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"Well...bye": Second senior Matt Gaetz aide resigns amid investigation

10 April 2021
Dan Ackermann

Devin Murphy, Rep. Matt Gaetz's legislative director, has stepped down amid a federal investigation into sex trafficking allegations against the Florida congressman, the New York Times first reported and Axios has confirmed.

The latest:"It's been real," Murphy wrote in an email, obtained by Axios, to Republican legislative directors on Saturday morning, with the subject line: "Well...bye."

Context: Gaetz, who has not been charged with any crimes, has repeatedly denied allegations of being sexually involved with a 17-year-old and claims that he shared naked images of women with other Congress members.

What they're saying: As of Saturday afternoon, Murphy's automated email response says: "I am no longer with the office of Congressman Matt Gaetz. Womp womp. Cue the sad trombone."

  • Murphy directed requests to Isabela Belchior, who was named as legislative counsel for Gaetz in February. She previously assisted Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas) in the 2020 impeachment trial of former President Trump.
  • Murphy told associates he was interested in working on legislation, not working at TMZ, the New York Times reported earlier this week.
  • Murphy left, not because of the representative's legal troubles, but over media coverage of the investigation, per CNN.

The big picture: The House Ethics Committee announced Friday it had launched a probe into Gaetz.

  • Gaetz said the Justice Department launched an investigation after charging one of his associates, Joel Greenberg, on a federal sex trafficking charge and other crimes.
  • A lawyer for Greenberg indicated last week that he is in plea negotiations with federal prosecutors over his sex trafficking of a minor. A plea deal may indicate that Greenberg is open to cooperating with investigators by providing information though it's unknown how deep the negotiations are.

Go deeper:Gaetz to speak at pro-Trump women's conference amid sex trafficking probe

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.