World Courant
In current weeks, Home Ethics Committee investigators have performed a collection of interviews behind closed doorways with quite a few ladies who had been witnesses within the Justice Division’s yearlong intercourse trafficking investigation into Rep. Matt Gaetz, a number of sources aware of the Justice Division’s work say committee to ABC Information.
Investigators have interviewed at the very least a half-dozen ladies who allegedly attended events that the Florida congressman attended and had been paid by Joel Greenberg, Gaetz’s former shut good friend. Greenberg was sentenced to 11 years in jail in 2022 after pleading responsible to a number of expenses, together with intercourse trafficking of a minor and introducing the minor to different “grownup males,” sources advised ABC Information.
Within the interviews, which have beforehand gone unreported, some witnesses had been proven Venmo funds they allegedly obtained from Gaetz and requested whether or not these funds had been for sexual exercise, sources mentioned. Some witnesses have been subpoenaed by the committee, whereas others have agreed to cooperate, the sources mentioned.
One lady, whom ABC Information will not be figuring out, advised the committee {that a} fee from Gaetz was for intercourse, whereas others mentioned they had been paid to attend events the place Gaetz additionally attended and the place medicine and intercourse had been on show, a number of sources mentioned to ABC Information.
Gaetz has lengthy denied all allegations, together with paying for intercourse, and has beforehand dismissed them, claiming that “somebody is attempting to recategorize my generosity towards ex-girlfriends as one thing disagreeable.” The Justice Division knowledgeable Gaetz in 2023 that it declined to file expenses in opposition to him after a years-long investigation.
Consultant Matt Gaetz appears on throughout a press convention on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) transparency on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, November 30, 2023.
Drew Angerer/Getty Photographs
The Home of Representatives Ethics Committee declined to remark. Lawyer Joel Leppard of Florida-based Leppard Legislation confirmed his consumer was cooperating with the fee however declined to remark additional.
The committee earlier this 12 months subpoenaed the Justice Division for data associated to the investigation into the Florida congressman. Nonetheless, the division has resisted releasing the knowledge, sources mentioned.
Nonetheless, the committee obtained Gaetz’s Venmo information after issuing a subpoena to the corporate, sources advised ABC Information. Throughout the DOJ investigation into Gaetz, public reporting, together with by The Day by day Beast, targeted largely on Venmo data belonging to Greenberg, who, in accordance with his plea deal, used his account to “pay for business intercourse acts” with ladies he additionally engaged in others instructed. The committee acquiring Gaetz’s information, which ABC Information has not seen, may assist give congressional investigators a roadmap for funds the congressman could have made whereas buddies with Greenberg.
On Tuesday, the Home Ethics Committee supplied an replace on its investigation into Gaetz, describing in a brand new assertion Tuesday that the bipartisan panel, after talking to greater than a dozen witnesses, issuing 25 subpoenas and reviewing hundreds of paperwork, will proceed to evaluation the allegations. together with that the Florida congressman “engaged in sexual misconduct and unlawful drug use” and that he “tried to impede authorities investigations into his conduct.”
The committee additionally detailed that it’s going to now not examine allegations that Gaetz “could have shared inappropriate photos or movies on the ground of the Home of Representatives, misused state identification info, transformed marketing campaign funds to private use and/or bribes or accepted inappropriate suggestions.”
When requested for remark, Gaetz’s communications director referred ABC Information to the Congressman social media message on Monday he known as the Home Ethics Committee “Soviet” and declared that “any investigation into me ends the identical manner: my exoneration.”
Greenberg is presently serving an 11-year jail sentence after pleading responsible to a number of federal crimes, together with the intercourse trafficking of a minor whom he admitted to introducing to different “grownup males” who additionally had intercourse along with her when she was a minor. Justice Division investigators spent years trying into whether or not Gaetz was one of many males to whom Greenberg launched the minor earlier than declining to file expenses in opposition to Gaetz in 2023.
Greenberg, who has supplied vital cooperation to the Justice Division in its personal investigation, is cooperating with the Home Ethics Committee’s investigation into the Florida congressman, sources aware of the committee’s work advised ABC Information.
At his sentencing in late 2022, Choose Gregory Persnell known as Greenberg’s degree of cooperation “greater than I’ve seen in 22 years.” Greenberg, a former tax collector in Florida, was sentenced to 11 years in jail in late 2022 after pleading responsible to crimes together with wire fraud, stalking and intercourse trafficking of a minor.
Investigators additionally requested a number of witnesses a few July 2017 social gathering that ABC Information first reported. The committee obtained an affidavit from a girl who mentioned she attended the social gathering in Florida the place Gaetz additionally attended, sources mentioned. A number of witnesses additionally advised the committee that they noticed Gaetz partaking in unlawful drug use at events, sources mentioned.
The committee first launched its investigation into Gaetz in 2021 earlier than placing it on maintain because the Justice Division performed its personal investigation.
