The whole Iran hostage/blackmail thing sounds like it could be an interesting story somewhere in there but throughout the whole thing they never deny Gaetz had sex with this girl/these girls but it "can't be statutory rape because she had a fake driving licence". Good luck proving that one in court; it's a step up from "Well she said she was seventeen".

The original twitter thread came from some Florida-based MAGA operative with no journalistic background or credibility (as far as my short dive into it found) and then Dore and Carrol took it up and repeated it, mostly reading it off the tweets.

It's notable that no other journalists are looking at this at all; what you would expect from the corporate tools but nobody else? At all? Only MAGA social media/influencer types?

It's just smoke imo and if IranHostageBlackmailGate blows up into the story of the century I'll look like (more of) an idiot (they will need a better name though )