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Florida Congressman Faces Allegations of Witness Tampering Before Cohen Testimony

Meredith Geddings
/
Florida House of Representatives
Rep. Matt Gaetz

A Florida congressman posted a taunting message to President Donald Trump's former lawyer on Tuesday.

Less than 18 hours before Michael Cohen was scheduled to begin his testimony, Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz tweeted at him, “Hey @MichaelCohen212 - Do your wife and father-in-law know about your girlfriends? Maybe tonight would be a good time for that chat. I wonder if she’ll remain faithful when you’re in prison. She's about to learn a lot...”

As the tweet was spread by both supporters and opponents of Gaetz’ message, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi tweeted a few hours later that members of Congress should be mindful of the comments they make on social media and that “the Committee on Ethics should vigilantly monitor these types of statements, which may not be protected by the speech or debate clause.”

Gaetz shared Pelosi’s statement with an apology and, then, deleted his original message to Cohen. 

That did not stop calls for action on what many felt was witness tampering on the part of Gaetz, and the Democratic Coalition tweeted its intent to file a House Ethics complaint on the matter Wednesday.

Gaetz represents Florida’s 1st Congressional District, covering most of the panhandle, but he was not a member of the House Oversight Committee that questioned Cohen on Wednesday. Despite that, he was in the room, and images of him standing off to the side quickly circulated on social media.

His opponents say that physical presence bolstered claims of witness tampering and intimidation.

 

Rachel Iacovone is a reporter and associate producer of Gulf Coast Live for WGCU News. Rachel came to WGCU as an intern in 2016, during the presidential race. She went on to cover Florida Gulf Coast University students at President Donald Trump's inauguration on Capitol Hill and Southwest Floridians in attendance at the following day's Women's March on Washington.Rachel was first contacted by WGCU when she was managing editor of FGCU's student-run media group, Eagle News. She helped take Eagle News from a weekly newspaper to a daily online publication with TV and radio branches within two years, winning the 2016 Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Award for Best Use of Multimedia in a cross-platform series she led for National Coming Out Day. She also won the Mark of Excellence Award for Feature Writing for her five-month coverage of an FGCU student's transition from male to female.As a WGCU reporter, she produced the first radio story in WGCU's Curious Gulf Coast project, which answered the question: Does SWFL Have More Cases of Pediatric Cancer?Rachel graduated from Florida Gulf Coast University with a bachelor's degree in journalism.