Wiles
TRUMP'S CHIEF OF STAFF WILES LETS EPSHTEYN SLIP BY AND GAETZ GETS NOMINATED U.S ATTORNEY GENERAL
BEHIND THE APPOINTMENT OF TRUMP'S HIT MAN AT THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
President elect Donald Trump’s recently selected Chief of Staff Susie Wiles has as Trump’s chief political strangest on the Trump campaign, Wiles considers who should not be close to Trump and allowed on the Trump campaign plane. One exception is Boris Epshteyn, who is one of Trump's longtime supporters.
Epshteyn
There could be doubt that Wiles had wished she had the authority to keep Epshteyn off the Trump plane on its flight from Florida to Washington to meet President Joe Biden a day before Trump selected Matt Gaetz as his Attorney General..
Gaetz with President elect Trump
According to POLICO, "En route to Washington on Trump’s plane, Trump ally Epshteyn lobbied Trump to choose the controversial Florida’s U.S. Congressman Matt Gaetz to be his United States Attorney General while Trump’s chief of staff Wiles sat blissfully unaware of the development in an adjacent room."
Epshteyn and Gaetz
Trump, who is determined to put his stamp on the Attorney General’s position with he considered the most loyalist to him. Someone, who will end what he calls the “Weaponization of the Justice Department." Up until his conversation with Epsheteyn Trump had not found the one he trusted to be his man at the Justice Department.
According to POLITICO, "all of that changed and was on display when Gaetz became Trump’s pick for Attorney General after Gaetz initially was not even being on the shortlist."
That appointment has ignited a firestorm over the Gaetz's selection and put a damper on all of Trump's previous appointments. Wiles should be like anyone, who has been involved with Florida politics and beyond be aware that the last place where Gaetz should be is the United States Attorney General.
Also, according to news reports, "four people briefed on what took place, Epshteyn suggested to Trump that he should be President Trump’s special envoy for the Russia-Ukraine conflict."
The same news report stated, "Several people on the plane appeared shocked at the idea of appointing Epshteyn to a sensitive diplomatic post, according to the people briefed on the matter."
EPSHTEYN A LONGTIME TRUSTED TRUMP SUPPORTER
Epshteyn was the strategic advisor and co-chair of the Jewish Voices for Trump Advisory Board for Trump's 2020 re-election campaign. He led the campaign's Jewish outreach, appearing in media interviews across national outlets and participating in large-scale events across the country, including in Florida, Pennsylvania, and New York.
Trump garnered the highest Jewish support for a Republican presidential candidate since George H.W Bush in 1988, receiving 30% of the vote nationally and 42% in the key battleground state of Florida, which Trump won. Trump's 2020 results with Jewish voters were higher than his 2016 totals, when he received 24% of the Jewish vote nationally and 30% in Florida
After Trump left office, Epshteyn established a close relationship with the former President and has advised him to pursue a confrontational rather than a conciliatory approach toward those investigating Trump.
Epshteyn was subpoenaed in January 2022 to testify before the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack. Epshteyn was identified by the New York Times as the likely identity of "Co-Conspirator 6" in the August 1, 2023, indictment of Trump and would eventually be indicted in April 2024 for his alleged role in the elector plot concerning the state of Arizona
In 2014, Epshteyn was charged with misdemeanor assault after an altercation at a bar. The charge was dropped after he agreed to undergo anger management counseling and perform community service.
On October 10, 2021, Epshteyn was arrested at a night club. after he was accused of repeatedly groping two women and disorderly conduct-disruptive behavior or fighting in the Arizona nightclub, according to police records.
Epshteyn pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct charges in Scottsdale city court after prosecutors dropped charges of attempted sexual abuse, assault-touching and harass-repeated acts. He paid a fine and served probation, and his conviction was set aside. Epshteyn was also remanded to alcohol treatment.
Epshteyn was indicted for his role in Arizona's fake election scheme on April 24, 2024. On June 18, 2024, Epshteyn pled not guilty while speaking to the Maricopa County court by phone.
Giulani
Epshteyn was accused of assisting Rudy Giulani in carrying out the scheme to submit fake electors for Trump in Arizona. Epshteyn worked with Giuliani in December 2020 to persuade Republican officials in seven states to prepare certicate of ascertainment for slates of "alternate electors" loyal to Trump, which would be presented to Vice President Mike Pence for certification
Those shocked that Trump appointed Gaetz had to be Wiles, who being well versed in the how Gaetz has manipulated his way around the back rooms of Florida politics with Wiles having being involved in Florida politics for years.
Former Florida State Senator. Don Gaetz hugs his son, then-state Rep. Matt Gaetz,
after he was sworn into the Florida House of Representatives on April 15, 2010,
in Tallahassee.
Wiles, as other longtime political observers know, who has been associated with Gaetz and his obnoxious behavior, which has bordered on the criminal is that Gaetz had grew up under the tutelage and "protection" of his father Don Gaetz, who is one of the most powerful and wealthiest political leaders in Florida for many years.
