I get the impression that Trump was doing Gaetz a favor by giving him an excuse to resign his house seat to avoid the ethics investigation without making it look like that was the reason. It's so transparent though, I don't really understand the point. I mean it was clear from the beginning that Gaetz had no chance of confirmation and Trump had to know this.

I wonder if nominating such obviously horrible choices is some strategy to make his second choice easier to confirm for fear he will pick someone more awful, lol.

Having said that, I don't think that the accusations of "sex trafficking" and preying on children are reasonable.

The attorney for the supposed witness (the 17-year old's friend) testified she didn’t think Gaetz knew the girl was underage, stopped their relationship when he found out and did not resume it until after she turned 18. The age of consent in Florida is 18 but in many other states it is 16 or 17. Not that that makes it ok but it is probably the difference between an ethics investigation and no ethics investigation and not hearing about this at all.