A viral post shared on X claims Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz purportedly made a tweet about “age gap dating.”

 

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Verdict: False

The claim is false. The purported tweet was originally shared by a parody account on Threads, who admitted the tweet was fake, according to Lead Stories.

Fact Check:

A woman has alleged that Gaetz paid her for sex at a “small, invitation-only party” in Florida in 2017, according to NBC News. The woman, who was 19 at the time, also claims she saw Gaetz having sex with her then-17-year-old friend, the outlet reported.

The X post, which has garnered over six million views as of writing, claims Gaetz purportedly made a tweet about “age gap dating.”

“Being nominated to head the DOJ is such sweet revenge after they came after me for ‘sex trafficking.’ The general wisdom concerning age gap dating is to halve one’s age and subtract seven. I’m 42 and have almost never betrayed this general maxim over the last 10 years,” the purported tweet reads.

The claim is false. Check Your Fact performed an advanced search of Gaetz’s personal and government X accounts, which did not generate any results for the purported tweet. Likewise, the purported remark is not referenced on Gaetz’s website or his verified Facebook and Instagram accounts.

In addition, Check Your Fact found no credible news reports to support the claim. Actually, the opposite is true. On Nov. 18, Lead Stories debunked the claim, indicating it originated via a parody account on Threads. According to the outlet, the account shared a subsequent post admitting the purported tweet was “fake.”

The fake tweet references a Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation into Gaetz following sex trafficking allegations involving underage girls, according to The Associated Press. Gaetz has denied any wrongdoing and did not face any federal charges as a result of the DOJ investigation, the outlet reported. (RELATED: No, Fox News Did Not Report That Newsom Will Withhold California’s Federal Income Tax)

More recently, President-elect Donald Trump has announced his plans to nominate Gaetz as his Attorney General.

Check Your Fact has contacted Gaetz’s office for comment.