The DOJ is investigating if Matt Gaetz used campaign money to fund travel for women

• The DOJ is reportedly investigating if Matt Gaetz used campaign funds to pay for travel for women.
• The scrutiny is part of a broader inquiry into whether Gaetz broke federal sex trafficking laws.
• Gaetz denies the allegations and said they're part of an elaborate scheme to extort his family.

The Justice Department is investigating whether Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz used campaign funds to pay for travel and other expenses for women, CNN reported on Thursday.

The scrutiny is part of a broader inquiry into if Gaetz had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old in 2019 and paid for her travel, which would violate federal sex trafficking laws. According to CNN, investigators are also looking at whether Gaetz's involvement with other women in addition to the 17-year-old broke sex trafficking laws, as well as evidence and witness allegations that the Republican lawmaker may have used drugs and cash in his dealings with underage women.

News of the sex-trafficking probe first broke on Tuesday, when The New York Times reported that the Justice Department has been looking into Gaetz for months beginning late last summer, during the Trump administration.

After the story broke on Tuesday, Gaetz went on a Twitter and media blitz, alleging that the investigation into him was part of an elaborate plot to extort his family for $25 million. He called the allegations against him "horrible" and said that while he was "generous" with women he previously dated, he was "absolutely" confident none of them were underage.

The Florida congressman also claimed that he was being targeted because he's an "outspoken conservative."

Gaetz first revealed details about the alleged extortion scheme and an FBI investigation into the matter in a series of tweets on Tuesday and in an interview with Fox News' Tucker Carlson that night. He said the allegations were part of an "organized criminal extortion" of him, and that "the people pushing these lies are targets ... of the ongoing extortion investigation."

He then accused David McGee, a former DOJ prosecutor who now works at the law firm Beggs & Lane, of spearheading the alleged extortion plot and said that his father, Don Gaetz, was first contacted about it on March 16.

It's unlikely that the sex-trafficking investigation was part of the alleged extortion plot, given that it was launched months before Gaetz said his father was contacted.

His claim that he's being targeted because he's an "outspoken conservative" also doesn't hold up, since the inquiry was opened under a Republican administration and while Bill Barr - a staunch Trump loyalist with strong conservative credentials - was attorney general. Barr and other senior Trump appointees were also briefed on the probe when it was launched and greenlit it, The Times reported.

On Wednesday, more details of the alleged plot surfaced when the elder Gaetz backed up the details of his son's claims in an interview with Politico, and the younger Gaetz showed Politico emails, dated March 25, that appeared to confirm the existence of an FBI investigation into the matter.

Additional documents and text messages provided to The Washington Post and The Washington Examiner shed more light on the alleged scheme, in which the Gaetzes say McGee and Bob Kent, a research analyst with business interests in the Middle East who previously served as an Air Force intelligence officer, reached out and offered to make the sex crimes investigation go away in exchange for $25 million.

New York Magazine reported that after Kent initially reached out to Don Gaetz with the offer, the two men met and Kent gave the elder Gaetz a document titled "Project Homecoming" which said that if the Gaetzes forked over $25 million to help secure the release of a US hostage in Iran, Matt Gaetz would either receive a presidential pardon or the DOJ would shut down any and all investigations into him.

It's a highly unlikely gambit given that the hostage in question, Robert Levinson, was declared dead last year, and there is no evidence that President Joe Biden, the White House, or the Justice Department have agreed to the terms outlined in "Project Homecoming" or are even aware of the efforts.

McGee has denied Gaetz's allegations against him, and his law firm called them "false and defamatory." Kent could not be reached for comment by multiple media outlets.