gets indicted at some point, which seems likely since there would be no reason for the feds to cut a deal with a stone-cold busted scumbag like Greenberg unless they’ve got bigger game in their sights, that will be unwelcome news for DeSantis heading into an election year. Let the perp walks begin!
Open thread!