Maybe to further cause reputational harm to Gaetz? Here me out.

If anybody knowingly makes statements of the report that:

• Are false, purporting them to be fact
• Communicated to a third person or published
• is at least negligent (the speaker should have known better)
• Causes reputational harm

Then that person is guilty of slander.

If Gaetz is still considered a public official, Gaetz's case would likely have to meet the standard set in NYT vs Sullivan - the defaming statements must be said with "actual malice."

But since he resigned from Congress and said he has no plans to rejoin the next Congress, would he be simply a private citizen again? If he is, the legal standard became much easier to meet. He just has to prove that the speaker should have known better.

This could be a setup against the Fake News and those who have leaked parts of the investigation.

The play is to shed light on others who are involved in everything that Gaetz has been purported to have done.