The woman was at the center of a Department of Justice investigation for years allegations of sex trafficking Rep. Matt Gaetz testified to the House Ethics Committee that the former Florida congressman had sex with him when he was 17, sources familiar with the investigation told ABC News.
President-elect Donald Trump announced Gaetz on Wednesday he was beaten serving as attorney general, overseeing the same branch of government that previously conducted his investigation, which ended last year without indictments.
Gaetz resigned after Trump’s announcement. It happened that the House Ethics Committee was in the final stages of its investigation, the sources said, adding that the committee was preparing to meet this week to discuss whether to do so. release the final report about the subject
Over the summer, the House Ethics Committee subpoenaed the woman at the center of the investigation — now in her 20s — and sat through several days of testimony where Gaetz testified to the committee that he had sex with her. minor in high school, according to sources close to the investigation.
“These allegations are fabricated and would constitute false testimony to Congress,” Gaetz said in response to the ABC News report. “This false smear made after a three-year criminal investigation should be viewed with great skepticism.”
The Justice Department spent years investigating allegations against Gaetz, including obstruction of justice allegations, before informing Gaetz last year. don’t press charges.
Gaetz has long denied wrongdoing in connection with the Justice Department investigation. In September, he gave a detailed response to questions sent to him by the House Ethics Committee, which is investigating allegations of alleged sexual misconduct and illegal drug use, repeating that he denied the allegations.
Rep. Matt Gaetz speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Oxon Hill, Maryland on February 23, 2024.
Alex Brandon/AP
“Your September 4th correspondence asks if I have had sexual activity with anyone under the age of 18. The answer to this question is definitely no. You can apply this answer to all versions of this question, in all forums,” Gaetz said. statement posted on his social media account.
“The committee’s star witness, Joel Greenberg, is a criminal liar who implicates others in his lies … Greenberg was originally charged with trying to falsely smear a local high school teacher as a pederast,” Gaetz added of the former Seminole County taxman. Collector Joel Greenberg pleaded guilty to a sex crime charge against a teacher who was running against him.
The woman’s allegation about Gaetz became part of the investigation after Greenberg, Gaetz’s former friend who is currently serving an 11-year prison sentence, came forward. reach an agreement With investigators in May 2021, he pleaded guilty to numerous federal felonies, including sex trafficking the woman when she was a minor and presenting her with other “grown men” who had sex with her when she was a minor.
According to Greenberg’s plea agreement, the woman, who ABC News is not identifying, met Greenberg online in 2017 and began meeting her at hotels and homes in the Middle District of Florida, where she “introduced the minor to other adult men who became involved. Middle District of Florida commercial sexual acts with the minor,” court documents said.
At the time, the minor “represented himself as an adult” on the website where he met Greenberg — and according to his plea agreement, he admits that he “acted without regard to the fact that the minor was under the age of 18 when he engaged in commercial sex acts” and “reasonably he had the opportunity” when he was a minor.
During its investigation, the House Ethics Committee conducted at least one interview half a dozen women The Florida congressman was also there who allegedly attended the parties, which were paid for by Greenberg, a former close friend of Gaetz’s, sources told ABC News. Some witnesses were subpoenaed by the commission, while others agreed to cooperate, according to the sources.
The House Ethics Committee also issued a subpoena Gaet’s ex-girlfriend to testify, and sources said he sat down for an interview earlier this year. The ex-girlfriend previously testified to a grand jury in the sex-trafficking investigation, ABC News previously reported.
The commission also obtained an affidavit from Gaetz’s ex-girlfriend, which lists the Florida congressman as having attended a party that was hacked in July 2017 and was attended by the woman Gaetz allegedly had sex with. he was a minor, the sources said.
As ABC News previously reported, the commission obtained written testimony from a separate woman who said that in July 2017, when she was in her 20s, she attended a party in Florida that Gaetz also attended, and that the woman was a minor. at the time and where there were drugs including cocaine.
Greenberg, a key witness in the Justice Department investigation, has been cooperating with the House Ethics investigation, according to the sources. Earlier this year, while serving time in a federal prison in Florida, he gave written testimony to the commission, sources said.
Some witnesses were shown Venmo payments they allegedly received from Gaetz, sources said.
As ABC News previously reported, a woman who said she attended a party with Gaetz in 2017, who ABC News is not identifying, told the commission that Gaetz’s payment was for sex, multiple sources told ABC News. Others have said they were paid to go to parties Gaetz said they attended, and sources say drugs and sex were involved in those parties.
Gaetz has long denied all allegations, including paying for sex, and previously dismissed them as “someone trying to make my generosity to ex-girlfriends something worse.”
Earlier this year, the committee subpoenaed the Justice Department for records related to its investigation of the Florida congressman, the sources said. It is unclear whether those records were returned.
However, the commission obtained some Venmo records from Gaetz after subpoenaing the company, sources told ABC News. During the Justice Department’s investigation into Gaetz, public reporting, including that of The Daily Beast, focused largely on Greenberg’s Venmo records, which, according to his plea agreement, he used his account to “sexually engage” with women he also introduced. to pay for commercial actions”. others
