Embattled congressman Matt Gaetz is engaged to sister of pro-Trump tech mogul

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz has put Chinese drones at the top of his enemies list, demanding they be grounded and raising concerns about spying.

Gaetz says it’s an issue of national security.

The Florida congressman also has a personal interest in the matter: Gaetz is engaged to the sister of Palmer Luckey, the co-founder of a defense company that stands to profit by building drones and other technology for the U.S. government.

As a congressman, Gaetz is in a position to influence what the future of Luckey’s industry will look like — from pushing legislation to shut down foreign competition to sitting on a committee that is exploring how the military will use artificial intelligence and other emerging technology Luckey’s company is developing.

Gaetz, 38, proposed to Luckey’s sister, 26-year-old Ginger Luckey, at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in December. The proposal surprised many because only one photo of the couple had been publicly posted just a few weeks before the engagement.

Gaetz’s ties to Palmer Luckey likely don’t constitute a conflict of interest under congressional rules, but they could create the appearance of one, said Jordan Libowitz, a spokesman for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

“It is certainly an optics issue,” Libowitz said. “A member of Congress needs their constituents to trust that they are looking out for the best interests of their district and nation, not themselves and their relatives. Even if this is not explicitly against the rules, it is something you should look to avoid.”

Gaetz is fighting to save his political career. The New York Times published a bombshell report that the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating whether the Republican congressman had sex with a 17-year-old girl. The investigation is focusing on whether Gaetz and former Seminole County tax collector Joel Greenberg recruited women online and paid them for sex, the Times reported.

Gaetz, 38, whose spokesman did not respond to a request for comment from the South Florida Sun Sentinel, has denied paying for sex. Gaetz has not been charged criminally.

Luckey, a GOP political donor, is a big name in the tech world, and he hasn’t even reached his 30th birthday. Forbes listed the 28-year-old as one of the top entrepreneurs under 40 and tagged his fortune at $730 million in 2016.

Luckey founded the virtual reality company Oculus, which Facebook acquired for about $2 billion in 2014. The young entrepreneur left Facebook in 2017 as controversy erupted over $10,000 he had given to support an anti-Hillary Clinton group. Luckey has said Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg fired him because of his political views. Zuckerburg has declined to discuss Luckey’s departure, saying it’s an internal human resources issue.

Luckey then moved to a new venture, joining with investors to found Anduril Industries, a Southern California defense company with the mission of helping the United States compete with China and other adversaries on drones, artificial technology and other emerging technologies. One of the company’s products is a battering-ram drone that can be used to knock enemy drones out of the sky.

While some in the tech community fear the militarization of their innovations, Luckey has embraced it and says the United States must beat competitors in a burgeoning tech arms race.

“I want to build a company that is worth billions of dollars,” Luckey told Bloomberg Businessweek in 2019. “I want to become one of the major defense contractors that’s building technology for the United States government. I am proud to say that, I am happy to say that and I hope we get there.”

Anduril has already landed several government contracts since it launched in 2017, including one to build a “virtual wall” along the Southern U.S. border that features drones, surveillance towers and artificial intelligence technology.

One of Anduril’s backers is Peter Thiel, a tech tycoon and major GOP donor who supported Trump in 2016.

Luckey did not respond to a South Florida Sun Sentinel interview request.

Ginger Luckey met Gaetz during a March 2020 fundraiser at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club that her mother had “dragged” her to, the Daily Mail reported.

A native of California, Luckey works as an analyst at Apeel, a company that aims to reduce food waste.

Gaetz said in an interview last month that Trump insisted the couple have their wedding at Mar-a-Lago, where they met and became engaged.

“Our courtship occurred during the presidential campaign,” Gaetz told conservative media personality Gina Loudon. “Date night wasn’t always romantic wine and candles. Sometimes, it was a Trump rally in Ocala.”

As their relationship blossomed, Gaetz took an interest in the threat foreign drones could pose to national security, and the work being done by his fiancee’s brother. The issue was on the radar of other lawmakers, but Gaetz was particularly outspoken. He went on Tucker Carlson’s show in May to bash Da Jiang Innovations, a Chinese company that is estimated to control about 80% of the U.S. drone market.

“China is massively expanding a Trojan horse spying operation in our country,” Gaetz said.

He wrote a letter to U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr calling on him to ground the Chinese company’s drones in use by local law enforcement. The Pentagon and the Department of Interior had already blacklisted DJI Jones after conducting internal reviews. DJI has asserted efforts to ban its products are part of “a politically motivated agenda to reduce market competition and support domestically produced drone technology, regardless of its merits.”

Gaetz also sponsored legislation to ban federal funds from being used to purchase Chinese drones. His measure did not pass.

In July, Gaetz went to bat for his future brother-in-law in a congressional hearing, questioning Zuckerberg about Palmer Luckey’s departure from the company. Gaetz used his Twitter account in September to promote Andruil, Luckey’s company named for a sword in J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.

He linked to an article titled, “Anduril’s New Drone Offers to Inject More AI Into Warfare.”

“Anduril for the win!” Gaetz wrote.