Matt Gaetz \u2014 now there\u2019s a name we hadn\u2019t thought about in a while.\u00a0<\/p>\n
You remember Gaetz. He served as a Florida congressman<\/a> from 2017 through 2024, then resigned after he was teed up for the attorney general seat in President Donald Trump\u2019s cabinet. Not too long after, he had to withdraw his name from consideration after it became clear his path to Senate confirmation would be more chaotic than Matt Damon\u2019s journey back to Ithaca; at the time, Gaetz was under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for allegations that he\u2019d paid women for sex, including a 17-year-old girl.\u00a0<\/p>\n And so, at the end of 2024, Gaetz kind of disappeared. Unless you\u2019re a frequent watcher of the far-right One America News Network on cable, that is.\u00a0<\/p>\n For the last year and a half, Gaetz has headlined \u201cThe Matt Gaetz Show\u201d during evening prime time on OANN. The show is exactly what you\u2019d expect: everything from fear-mongering about undocumented immigrants voting in elections to good old-fashioned dunking on the Dems.\u00a0<\/p>\n Sign up for the This Week\u2019s Top Stories newsletter to get the latest stories delivered to your inbox<\/p>\n THANK YOU!<\/p>\n You’re all set.<\/p>\n CLOSE\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n A March newscast, though, may have landed Gaetz and Texas Congressman Lance Gooden <\/a>in the hot seat.\u00a0<\/p>\n A civil lawsuit filed earlier this week in a Dallas County federal court accuses Gaetz and Gooden of defaming a Dallas philanthropist, Mark Patrick, during a newscast that accused Patrick of committing \u201cperhaps the largest financial charity fraud in the history of this country.\u201d The broadcast, which aired in March 2026, claimed that Patrick personally enriched<\/a> himself using money meant for charity.\u00a0<\/p>\n The allegations stem from a lawsuit Patrick faced last year, which claimed that Patrick improperly moved funds from a Cayman Islands charitable foundation, ultimately hurting the organizations the money was meant to aid, such as the DFW Charitable Foundation. Patrick, though, argued that the restructuring was done to protect the funds from a third party, and the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands ruled that there was \u201cno serious issue to be tried\u201d concerning the financial maneuver.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe judicial officer was \u2018unpersuaded that there is real risk that [charitable] assets will be diminished or otherwise unlawfully dealt with,\u2019\u201d the lawsuit states.\u00a0<\/p>\n Despite that ruling, Gaetz and Gooden used words like \u201ccriminal,\u201d \u201cfraudster\u201d and \u201cconfidence man\u201d to paint the picture of corruption<\/a> during the broadcast. (Gooden appeared in a pre-recorded interview during the show to discuss the story.) Additionally, photographs of Patrick were used in the news show and he was identified as a resident of Dallas.\u00a0The lawsuit adds that after being identified as a Dallas resident, Patrick had to initiate a complaint with local law enforcement to investigate the alleged tampering with his vehicle.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201c[The broadcast] caused Mr. Patrick to suffer shame, embarrassment, humiliation and severe mental pain and anguish,\u201d the lawsuit says, further adding that the allegations \u201cinterfered\u201d with his organization\u2019s \u201ccharitable mission.\u201d\u00a0The lawsuit states that because the Grand Court\u2019s ruling came out a month before the broadcast, Gaetz had every ability to know that Patrick had not been charged with or convicted of any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n It\u2019s perhaps worth noting that Gooden, the four-term representative who resides in Dallas County (Sunnyvale), came under investigation by the House Ethics Committee this week. While the committee did not reveal the nature of the investigation, Gooden went on Fox News, <\/a>where he described the charges as \u201cbogus spending allegations.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Congressmen and their glass castles.\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t