In an ironic twist, Representative Matt Gaetz (R-Flo.), who is currently under federal investigation for having a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl in 2019 and whether he may have violated federal sex trafficking laws by paying her to travel with him across state lines, announced that he would like pop star Britney Spears to testify before Congress about her experience under the abusive conservatorship led by her father that has robbed her of her agency and ability to control her own finances for the last 13 years.
Gaetz appeared to laud Spears for sharing her story publicly for the first time following years of speculation from her fanbase that she is being kept from living a full life under the conservatorship despite being lucid, functional, and able to perform. Spears’s remarks were an official confirmation from the star herself that she is being abused.
“Britney Spears wants to tell her story to the world,” Gaetz said. “She wants to use the experiences that have happened to her to cause broader change, and I think we ought to give her that opportunity in the United States Congress.”
Britney Spears wants to tell her story to the world.
She wants to use the experiences that have happened to her to cause broader change, and I think we ought to give her that opportunity in the United States Congress. #FreeBritney pic.twitter.com/dggL8PES1o
— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) June 25, 2021
Investigators believe Gaetz associate Joel Greenberg, who recently pleaded guilty to six criminal charges, including child sex trafficking, met women through a website for sex and introduced them to Gaetz, who also had sex with them. Greenberg’s correspondence confirms that he and Gaetz victimized a 17-year-old girl he claims they believed was 19.
During an emotional hearing on Wednesday, the impassioned Spears described being forced to work against her will and compared her experience to that of a sex trafficking victim.
“I worked seven days a week, no days off — which in California, the only similar thing to this is called sex trafficking, making anyone work — work against their will. Taking all their possessions away — credit card, cash, phone, passport card — and placing them in a home where they — they work with the people who live with them,” she told Judge Brenda Penny during the Los Angeles court hearing.
“If I didn’t do any of my meetings and work from 8 to 6 at night — which is 10 hours a day, seven days a week, no days off — I wouldn’t be able to see my kids or my boyfriend. I never had a say in my schedule,” she continued. “They always told me I had to do this. And ma’am, I will tell you, sitting in a chair 10 hours a day, seven days a week, it ain’t fun. And especially when you can’t walk out the front door.”
Alan is a writer, editor, and news junkie based in New York.
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