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Florida Bar confirms active inquiry into Matt Gaetz for impeachment hearing stunt

Florida Bar confirms active inquiry into Matt Gaetz for impeachment hearing stunt

Authorities at the Florida Bar have confirmed that they have an active misconduct investigation into the controversial Republican Representative who bills himself as “Trump’s ultimate defender.”

Yesterday, the Miami-Dade Democratic Party filed a complaint against Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) with the Florida Bar, who previously admonished the Congressman for his attempt to intimidate Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen to and prevent him from publicly testifying about the president’s crimes.

The complaint is over an October incident when the Florida man led a group of thirty House Republicans in a breach of the Intelligence Committee’s secure, compartmented information facility (SCIF). The childish attempt to derail Trump’s impeachment hearings ended with them ordering pizza and bragging about it on Twitter.

“I don’t work for Miami Democrats or the Florida Bar. I work for the Northwest Floridians who have overwhelmingly elected me,” Gaetz responded to his local Northwest Florida Daily News. “They seem pleased with my vigorous defense of the president.”

“He may not work for the Florida Bar,” replied Miami-Dade Democratic Party Chair Steve Simeonidis in an interview with Occupy Democrats. “But all attorneys in our state need to abide by Bar rules because we are a profession with ethics, even if the Congressman is primarily a sycophantic member of Trump’s DC swamp and not a lawyer anyone would hire.”

However, a follow-up inquiry into yesterday’s complaint against Gaetz revealed that he is already under investigation for the incident! FloridaPolitics.com reports:

The Florida Bar has confirmed it has a file open regarding Rep. Matt Gaetz‘ conduct during the House impeachment investigation into President Donald Trump.

As Simeonidis explained with his complaint, the House’s impeachment process is a legal matter precedent to a trial and the Florida Bar has previously expressed in writing that lawyers are subject to its discipline while in Congress. A spokesman for the agency said that they will continue investigating the initial, only-now-known complaint against Trump’s ally.

Just last year, Florida Bar investigators described Rep. Gaetz as “unprofessional, reckless, insensitive, and demonstrated poor judgment,” when he threatened Trump’s convicted former attorney.

Indeed, having narrowly escaped punishment last year, the northwest Florida Congressman who got into office because daddy is rich might face a significantly higher level of scrutiny, since he, like his benefactor Trump, is a rich kid who appears not to have learned any lesson by getting away with his first offense.

Indeed, Gaetz’s latest idiotic stunt is filing a bogus ethics complaint against Speaker Pelosi for tearing apart Trump’s lie-filled State of the Union address earlier this week.

Both Politifact and Snopes.com have fact-checked Gaetz’s claims and found them utterly devoid of legal basis. That didn’t stop Donald Trump from falsely claiming that the Florida man was right anyways in a press conference on the White House lawn.

“Future former lawyer Matt Gaetz isn’t defending Donald Trump,” said the Miami-Dade Democratic party chair. “He’s promoting propaganda, creating a real national security threat and disgracing his office by attacking the legal process,”

If the Florida Bar finds that Gaetz violated its rules, punishments could range from fines and written reprimands all the way up to suspension of his license to practice law which is known as disbarment.

Author’s disclosure: I am a member of the Miami-Dade Democratic Executive Committee.

Grant Stern
is the Executive Editor of Occupy Democrats and published author. His new Meet the Candidates 2020 book series is distributed by Simon and Schuster. He's also mortgage broker, community activist and radio personality in Miami, Florida., as well as the producer of the Dworkin Report podcast. Grant is also an occasional contributor to Raw Story, Alternet, and the DC Report, and an unpaid senior advisor to the Democratic Coalition and a Director of Sunshine Agenda Inc. a government transparency nonprofit organization. Get all of his stories sent directly to your inbox here:

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