2024-09-21 04:35:03
FloridaRepublican U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz is once again at the center of a scandal following newly unsealed civil court documents that allege he attended a drug-fueled party in 2017 involving a 17-year-old girl. According to legal filings, multiple eyewitnesses corroborated the details, which placed Gaetz at the party hosted by his close ally, lobbyist Chris Dorworth.
The court documents include sealed affidavits from three women who testified that Gaetz was present at a party where illegal drugs, including cocaine and ecstasy, were used and that sexual activities took place involving an underage girl, NOTUSreports. One of the witnesses, referred to as “K.M.,” described the party as involving a group of adults and the 17-year-old, identified only as “A.B.,” who was naked at the event. According to NOTUS, another witness, Gaetz’s former girlfriend, confirmed his attendance and geolocation data further substantiated the congressman’s presence that night.
The new filings come in the wake of a 2021 confession letter written by Joel Greenberg, a former Seminole County tax collector and close associate of Gaetz, which claimed that the two men had paid for sex with several women, including a minor. The letter,obtained byThe Daily Beast, detailed how Greenberg had facilitated the payments for Gaetz and described multiple Venmo and Cash App transactions made to the underage girl, alongside other women. Greenberg is currently serving an 11-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to charges including sex trafficking.
Gaetz has not been charged with a crime.
Federal prosecutors began investigating Gaetz in 2020 after Greenberg’s arrest but ultimately chose not to press charges against the congressman, citing concerns over the credibility of witnesses.
Greenberg’s confession letter, written in late 2020 while seeking a presidential pardon from then-PresidentDonald Trump, provides damning details about Gaetz’s role. In the letter, Greenberg admitted that he and Gaetz had both engaged in sexual activities with a minor, who was 17 at the time. Greenberg also detailed the financial transactions used to pay the women, including Venmo payments that Gaetz allegedly sent to him to arrange the encounters.
In the messages, Greenberg admitted to arranging sexual encounters for Gaetz and referenced efforts to secure a pardon for both men in the final days of the Trump presidency.
The new revelations about Gaetz come just days after the congressman defended Trump’s false assertions abouttransgender youth from the spin room after the presidential debate with Vice PresidentKamala Harris inPhiladelphia. In a post-debate interview with The Advocate on September 10, Gaetz backed Trump’s debunked claim that schools are performing gender-affirming surgeries on children—a baseless allegation that has been repeatedly dismissed by education and medical experts.
Gaetz sidestepped the factual inaccuracies when questioned about the falsehood, focusing instead on what he described as “parental rights.” “In places like California and Washington, if a parent doesn’t have the right gender-affirming approach to their own children, they’re at risk of losing parental rights,” Gaetz said, echoing the far-right talking points he and Trump have embraced. No evidence supports the notion that children are receiving gender-affirming surgeries in schools.
Gaetz is facing increasing pressure, both legally and politically. The House Ethics Committee is currently investigating Gaetz for his alleged involvement in paying women for sex. While Gaetz has avoided criminal charges so far, the Ethics Committee could censure or even expel him from Congress, depending on the findings.
