Thread by @dsamuelsohn

NEW: Sleeping w/ married legislators. Spending the night at a college sorority house. These were specific ways Matt Gaetz & FLA lawmakers could earn "extra points" in a sex game in which Gaetz is accused of playing when he served in the state's House. ($) businessinsider.com/matt-gaetz-sex…

The sex competition even involved the "Harry Potter" book series, a female GOP insider who worked with Gaetz in the 2010s told @thisisinsider in an interview. by @rbravender @KaylaEpstein @TinaSfon & @WARojas

Anyone who had sex w/ a certain conservative woman "won the whole game regardless of points," she said. That woman was known as the "snitch," a nod to the Potter game Quidditch. The GOP source said she "heard specific references of Gaetz being involved & scoring points."

The source declined to name the woman to protect her privacy. Her accusations about Gaetz's participation in this sex competition builds upon others.

Chris Latvala, a GOP state rep who overlapped w/ Gaetz in the Florida House, accused Gaetz in a '20 tweet of creating a "game where members of the FL House got 'points' for sleeping with aides, interns, lobbyists, and married legislators."

The existence of the "game" among male lawmakers was the "worst kept secret in Tallahassee," the GOP insider said. Lawmakers who participated publicly boasted about it, even w/ female colleagues; some men who didn't participate jokingly lamented the fact that they abstained.

Just about everyone in Gaetz's orbit — former staffers in Florida, ex-Trump officials, and Capitol Hill aides — have been gossiping about the congressman's legal and PR woes this week.

At least 1 former staffer said she saw her work for Gaetz in a new light after news of the investigation broke.

After Insider informed her of the sex trafficking allegations former 2016 campaign staffer Karli Andrews exclaimed, "Oh my god, no way. Oh, my god."

"Knowing that, now I feel just — ew — I cannot even believe I talked this guy up and helped him become elected, for him to be such a skeeze," said Andrews, who has since left politics.

Gaetz staff were pulled into a meeting on Tuesday and basically told not to worry about the reports, but some of them were nervous, a former Gaetz staffer told Insider.

The congressman's spokesman, Luke Ball, resigned suddenly from the congressman's office out of principle, NBC reported on Friday.

"The Office of Congressman Matt Gaetz and Luke Ball have agreed that it would be best to part ways. We thank him for his time in our office, and we wish him the best moving forward," Gaetz's chief of staff Jillian Lane Wyant said in an email.

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