A woman told the House Ethics Committee investigating Matt Gaetz that she witnessed the former lawmaker having sex with a minor at a party in Florida, the woman's lawyer said Friday. I made it.
“My client testified to the House Ethics Committee that he witnessed Congressman Gates having sex with a minor at a house party in Orlando in 2017,” attorney Joel Leppard said. NBC News.
Leppard said the woman told the commission in April about the alleged inappropriate sexual contact.
The attorney said he is representing two witnesses who testified before the committee, urging the ethics committee to release its findings related to sexual misconduct allegations against President-elect Donald Trump's attorney general nomination. insisted.
“The American people have a right to know the truth about the person who is slated to become this country's top law enforcement officer,” Leppard said.
A spokesperson for Gaetz said the former congressman is being investigated by the Justice Department but has not been charged with a crime.
“Merrick Garland's Justice Department found Matt Gaetz innocent and did not indict him. Are you alleging that Garland is part of a cover-up?” a spokesperson told the Post.
The revelation comes after a key figure in the Justice Department's investigation into sex trafficking allegations involving Gaetz told the House Ethics Committee that he had a sexual relationship with Gaetz, a Florida Republican, when she was 17 years old. This happened the day after ABC News reported.
The woman, now in her 20s, was subpoenaed by the Ethics Commission in the summer and testified that Gates had sex with her when she was underage and still in high school, the paper said.
The Justice Department told Gaetz last year that it would not press charges in connection with the investigation, but the House Ethics Committee said it would not file charges against the former lawmaker, who abruptly resigned from Congress on Wednesday after being nominated by President Trump to lead the party. Investigation is underway. Department of Justice.
Gaetz told the Post on Thursday that the woman's allegations are “false and defamatory.”
“These allegations are fabricated and would constitute false testimony to Congress,” Gaetz said in a statement. “This false smear, which follows a three-year criminal investigation, should be viewed with great skepticism.”
Gaetz previously accused his accuser and former friend Joel Greenberg of trying to “frame” him.
“Joel Greenberg, the committee's star witness, is a big liar who implicates others in his lies,” Gaetz wrote in a September post about X, which he called the “final response” to the ethics investigation. .
“On July 10, 2024, I received 'smoking gun' evidence” from a contemporaneous in prison documenting a conspiracy to frame me, including both Joel Greenberg and his victims. “By creating this, I provided the committee with conclusive evidence of my innocence, as evidenced by two former federal agents who interviewed the prison informant who revealed the conspiracy against me.” added.
Greenberg, a former local tax official in Florida, pleaded guilty in May 2021 to multiple federal charges, including sex trafficking.
As part of his plea agreement, Greenberg was charged with recruiting women for commercial sex acts, including at least one underage girl, from 2016 to 2018 for more than $70,000. acknowledged. The woman who told the Ethics Committee that Gates had sex with her was a minor, ABC News reported.
Mr. Greenberg's plea bargain Although the woman “represented herself as an adult” when she met the man, the woman “acted in reckless disregard” and “reasonably observed that she was under 18 years of age” at the time of the sex trafficking. He said there was a “great opportunity”.
By leaving Congress, Gaetz, 42, is no longer under the jurisdiction of the House Ethics Committee, which means the investigation is closed and the committee is denied the opportunity to present its findings, but several The senators are demanding to see the committee's report on Gaetz before the Senate floor. The chamber will deliberate whether to approve him for a cabinet post.
