Trump reportedly admits Gaetz may be doomed as witness' lawyer reveals damning receipts

It seems like a bad sign for former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., and a commentary on where the country is right now, that media reports about him paying for sex must emphasize that the recipient was not a literal child. In a story published Monday night, NBC News reported that Gaetz, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to be the nation’s top law enforcement officer, “paid an adult woman for sex in 2017,” according to the woman’s attorney. According to Leppard, however, there are receipts: Not only did Gaetz pay for sex on his Venmo account, the attorney claims, he also used a PayPal account registered to Nestor Galban; in a 2020 post on social media, Gaetz announced that Galban was “my son,” claiming he had adopted the then-19-year-old Cuban immigrant and raised him for the past six years. Even so, the 78-year-old is “making calls” on Gaetz’s behalf and reassuring himself that, even if doesn’t get his first choice as attorney general, “the standard for an acceptable candidate will have shifted so much that the Senate may simply approve his other nominees.” But if the Senate GOP caucus does grow a spine, Trump settling for someone else is not his only option: There is also what The New Republic’s Greg Sargent describes as the “nuclear scenario”: Trump, working in concert with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., trying to force the Senate to go on recess, allowing him to bypass the confirmation process and load up his Cabinet with whomever he likes. We need your help to stay independent Subscribe today to support Salon's progressive journalism Republican senators could also decide that Trump and his “mandate” entitles him to a Cabinet of his choosing, in his manner of choosing it — or that insisting on their constitutional duty is not worth the grief that would come from the president blaming them for derailing his second term.