A key figure in the Justice Department's investigation into sex trafficking allegations involving Matt Gaetz has reportedly told the House Ethics Committee that the former lawmaker had a sexual relationship with his girlfriend when she was 17 years old. .
The woman, now in her 20s, was subpoenaed by the Ethics Commission in the summer and testified that Gaetz had a sexual relationship with her when she was underage and still in high school. ABC News It was reported on Thursday.
The Florida Republican vehemently denied the allegations.
“These allegations are fabricated and would constitute false testimony to Congress,” Gaetz said in a statement provided to the Post. “This false smear, which follows a three-year criminal investigation, should be viewed with great skepticism.”
The Justice Department told Gaetz last year that it would not prosecute him in connection with the investigation, but the House Ethics Committee ruled otherwise for the former lawmaker, who abruptly resigned from Congress on Wednesday after being nominated by President-elect Donald Trump. We are currently conducting an investigation. He will serve as Attorney General.
Punchbowl News reports that the Ethics Commission is scheduled to vote Friday on whether to release the findings of the Gaetz investigation.
The Ethics Commission interviewed at least six women who allegedly partyed with Gates and received payments from Gates' former friend Joel Greenberg, sources told ABC News. He said he went.
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”.
The House Ethics Committee also received an affidavit from Gaetz's ex-girlfriend during the investigation, alleging that she attended a July 2017 party attended by Trump's attorney general nominee with drugs and Gaetz. He claims that an underage woman with whom he allegedly had sex was present. Go to ABC News.
Gates has long denied any wrongdoing.
he has Greenberg and sex trafficking victims About participating in a “conspiracy against me.”
“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.
By leaving Congress, Gaetz, 42, is no longer under the jurisdiction of the House Ethics Committee, which closed the investigation and denied the committee the opportunity to present its findings.
But several senators on both sides of the aisle are demanding that the Senate see the bipartisan commission's report on Gaetz before considering whether to confirm him to a Cabinet post.
The House Ethics Committee declined to comment.
