House Ethics Committee Interviews Woman Who Claims Matt Gaetz Paid Her For Sex: Report

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The House Ethics Committee continues to be a headache for Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) that he just can’t shake, with investigators subpoenaing his Venmo records and interviewing “numerous women” who were witnesses to the sex-and-drug fueled parties the congressman allegedly attended, according to an ABC News report.

Allegations that Gaetz paid for sex at these parties, including having sex with an underaged girl, have been swirling around the congressman since the downfall of his former “wingman,” Joel Greenberg, the former Seminole County Tax Collector. That’s an elected position in each of Florida’s 67 counties that normally gets very little attention, handling such mundane bureaucratic tasks as renewing driver’s licenses and license plates. But Greenberg found his name in national headlines because of a truly bonkers scheme in which he falsely accused Brian Beute, a local teacher and one of his 2020 primary opponents, of sexually assaulting a male student.

When Greenberg’s fingerprints and DNA were found on the false letters he mailed to Beute’s school, it sparked a federal investigation that exposed even more Greenberg schemes — including allegations that Greenberg had paid women for sex, some who were underage.

Greenberg pled guilty in 2021 to six criminal charges in a stunning 86-page plea agreement in which he admitted to paying for sex with an underage girl, giving her illegal drugs, and also “introduc[ing] the Minor to other adult men, who engaged in commercial sex acts” with her.

The identities of the “other adult men” involved have been the subject of much speculation, with many political observers openly wondering about Gaetz — especially since security camera footage reportedly caught Gaetz accompanying Greenberg on a late-night weekend trip to the tax collector’s office in the area where Greenberg was allegedly stealing surrendered driver’s licenses to make fake IDs.

Gaetz has vociferously denied all allegations that he had sex with anyone underage or committed any other crimes connected to Greenberg, but the two were close friends before his arrest, and Greenberg allegedly wrote a confession letter to none other than Roger Stone (seeking Stone’s help obtaining a pardon from then-President Donald Trump) claiming he and Gaetz did in fact pay an underage woman for sex.

Past ABC News reports on the progress of the House Ethics investigation included text messages that Gaetz allegedly sent to a young woman (who was over 21 at the time) whom Greenberg had paid for sex, to invite her on a private plane trip to the Florida Keys, and another woman who provided a sworn statement to the committee saying she attended a 2017 party Gaetz also attended where illegal drugs were present — as well as a naked underage girl.

According to this latest report from ABC News investigative reporter Will Steakin, the committee’s investigators have interviewed “at least half a dozen women who allegedly attended parties where the Florida congressman was also present and who were paid by Joel Greenberg,” some of whom have cooperated voluntarily and some who were subpoenaed.

The Department of Justice previously closed an investigation into Gaetz without filing any charges, a fact that the congressman has frequently cited in public comments as a defense. He hasn’t held back in voicing his frustrations about the persistence of House Ethics committee’s inquiry, reportedly telling his congressional colleagues in January he ousted Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) from the Speakership because McCarthy wouldn’t kill off the investigation.

The House Ethics committee also subpoenaed the DOJ for records connected to the Gaetz investigation, reported ABC News, but so far has met with resistance in getting the information requested. Instead, wrote Steakin, the committee subpoenaed the Venmo company directly for records of Gaetz’s online payments and then used those records in their interviews with the witnesses.

The women were reportedly shown records of Venmo payments Gaetz allegedly sent them and asked the purpose of those payments, including specifically being asked if they were payments for sexual activities. In these interviews, “multiple women” said they “were paid to attend parties that Gaetz also attended and that featured drugs and sex,” and at least one woman did say that a Venmo payment from Gaetz was for sex, reported ABC News, citing “multiple sources” with knowledge of the investigation.

In 2021, The Daily Beast reported that Gaetz had allegedly paid $900 to Greenberg using Venmo, who then paid that exact sum to three young women using his own Venmo account, marking the payments as for “Tuition” and “School.” At the time, Gaetz’s Venmo account was still set to public.