Matt Gaetz's Republican primary opponent suggests he is the possible FBI Mar-a-Lago informant in new attack ad
- Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz's GOP opponent Mark Lombardo suggested in an ad that Gaetz is the possible Mar-a-Lago informant.
- The attack ad suggests that Gaetz had something to do with the FBI search of Donald Trump's property.
Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz's Republican primary opponent Mark Lombardo suggested in a new attack ad that the incumbent congressman is the possible informant involved in the FBI's raid on former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate.
The 30-second political ad called "The Informant?" suggests that Gaetz had something to do with last week's unprecedented search of Trump's Palm Beach, Florida, property — while claiming that Trump has not gone "big" to endorse Gaetz.
"When Donald Trump really endorses someone, he goes big," a narrator says at the beginning of the ad. "You've seen none of that for lying Matt Gaetz."
A silhouette depicting Gaetz then appears in the ad with a large question mark on the head.
"What does Trump know?" the narrator asks in the clip. "Is Gaetz the informant?"
A spokesman for the Gaetz campaign said in a statement to Insider on Wednesday that Gaetz is in fact "endorsed by President Trump."
"President Trump's son is campaigning for Congressman Gaetz in Pensacola on Monday. President Trump's 2020 finance chair just released a video endorsing Gaetz," the spokesman said. "Mark Lombardo is busy trying to please Resistance Liberals with plays from the Lincoln Project playbook. Congressman Gaetz is fighting for Florida and the Trump agenda."
Gaetz's campaign also made a new ad showing Trump praising Gaetz and saying that the congressman "has an endorsement from me, 100% endorsement."
In a tweet from his personal account on Tuesday, Gaetz shared an image of himself and Trump with the caption "We will never stop fighting for the America we love" and urging people to vote.
Lombardo's advertisement didn't just focus on the supposed informant.
It also slammed Gaetz for paying an attorney who represented late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and noted that Trump didn't pardon him while Gaetz was under federal investigation.
Gaetz remains under investigation by the Justice Department as part of an ongoing probe into allegations of sex trafficking involving a minor.
"Matt Gaetz puts himself first, ahead of Trump and ahead of you," the ad says. Lombardo will face off with Gaetz in Florida's upcoming primary elections on August 23.
Since the FBI raided Trump's property on August 8 as part of an investigation into his handling of classified White House documents, there have been reports about a possible informant.
The Wall Street Journal and Newsweek reported that an informant tipped off authorities that classified government documents may have been improperly stored at Mar-a-Lago.
Trump's ex-personal attorney and fixer Michael Cohen previously told Insider that he suspects the possible informant to be one of Trump's own children, or his son-in-law, Jared Kushner. And Trump's allies have begun finger-pointing to root out the possible informant in their midst.