The Daily Populous Monday June 14th, 2021 night edition
Authored by businessinsider.com and submitted by LogicalManager

Matt Gaetz's former law-school classmates gossip about him in group texts.

They remember him as an attention seeker with a frat-boy vibe and a keg at the ready.

Some classmates are embarrassed by Gaetz and wish he'd disappear.

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Matt Gaetz was throwing a Super Bowl party. His invitation included specific requests: chips, one-dollar bills, and strippers.

"I may ask you to bring some incidentals (napkins, cups, chips, strippers, ext.)," Gaetz wrote in an email obtained by Insider. "P.S - After entering all of your email addresses it is painfully obvious that I don't know enough girls - so bring some."

Gaetz, a 23-year-old student at William & Mary Law School at the time, was living in a large house near the campus in Williamsburg, Virginia. He promised his friends "plenty of beer, liquor, and BBQ chicken," as well as two TVs showing the game — the Pittsburgh Steelers versus the Seattle Seahawks.

He told his classmates to bring "plenty of one dollar bills" for "various gambling endeavors" orchestrated by another classmate.

The strippers line "definitely was a joke," said Gaetz's former law-school classmate who shared the email with Insider. But Gaetz's former classmates, who attended a school replete with lofty ideals, are considering his character and previous antics in a new light, now that the three-term congressman is the subject of a federal sex-trafficking investigation.

An email Matt Gaetz wrote as a law student. His personal email address and the name of a former classmate have been removed for privacy. Email obtained by Insider

In interviews, many of Gaetz's former friends and acquaintances from William & Mary Law School's class of 2007 said they were embarrassed by the constant headlines about the GOP congressman's scandals. Insider spoke with 14 of Gaetz's former classmates. Most of them spoke on condition of anonymity to protect personal and professional relationships.

One former law-school classmate regularly trolls Gaetz on Twitter by welcoming the congressman's critics to the "Matt Haetz Society."

Others circulate stories to each other via group texts when outrageous headlines break, such as a report about Gaetz snorting cocaine with a paid escort or a story that the congressman showed his congressional colleagues nude photos of women — an allegation, among others, that has subjected Gaetz to a congressional ethics investigation.

"Every time The Daily Beast breaks another story on a Friday, it's like, 'Oh boy, go check Twitter,'" said one former classmate who participates in at least three group-text threads with William & Mary alumni where Gaetz is regularly discussed.

In January, before news broke about the sex-trafficking allegations, nearly three dozen of Gaetz's former classmates called on him to resign.

Of the more than 500 William & Mary Law School alumni who signed a petition urging Gaetz to resign, 34 of them were members of Gaetz's own class of 2007, of which there were about 200 people overall. In the letter, the alumni assailed Gaetz for voting to overturn the 2020 presidential election results; perpetuating a baseless theory that antifa adherents — not pro-Trump activists — perpetrated the January 6 attack on the US Capitol; and mocking the coronavirus pandemic by wearing a gas mask on the House floor.

The recent sex-trafficking allegations stunned one former classmate, who was surprised that Gaetz would do anything that could compromise his political career.

"Am I surprised he's partying with people or doing that kind of stuff? No," that person said. But they found the allegations that Gaetz had sex with a minor shocking because he "has a very high sense of self-preservation." The person added, "I'm surprised he wouldn't check their references."

The Justice Department is investigating whether Gaetz broke federal law by having a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl and paying for her to travel with him, The New York Times reported in March.

Read more: We spoke with 21 of Matt Gaetz's high-school classmates. Some say they could have predicted the congressman's sex scandal.

Gaetz has denied violating any laws. "I'm being falsely accused of exchanging money for naughty favors," he told supporters last month.

"Congressman Gaetz never ran for class president in law school. He ran for congress in north Florida, where he remains quite popular, despite hosting far more modest Super Bowl parties than he did 15 years ago as a student," Harlan Hill, Gaetz's spokesperson, told Insider in a statement.

Hill added, "While Congressman Gaetz has never hosted a party with strippers, he makes excellent BBQ chicken."

William & Mary Law School's class of 2007. William & Mary Law School

Every William & Mary Law School student is familiar with the school's ideal of becoming a "citizen lawyer." It dates back to when Thomas Jefferson helped found the law school in 1779.

Jefferson and the law school's other early leaders — George Wythe and George Tucker — wanted William & Mary to produce "lawyers who will use at least part of their legal training and experience to work for the common good," Walter Taylor Reveley III, who was the dean of the law school when Gaetz attended, wrote in a 2009 paper.

"They really did preach being citizen lawyers — not only being people who show up in the courtroom but giving back to society," said another former classmate.

"I guess he doesn't remember that day of orientation," that person said of Gaetz, calling the congressman's scandals "embarrassing to the institution."

Another former classmate mentioned Gaetz's claims that question the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election.

"In doing that he's undermining our system of government and the rule of law," that person said. "In my view that's not appropriate conduct for an attorney to be engaging in." The person continued: "Obviously, it's not great to have Matt be among our alumni. It's not really the person you want to point to as a role model."

The alumni letter demanding his resignation said Gaetz was "the antithesis of a citizen lawyer and he cannot be trusted with the laws of our nation."

William & Mary Law School representatives did not respond to Insider's request for comment about whether Gaetz has upheld the "citizen lawyer" ethic.

William & Mary lists Gaetz on its website of alumni in Congress; he's one of six serving in the US House.

But the school doesn't exactly boast about him. For example, Gaetz is missing from the university's list of "incredible alumni," which includes comedian Jon Stewart, actress Glenn Close, and former Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Gaetz mentioned his law school twice in his 2020 book when he referred to his questioning of witnesses in the impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump.

