John,

In 2020, the Department of Justice began investigating allegations that Representative Matt Gaetz obstructed justice and violated federal sex trafficking laws.

Gaetz’s associate Joel Greenberg pled guilty to underage sex trafficking and reportedly provided potentially incriminating information about Gaetz’s involvement to investigators.

Then the Department of Justice informed Gaetz that it would not bring charges against him.

This week, we sued the DOJ for records on its criminal investigation into Matt Gaetz.

John, it’s in the public’s interest to understand why a member of Congress was not charged with any crime despite public reporting that suggested that crimes had been committed. Transparency around high-profile investigations, including any failures to properly investigate Gaetz, is both required by law and urgently needed.

We’re challenging the secrecy around this case in particular, but also the DOJ's practice of not sharing important information like this with the public.

We sued the DOJ after they refused to release records to CREW related to their investigation of Rep. Gaetz.

We deserve to know whether the decision not to prosecute Gaetz was politically motivated. And we deserve to know if there was anything that influenced the decision not to prosecute him, other than whether there was enough evidence to do so.

We should *not* be forced to sue for records every time we seek transparency on investigations of public officials.

The DOJ has a long history of issuing blanket denials of requests for records relating to investigations of public officials, even though a federal appeals court has ruled that such denials are not allowed.

That’s why we're suing the DOJ for records on Matt Gaetz, and we’re challenging the legality of the Department of Justice’s broader policy of categorically denying our Freedom of Information Act requests on investigations like this.

The American people deserve accountability and transparency from our government officials. In this case, that goes for Matt Gaetz—and the DOJ.

Thanks,

CREW HQ