Matt Gaetz has spent a good chunk of 2021 in hot water, and for a good reason: He’s the subject of a federal investigation into his ties to an alleged sex ring. But it looks like bad news continues to plague him. As per The New York Post, the embattled Florida representative claims he got swindled out of a ton of money while trying to buy a boat named “Thirsty.”
Gaetz told WLFA in Florida he and his fiancée, whose name is Ginger Luckey, were trying to buy a 41-foot vessel in St. Petersburg. The price was $155,000 but after wiring the money, they said the boat “went missing.” Gaetz alleged that he and Luckey were targeted by “malicious actors, first domestic and now foreign,” but that “federal law enforcement is both aware of and actively pursuing.”
The boat initially bore the folksy name Ol’ Pappy but that in late April, when the deal was nearing a close, it was renamed Thirsty. It’s not clear if Gaetz and/or Lucky were the ones who renamed it.
If it’s true that Gaetz was grifted via a wiring snafu, it wouldn’t be his first such dalliance. He’s alleged to have used Venmo to send $900 to accused sex trafficker Joel Greenberg, who is currently cooperating with the feds in a plea deal.
In the meantime, Gaetz has been attempting to carry on as if he wasn’t engulfed in a sex scandal involving minors. He’s claimed he’ll run for president in 2024 if Trump doesn’t, around the same time he graced supporters with what sound pretty clearly like insurrectionary language. All the while he’s tried to appear like a friend of the common man, and what common hasn’t been swindled out of over a hundred thousand dollars while trying to buy a big boat?