He recounted how he once shouted at a Stanford University law professor.

"It's not every day that I, a graduate of William & Mary Law School (ranked 31), get to tell a Stanford Law professor (ranked 2) exactly what I think of those who think so little of the American people," Gaetz wrote in "Firebrand: Dispatches From the Front Lines of the MAGA Revolution."

Rep. Matt Gaetz graduated from William & Mary Law School in 2007. William & Mary Law School

"I'm sure my aggressive, sometimes angry questioning of these supposed titans of legal education didn't win me votes in faculty lounges," Gaetz wrote. "But we aren't governed by them, are we? And they aren't my audience. They were barely my audience when they graded my exams at the William & Mary Law School."

Gaetz's law-school reputation — attention-seeking with a frat-boy vibe — is similar to how he comes across as a congressman, said a former classmate, "except he's more over-the-top now."

As a law student, Gaetz lived in a large multi-bedroom house near campus, more luxurious digs than the cramped apartments where some of his classmates lived.

He often hosted friends there to play cards or drink from a keg in the basement, sources told Insider.

In his second year of law school, Gaetz offered up "two kegs and a party at his home" for a fundraising auction to benefit students doing unpaid public-interest work during the summer, reported The Advocate, the law school's newspaper.

He took some of his law-school friends to his family's home in Seaside, Florida, which filmmakers used in "The Truman Show," a 1998 movie starring Jim Carrey.

Gaetz has always been very proud of this fact and regularly bragged about it, people who know him told Insider. Gaetz even mentioned his house's Hollywood treatment in the third paragraph of his book. In 2019, Carrey mocked Gaetz's hair and posted an unflattering depiction of the GOP congressman on Twitter. Gaetz shot back a snarky response.

Gaetz brought up the "Truman Show" house a lot in law school, too, including during class discussions, his former classmates said. Years before Gaetz introduced a bill to dissolve the US Environmental Protection Agency as one of his first legislative efforts in Congress, he mused in law school about eliminating it, one of those former classmates said.

In 2005, Gaetz advanced to the finals of a moot-court tournament, where he argued before a panel that included Jay Sekulow, who would later serve as one of President Trump's lead defense attorneys at his impeachment trial.

"There are a handful of students that stood out as being particularly intelligent, others as particularly aggressive — we call them 'gunners,'" one former classmate said. They added that Gaetz "wasn't either of those. He's always been kind of a frat boy."

Read more: Matt Gaetz's Florida sex game included a 'Harry Potter' challenge and 'extra points' for sleeping in sorority houses, a female Republican tells Insider

Gaetz led softball teams in law-school tournaments during 2004 and 2005. His 11-person squad from 2005, named Southern Comfort, competed against teams such as Nuttz About Buttz, the Sonic Death Monkeys, and the Head Butting Kangaroos.

Gaetz stayed friendly with some of his softball teammates after law school. Three of them — Harry Clayton, Tristan Tyler, and Todd Purdy — got shout-outs in the acknowledgments section of his 2020 book.

And Gaetz still has supporters from his law-school days.

"I think he's a great guy," one former classmate told Insider.

But another one of Gaetz's former law-school classmates, Carolyn Fiddler, is now one of his most reliable critics.

"As co-president of the Matt Haetz Society, I unironically love how my phone absolutely blows up when news like this drops," Fiddler wrote on March 30, the day The New York Times published its bombshell story about the sex-trafficking investigation.

"Ooooops," she tweeted on June 3, with a link to a Politico story about federal prosecutors examining whether Gaetz obstructed justice during a phone call with a witness in the sex-crimes investigation into him.

"I have never been shy about my attitude toward Matt Gaetz," Fiddler told Insider in an interview. "Among my circle of friends, we do keep abreast of the latest Matt Gaetz developments and share them and commiserate together." She's now the communications director for Daily Kos, a liberal news site.

While Fiddler knew Gaetz in law school, they weren't friends. She went to one party at his house where people were playing the drinking game "Edward Fortyhands," she said. The game involves participants duct-taping 40-ounce bottles of alcohol to their hands.

But Fiddler said she doesn't think she'd remember much about Gaetz from her law-school days if he hadn't gotten involved in politics and started introducing "controversial and right-wing legislation" as a Florida legislator.

She said, "He was just another dude that I didn't want to hang out with in law school."

BlokeInTheMountains on June 13rd, 2021 at 15:00 UTC »

Educated people don't realize that Republicans have all subscribed to the Roy Cohn strategy of Deny, Attack, Reverse roles of Victim and Offender (DARVO)?

It has proven so successful that it got Trump to the presidency despite his taped admissions of sexual assault.

Resign is not even in their vocabulary.

PointsNorth56649 on June 13rd, 2021 at 15:00 UTC »

Reminds me of when Sarah Sanders tweeted:‘The radical left’s cancel culture is all about silencing you. For all their empty rhetoric about tolerance and empathy, they only tolerate what they agree with’.

Interestingly, a teacher at her former high school (Little Rock Central - which is shocking to me because girls I knew who acted like her who didn’t go to catholic school got beat up at public schools) said in response: ‘You were a student at Central when I taught AP government, but you weren’t in the AP class as you mentioned. If you were, you would’ve understood the First Amendment and the difference between limits on government and freedoms for private individuals. I taught Sunday School too. Evidently, you didn’t learn any of those lessons either.’

I love when people from these right-wingers pasts come back into the picture.

barnorth on June 13rd, 2021 at 13:33 UTC »

He’s an embarrassment to human beings