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The woman who told the House Ethics Committee that she had sex with former Rep. Matt Gaetz while she was underage reportedly turned to sex work while living part-time at a Florida homeless shelter and wanting to buy braces for her teeth.
The woman, who is still unidentified, had her circumstances revealed by her lawyer, Laura Wolf, to the New York Times after a federal judge unsealed documents related to the civil case describing her as a "then-homeless 17-year-old high schooler." Wolf said the girl's parents were divorced and one lived at the homeless shelter, where she and her siblings would stay when that parent had visitation rights.
The girl initially worked at McDonald's to make extra money and lied about her age to make an account on the website SeekingArrangement.com, which is commonly used by older men to connect with younger women for "sugar daddy/sugar baby" relationships. The girl reportedly met Seminole County tax collector Joel Greenberg, a friend and political ally of Gaetz, through the website in 2017.
Greenberg reportedly paid her $400 for an initial meeting on his boat and gave her ecstasy for the first time. Greenberg reportedly had sex with the then-17-year-old seven times for money, which included paying extra for her to take ecstasy during intercourse, according to court records, and brought her to a party at the home of former Florida legislator Chris Duckworth where, according to the ethic's panel, there was "substantial evidence that Representative Gaetz had sex with [the girl]," having later paid her $400.
The report stated that, at the time, “she was 17 years old, and he was 35. Representative Gaetz’s actions were in violation of Florida’s statutory rape law … she had just completed her junior year of high school.”
Gaetz, now 43, who was announced as and later withdrew from consideration to be President-elect Donald Trump's attorney general, denied the allegations in a text message to the New York Times.
“I never had sex with this person," he claimed. "This person threatened me with a lawsuit if I didn’t pay her $2.3 million dollars. She never sued me because her story is fiction.”
Gaetz resigned from Congress on November 13, 2024, hours after he was announced to be Trump's choice to be the next U.S. attorney general, a role that ultimately went to Pam Bondi following his withdrawal. The former congressman was not prosecuted after the sex-trafficking investigation, which ultimately resulted in Greenberg pleading giulty to charges including child sex trafficking, wire fraud, stalking and conspiracy and being sentenced to 11 years in prison as part of a plea deal in which he acknowledged introducing the teen "to other adult men, who engaged in commercial sex acts" with her.