
Matt Gaetz denies relationship with a 17-year-old and says he's a victim of attempted extortion
CBSN
Congressman Matt Gaetz on Tuesday night denied he had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl and paid for her to travel with him after The New York Times reported that the Justice Department was investigating the matter. Gaetz, a close ally of former President Trump, appeared on Fox News' "Tucker Carlson Tonight," where he claimed he was the victim of an attempted extortion.
The New York Times, citing three unnamed sources, reported that investigators are looking into whether Gaetz "violated federal sex trafficking laws." The investigation reportedly began under the Trump administration. Gaetz denied the relationship to Carlson and in a separate statement. "The person doesn't exist. I have not had a relationship with a 17-year-old," Gaetz told Carlson. "That is totally false."
Emergency crews were forced to suspend search operations in Kerr County, Texas, on Sunday, as the area hit hardest by catastrophic flash flooding earlier this month faced a renewed flood threat. Officials in Texas' rural and flood-prone Hill Country have said at least 161 people from the area remain missing in the aftermath of destructive July 4 storms that caused the Guadalupe River to overflow, and efforts to find them are ongoing.

Barbara Rae-Venter, a 76-year-old patent attorney living in Marina, California, thought she'd spend her retirement leisurely playing tennis, traveling, and indulging in her favorite pastime: researching her ancestry and building a family tree. It didn't quite work out that way. For Rae-Venter, something she started as a hobby led to capturing one of the most notorious criminals in California.

Federal regulators repeatedly granted appeals to remove Camp Mystic's buildings from their 100-year flood map, loosening oversight as the camp operated and expanded in a dangerous flood plain in the years before rushing waters swept away children and counselors, a review by The Associated Press found.