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A former staffer to Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) said Monday that he talked with FBI agents who came to his home for about two hours last week, insisting to them he had no knowledge of the congressman being involved in any illegal activities.

Retired Air Force Capt. Nathan Nelson served as Gaetz’s director of military affairs until last year. In an interview with The Washington Post, he said the FBI agents told him they had information from the “national media” that he had “knowledge of the congressman’s involvement in illegal activities” and, because of that knowledge, had chosen to leave his job in the office.

Nelson said he had no such knowledge of Gaetz’s alleged involvement and left his job to pursue other opportunities in Florida.

“He’s always been very, very professional in his public life,” Nelson said of Gaetz.

Nelson said the agents came to his house Wednesday, the day after the New York Times disclosed a Justice Department investigation into whether Gaetz had sex with a 17-year-old and paid for her travel expenses, possibly violating federal sex-trafficking laws. Nelson said the agents did not disclose what particular illegal activity he was alleged to have known about.

At a news conference Monday at his home in Santa Rosa Beach, Fla., Nelson said he has not directly spoken to Gaetz in “several months.” He said he remains “loosely affiliated” with the congressman’s office as an unpaid adviser and reached out to the office after the FBI came to his home to relay what he told the bureau and ask if there was anything he should know. The conference was promoted to reporters by Gaetz’s congressional office.

Nelson said he believes that allegations of Gaetz “being involved in illegal activity are baseless” but said he had no evidence to provide to disprove them.

A spokeswoman for the FBI field office in Jacksonville declined to comment.

Nelson said he feared that it might be reported in the media that he knew about the allegation, and he wanted to preempt what he viewed as a false disclosure.

“My primary concern is that somebody in the media, if they’re making those allegations, they’re going to run with it,” Nelson said.

Nelson said he had not been contacted by any media outlet alleging he knew about illegal activities in which Gaetz was said to be involved before the FBI reached out. He said in his two-hour conversation with agents, “I went into detail about the extent of my relationship with Congressman Gaetz, from the time he was a state rep, and when we first met, to my tenure as director of military affairs, and the things that we developed, why we developed them.” He said he believed the bureau had also been reaching out to other former staffers.

Nelson said agents did not seem focused on any particular program or bill.