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    • Matt Gaetz trafficking allegations follow him after AG selection
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    Matt Gaetz trafficking allegations follow him after AG selection

    Umito Posted on

    Recently appointed attorney general Matt Gaetz has been embroiled in controversy over the alleged sex trafficking of a 17-year-old girl.

    The selection of Rep. Matt Gaetz as the next attorney general has raised questions among lawmakers, including some Republicans, about President-elect Donald Trump’s choice, in part because of an investigation into sexual misconduct allegations.

    Trump made the announcement Wednesday on Truth Social, calling Gaetz a “deeply gifted and tenacious attorney.”

    “(Gaetz) distinguished himself in Congress by focusing on achieving desperately needed reform at the Justice Department,” Trump said in an article on Truth Social. “Few issues in America are more important than ending the partisan militarization of our justice system. »

    Republican senators, including Lisa Murkowski (Republican of Alaska) and Susan Collins (Republican of Maine), have both expressed skepticism about Gaetz’s selection ahead of a planned confirmation hearing. Murkowski said it was not a “serious appointment,” while Collins said she was “shocked” to learn of Trump’s decision and indicated that “there will be a lot of questions raised during of his hearing”.

    In addition to Gaetz being a strong critic of the U.S. Department of Justice, he could face questions about past allegations of sexual misconduct. Here’s what you need to know about the allegations that could follow Gaetz to the DOJ.

    The Justice Department investigated Matt Gaetz for alleged sex trafficking of a 17-year-old girl

    In March 2021, the New York Times first reported that the U.S. Department of Justice was investigating Gaetz for allegedly trafficking and having a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl.

    Gaetz was accused of not only paying the underage girl for sex, which allegedly occurred around 2019, but investigators also believed he paid for her travel across state lines, according to the New York Times, which cited “three people briefed on the matter.”

    The three told the outlet that the then 38-year-old was part of a larger investigation into Joel Greenberg, a political ally and local Florida official. The Justice Department indicted Greenberg in the summer of 2020 on numerous charges, including child sex trafficking and providing financial support to individuals in exchange for sexual favors.

    Greenberg, a Republican who was a tax collector in Florida’s Seminole County before his indictment, took a plea deal in May 2021 and admitted to federal prosecutors that he paid women and an underage girl to have sexual relations with him and other unidentified men. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2022.

    Throughout the investigation, Gaetz categorically denied any involvement. The Justice Department did not indict Gaetz, but he remained under investigation for child sexual abuse and illegal drug use by the U.S. House of Representatives Ethics Committee until upon his resignation on Wednesday.

    Matt Gaetz denies 2017 ‘sex party’ claim

    According to a report from NOTUS released in September, sealed testimony from three witnesses in the sex scandal case involving Greenberg and others allegedly placed Gaetz at a 2017 “sex party” that included illegal drugs and a naked underage girl.

    The documents filed in federal court, which included the sealed testimony, place Gaetz at one of the long-talked-about parties for the first time since the Justice Department’s investigation ended, the media outlet reported in Washington.

    The documents referenced testimony from “AB,” the 17-year-old girl at the center of the case, and two other women who claimed Gaetz attended a “sex party” in the Lake Mary area, in Florida, July 15, 2017, according to NOTUS.

    When contacted by the Pensacola News Journal − part of the USA TODAY Network − in September, a spokesperson for Gaetz said: “Congressman Gaetz never participated in the activities reflected in the NOTUS reporting. If people say otherwise, either they are confused, or they are lying. This particular reporter worked at the liberal Daily Beast and predicted the MP’s arrest in 2021. Apparently he must have found another job.

    The testimony of the women who said Gaetz attended the party was drawn from depositions and affidavits referenced in a lawsuit between Joel Greenberg’s family and the party’s alleged host, former Florida Rep. Christopher Dorworth, the News Journal reported.

    Dorworth filed a federal defamation suit in 2023 against 17-year-old Greenberg and certain members of Greenberg’s family, accusing them of “conspiring with Joel’s sex trafficking victim, AB, to falsely accuse Dorworth and Gaetz of sexual misconduct.”

    House Ethics Committee investigation into Gaetz ended after resignation

    The U.S. House Ethics Committee’s investigation into child sex abuse allegations against Gaetz ended when the lawyer resigned from Congress in November, Rep. Michael Guest said. Republican chairman of the House Ethics Committee. told reporters.

    “If he were to be appointed, then he would have to resign his position in the House so that the ethics investigation ceases at that point, as with any other member. We only have jurisdiction as an ethics committee, provided that a person is a member of Congress,” Guest told CNN.

    The committee, which expanded its investigation in June to include additional allegations, was expected to decide Friday whether or not to release his report, but his resignation effectively ended the investigation, USA TODAY reported.

    Gaetz was the subject of a three-year investigation by the committee into allegations of sexual misconduct, illegal drug use, accepting “inappropriate gifts” and granting special favors to people with with whom he had relationships.

    It is unclear whether the report will be released soon, if ever, especially given Gaetz’s recent appointment as attorney general.

    Contributors: Kevin Robinson and Jim Little, Pensacola News Journal; Bart Jansen, Joey Garrison and Riley Beggin, USA TODAY

    Umito
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