Matt Gaetz has been accused of paying to have sex with two women at a Florida house party in 2017.
The bombshell allegations were revealed by his anonymous accusers’ lawyer, Joel Leppard, in an interview with ABC News on Monday. The allegations go back seven years to when Gaetz was still an unmarried freshman Congressman in his mid-30s.
Leppard said his clients testified in front of a House Ethics Committee as part of its investigation into Gaetz. That probe was reportedly set to be released last week, but was ultimately dropped after Gaetz abruptly resigned from Congress within hours of being announced as Donald Trump’s attorney general appointee.
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One of the women has also claimed that she witnessed Gaetz at the party having sex with a 17-year-old girl.
“She testified [that] in July of 2017, at this house party, she was walking out to the pool area, and she looked to her right, and she saw Rep. Gaetz having sex with her friend who was 17,” Leppard told ABC News.
Leppard added that House investigators placed screenshots of Venmo payments on a screen during a hearing and asked his clients to give a reasoning for each payment. Leppard said they’d respond each time, “‘That was for sex.’”
A report by the Daily Beast in 2021 revealed that Gaetz’ pal, the imprisoned Florida tax collector Joel Greenberg, wrote in a confession letter that Gaetz had paid him to arrange sex with several women and a girl who was 17. The Beast also revealed private Venmo logs that showed Gaetz sent money to Greenberg.
“On more than one occasion, this individual was involved in sexual activities with several of the other girls,” Greenberg wrote in his confession, identifying Gaetz as “the congressman from Florida’s 1st Congressional District.”
Greenberg added, “From time to time, gas money or gifts, rent or partial tuition payments were made to several of these girls, including the individual who was not yet 18. I did see the acts occur firsthand and Venmo transactions, Cash App or other payments were made to these girls on behalf of the Congressman.”
At another point, Greenberg wrote that his lawyers “know he paid me to pay the girls” and “that he and I both had sex with the girl who was underage.”
The Justice Department, which Gaetz will soon oversee as attorney general if he’s confirmed by the U.S. Senate, probed allegations of this nature against Gaetz for years. However, the lawmaker was informed last year that he’d face no charges.
Gaetz, 42, has adamantly denied any wrongdoing for years. A spokesperson for the Trump transition team called the allegations brought forward by Leppard “baseless.”
“These are baseless allegations intended to derail the second Trump administration,” said spokesperson Alex Pfeiffer. “The Biden Justice Department investigated Gaetz for years and cleared him of wrongdoing. The only people who went to prison over these allegations were those lying about Matt Gaetz.”
Sources told ABC News that the House Ethics Committee will convene on Wednesday to decide on whether it should release its report about Gaetz despite him no longer being in Congress. Reports have suggested the scandal-scarred Gaetz may struggle to be confirmed by the Senate despite Republicans holding a slim majority.
Leppard is among the many people calling on the House committee to release its report on Gaetz.
“As the Senate considers former Rep. Gaetz’s nomination for attorney general, several questions demand answers,” he said. “What if multiple credible witnesses provided evidence of behavior that would constitute serious criminal violations?”
John Clune, a lawyer who represents the former minor who was central to the House committee’s probe into Gaetz, has also called for the report to be released.
“Mr. Gaetz’s likely nomination as Attorney General is a perverse development in a truly dark series of events,” he said. “We would support the House Ethics Committee immediately releasing their report. She was a high school student and there were witnesses.”
