The WaPo story has some additional details that answer most of the questions from my earlier post and suggest that there's at least some truth to the extortion claims. First, it apparently wasn't a pardon, or even a threat of leaking the investigation (at least not explicitly), that they were dangling. The scammers claimed that the money would be used to secure the release of Robert Levinson, a missing (presumed dead) hostage being held by Iran. They claimed that the goodwill generated from that (they would give Gaetz credit) would stave off any prosecution attempts.
Second, the reason why the FBI might have instructed Gaetz Senior to actually wire some money is because there
wasn't an explicit threat to go public. The scammers hadn't actually done anything incriminating yet, though it certainly looks like a garden-variety confidence scam, so they needed to string them along until they did do something criminal.
Third, McGee doesn't actually appear to be involved. He's tied to the situation because he's worked with Levinson's family when they were trying to secure his release. He did talk to Gaetz Senior, but it appears that Gaetz was the one who initiated the call (likely due to McGee's past association with the Levinson case). The people actually running the scam appear to be a former intelligence analyst for the Air Force and a developer with a history of fraud. It's still not clear how they found out about the investigation into Gaetz, but they don't appear to have any actual relationship to the case.
Matt Gaetz investigation: Extortion claim centers on overture regarding missing FBI agent Robert Levinson - The Washington Post