Governor DeSantis and Gaetz
Wiles knows all about Gaetz having worked with Gaetz on the Governor Ron DeSantis campaign when DeSantis ran for Florida Governor DeSantis in 2018. Wiles was called into the campaign near the end of that campaing to salvage a campaign that Gaetz and others were making into a disaster.
Gaetz would travel the state with DeSantis and on a few occasions Gaetz would make sure the trip would end up at some college campus so that he could party hardy with the students. Gaetz after hours partying in Tallahassee when he was a State Representative are well documented.
Wiles put a stop to all the Gaetz nonsense and was able to get DeSantis elected after a recount against his opponent, Democrat Andrew Gillum.
Morgan/Governor DeSantis/Gaetz
After the DeSantis election in 2018, Gaetz was part of the DeSantis transition team and was responsible in bringing in John “Pot Daddy” Morgan for Team DeSantis. Morgan is known as the godfather of Florida’s medical marijuana amendment and a major Democrat fundraiser.
Not long after that inclusion in Team DeSantis, the Governor stated, “Florida will no longer fight efforts to allow medical marijuana to be smoked in Florida.”
Fried and Gaetz
Gaetz was also closely aligned in the passage of the marijuana amendment with Nikki Fried now Chairman of the Florida Democrat party and former candidate for Florida Governor.
In 2017, Fried served as the keynote speaker at conferences hosted by the American Medical Marijuana Physicians Association, which was co-founded by Jason Pirozzolo.
In 2018, Pirozzolo joined Gaetz on a trip to the Bahamas. Gaetz flew commercial, but the trip also involved two separate planes — one owned and flown by Priozzolo and another owned by Halsey Beshears, a former seven-year Florida state representative, who also served as the DeSantis’ administration’s top regulator.. Priozzolo's plane was also used by DeSantis during his 2018 Florida Governo's campaign
The trip to the Bahamas was part of the now U.S House of Representative criminal investigation of Gaetz, which results were to be released until Gaetz resigned his Congressional seat after being Trump’s choice for U.S Attorney General.
The House Committee investigative document was to be the scope of charges that, “Gaetz may have engaged in sexual misconduct and/or illicit drug use, shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused state identification records, converted campaign funds to personal use, and/or accepted a bribe, improper gratuity, or impermissible gift, in violation of House Rules, laws, or other standards of conduct.
U.S federal officials had previously not charged Gaetz with sex-trafficking crimes. The two-year investigation tried to determine whether the congressman had crossed state or international borders to have sex with underage girls.
GAETZ ONLY VOTE IN U.S CONGRESS (418-1) AGAINST HUMAN TRAFFICKING ACT
This was not the first time Gaetz was involved in sex trafficking issue. The Orlando Weekly revealing that Gaetz had cast the ONLY NO VOTE on the Combating Human Trafficking in Commercial Vehicles Act. This bill aimed to give the federal government more resources to fight sex trafficking incidents.
Despite Gaetz’s attempt at pushback in the House, it passed 418 to 1 in the House and passed unanimously through the U.S. Senate and was signed by President Trump.
THE FRIED/GAETZ RELAIONSHIP
By the way, the Democrat Party of Florida Chairman, former Florida Agriculture Secretary and Florida Governor candidate Fried recent damning comments about Gaetz are worth reporting on, given Fried's longtime friendship with Gaetz and his inner circle.
Gaetz was instrumental to the effort to legalize medical marijuana in Florida, while Fried was one of the state's most prominent medical-marijuana lobbyists working with Gaetz passing the marijuana legislation..
Their bond is so tight, that the Business Insider publication noted at the time, that Fried was the first to text Gaetz to ask if he was OK in the wake of the Capitol attacks from rogue President Trump supporters in January of 2021.
From press reports the two “hung out” at the Trump Hotel in Washington to tales of them being friends during their association supporting medical cannabis — an issue Gaetz took the lead on — the narrative suggests an abiding political friendship of some significance.
For example, a central piece of the Gaetz criminal investigation, according to the AP, is a 2018 vacation to the Bahamas where Gaetz was joined by the former Florida legislator Halsey Beshears and Jason Pirozzolo, a hand surgeon and marijuana entrepreneur.
Socially, Fried was involved "in that crew," one Florida political insider who knows Gaetz and Fried said. Florida politicos have been wondering why her friendship with Gaetz and his inner circle — including Beshears, and Pirozzolo — hasn't been mentioned more frequently, that person said.
Today, as Trump’s appointment of Gaetz gets national and international attention, Fried throws her long-time friend and close business associate Gaetz under the bus and attempts to run far away from Gaetz with these and other damning comments:
“I’m speechless because he has turned into a direction that is dangerous for our country,” Fried told reporters. “The things that he spews — going after women on abortion issues, supporting an insurrectionist and unfortunately, he’s very dangerous.”
Fried went on to say. “He (Gaetz) was actually kicked out of our student Congress for being disrespectful, disruptive and getting his way or the highway. And so, unfortunatly, these are the patterns of who Matt Gaetz is."
Jon Susce
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