Matt Gaetz trolled with fake award for ‘paying underage girls for sex’

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Republican firebrand Matt Gaetz was surprised onstage at a recent GOP event in Ohio, where he was presented with an award for “allegedly paying underage girls to have sex” with him.

The Florida congressman was caught off guard by the troll, who appeared onstage at the Strongsville Republican Party’s Christmas gathering with a GoPro camera.

The man, who introduced himself as “Mike with the Strongsville GOP”, told the congressman: “Mr Gaetz we have an award for you,” before handing him the glass trophy.

“Congratulations on using Venmo to allegedly pay underage girls to have sex with you,” the man said, causing Mr Gaetz to become exasperated.

“C’mon man, you’re so full of it,” the congressman replied. The man was quickly manhandled off stage by event security.

It comes after Mr Gaetz previously found himself at the centre of an investigation headed by the Department of Justice into his alleged travels with a teenage girl for the purposes of sex while she was underage.

Mr Gaetz vehemently denied the charges, but his longtime associate Joel Greenberg was sentenced to 11 years in prison in December 2022, after pleading guilty to six federal crimes, including sex trafficking of a minor.

In February Mr Gaetz announced that the DOJ has ended its sex trafficking case, with no charges against him.

However, some months later in July, the House Ethics Committee reportedly revived a probe into the congressman regarding allegations of misconduct.