kentington wrote:The allegations that one prostitute/escort made was that she witnessed her friend and Gaetz having sex. She said her friend was 17 at the time. That seems to be easily verifiable information. (At least up until the sex)
At the end of the day, there's zero physical evidence. There is only the testimony of two anonymous prostitutes. In the Duke lacrosse rape and the Uva fraternity gang rape, the cases only unraveled once we knew the identity of the accusers and their suspicious patterns of behavior could be independently confirmed.
I would have no problem believing enough veracity of the Gaetz allegations that he should be disqualified if --
(a) The identity of the prostitutes were revealed so they could be fully backgrounded (Have they previously made accusations of this type against celebrities? Have they had deposits to their bank accounts from foreign governments? Is there any documentary proof they were either living in Florida or traveling through Florida on the date in question? Is there anyone else at the party who can recall seeing them there?)
(b) Venmo records were pulled to see if there was a transfer from Gaetz to one of the accusants on the night in question as they allege
The DOJ did both of these things (check the background of the accusants and check Venmo records). After doing that, they decided not to bring charges.
High profile people are frequently targets of fixated persons, blackmail schemes, etc. A bare minimum of evidence should be required before we believe any random accusation.