佛罗里达州众议员马特·盖兹(Matt Gaetz)周二否认与一名17岁的女孩发生了不适当的性关系，有新的报道称，司法部正在调查这种所谓的关系——声称调查是精心策划的敲诈勒索计划的一部分。

这项调查最初由《纽约时报》报道，始于去年夏天，重点是盖兹是否与一名未成年女孩发生性关系，并支付她与他一起旅行的费用，以及他是否违反了联邦性贩运法，一位了解调查的消息人士向美国广播公司新闻证实了这一点。

盖兹告诉《泰晤士报》，他的律师被告知他是调查的对象，而不是目标。

“我没有和一个17岁的孩子发生过关系。这是完全错误的，”盖兹在周二晚上的一次采访中告诉福克斯新闻的塔克·卡尔森。"那是假的，记录会证明那是假的."

《纽约时报》报道称，对盖兹的调查是对乔尔·格林伯格(Joel Greenberg)更大规模调查的一部分。乔尔·格林伯格是佛罗里达州的一名前官员，去年夏天被指控犯有性贩运儿童和以金钱支持他人换取性的罪行。格林伯格拒不认罪。

在福克斯新闻(Fox News)上，根据Axios周二早些时候的一份报告，盖兹一直告诉心腹，他正在考虑从国会退休，并可能加入右翼媒体机构Newsmax。当他说有人找到他时，他似乎证实了调查，有人声称他可以“让调查消失”。

“有人要求钱来换取承诺，他可以让这次调查和他的同谋者一起结束，”盖兹说，他认为这个被指控的勒索者是前DOJ官员大卫·麦基。

泳池/路透社

众议员马特·盖兹在雷伯恩大厦办公楼的听证会上发言

麦基没有回应美国广播公司新闻的置评请求。在接受《华盛顿邮报》采访时，麦基否认了盖兹的说法，即他是针对佛罗里达州议员的敲诈勒索活动的一部分。

“这完全是假的。麦基对《邮报》表示:“这是一种公然的企图，目的是转移人们对他正在接受未成年人性交易调查的注意力。”。“除了听到谣言的一千个人中的一个之外，我与那件案子毫无关系。”

“我确实相信司法部有人试图诽谤我，”盖兹在福克斯新闻上说。

盖兹在办公室的一份声明中说，他一直在与当局合作，他的父亲“甚至在联邦调查局的指示下佩戴了一根电线”，以“抓获这些试图勒索他2500万美元的罪犯”。

在福克斯新闻采访中被问及调查进行了多久时，盖兹说“我不知道”，并继续暗示有人声称有“我和童妓的照片”，他声称这“显然是假的”。

在采访中，盖兹声称两年前他和卡尔森共进晚餐，并带走了一个“朋友”，这个“朋友”实际上受到了联邦调查局的威胁，他告诉我，如果她不承认我参与了某种付费游戏计划，她可能会面临麻烦。但卡尔森立即否认知道盖兹在说什么，回答说:“老实说，我根本不记得你说的那个女人或背景。”

从广告间隙回来后，卡尔森称这个片段是“我主持过的最奇怪的采访之一”。

Rep. Matt Gaetz denies sexual relationship with underage girl amid reports of DOJ investigation

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., on Tuesday denied that he had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl amid new reports that the Justice Department was investigating the alleged relationship -- claiming the probe was part of an elaborate extortion scheme.

The investigation, first reported by The New York Times, began last summer and focuses on whether Gaetz had a sexual relationship with an underage girl and paid for her to travel with him, and whether he violated federal sex trafficking laws, a source aware of the investigation confirmed to ABC News.

Gaetz told the Times that his lawyers were informed that he was the subject, not the target, of an investigation.

"I have not had a relationship with a 17-year-old. That is totally false," Gaetz told Fox News' Tucker Carlson in an interview Tuesday night. "That is false and records will bear that out to be false."

The New York Times reported that the inquiry into Gaetz is part of a larger inquiry into Joel Greenberg, a former Florida official indicted last summer on charges that included sex trafficking of a child and financially supporting people in exchange for sex. Greenberg has pleaded not guilty.

On Fox News, Gaetz -- who, according to an Axios report earlier on Tuesday, had been telling confidants he was considering retiring from Congress and possibly joining the right-wing media outlet Newsmax -- appeared to confirm the investigation when he said he was approached by someone who claimed he could "make this investigation go away."

"There was a demand for money in exchange for a commitment that he could make this investigation go away along with his co-conspirators," Gaetz said, identifying the alleged extortionist as former DOJ official David McGee.

McGee did not respond to ABC News' request for comment. In an interview with the Washington Post, McGee denied Gaetz's claim that he was part of an extortion effort targeting the Florida congressman.

"It is completely false. It's a blatant attempt to distract from the fact that he's under investigation for sex trafficking of minors," McGee told the Post. "I have no connection with that case at all, other than, one of a thousand people who have heard the rumors."

"I do believe that there are people at the Department of Justice who are trying to smear me," Gaetz said on Fox News.

In a statement from his office, Gaetz said he had been cooperating with authorities and that his father "has even been wearing a wire" at the FBI's direction "to catch these criminals" seeking to extort him for $25 million.

Asked in the Fox News interview how long the investigation had been going on, Gaetz said "I don't know," and went on to suggest that someone is alleging there are "pictures of me with child prostitutes," which he claimed was "obviously false."

At one point during the interview, Gaetz claimed that two years ago he had dinner with Carlson and took along a "friend" who was "actually threatened by the FBI, told that if she wouldn't cop to the fact that somehow I was involved in some pay-for-play scheme that she could face trouble." But Carlson promptly denied knowing what Gaetz was talking about, responding: "I don't remember the woman you're speaking of or the context at all, honestly."

After returning from a commercial break, Carlson called the segment "one of the weirdest interviews I've ever conducted."