Another forgotten episode from his past is when he and MTG went to visit the J6 prisoners pretty early on. Neither on ever talked about it, nothing ever came of it, and it has vanished from the public consciousness. So what happened?

Well, to get it out of the way, if Gaetz was some real reptilian in the grass, then why the hell would he do it in the first place? Those were the only two, AFAIK, that tried to get in to see the prisoners.

I believe what they found out that day was that the "J6-ers" were almost or entirely phony, another gigantic psyop. Further, I believe he was smart enough to realize that the Swamp was far deeper than he had ever guessed, and that just yelling and wading in was going to be pointless. (BTW, exactly the same thing happened when Tucker went to try to see the already long-dead Julian Assange.)

If that was, in fact, the lesson Matt learned back then, then he's had over three years to think and plan and coordinate. No wonder "They" are shitting a brick over his nomination.