People familiar with the Justice Department probe into Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and an indicted Florida politician told the New York Times that investigators are focusing on their involvement with multiple women who were recruited online for sex and received cash payments.
According to the Times, investigators believe that Joel Greenberg, the former tax collector in Seminole County, Fla., who was indicted last year on a federal sex trafficking charge met the women through sites like Seeking Arrangement, —which describes itself as a place where wealthy people find attractive companions and pamper them ‘with fine dinners, exotic trips and allowances—and introduced them to Matt Gaetz for sex.
Four people familiar with the investigation told the New York Times that the DOJ is investigating whether Gaetz had sex with a 17-year-old girl and whether she received anything of material value.
Asked for comment about the report Gaetz’s office said: “Matt Gaetz has never paid for sex. Matt Gaetz refutes all the disgusting allegations completely. Matt Gaetz has never ever been on any such websites whatsoever. Matt Gaetz cherishes the relationships in his past and looks forward to marrying the love of his life.”
But, the NYT has reviewed Cash App, and Apple Pay receipts that show payments from Gaetz and Greenberg to one of the women, and a payment from Greenberg to a second woman. The women told their friends that the payments were for sex with the two men, according to two people familiar with the conversations.
One person said sometimes they would pay in cash withdrawn from the hotel ATM where they asked the women to meet.
In some cases Gaetz would ask the women to help find other women willing to have sex with him and his friends and if anyone asked he told the women to say that he had paid for hotel rooms and dinners as part of their dates, according to two people familiar with those conversations.
“It is not illegal to provide adults with free hotel stays, meals and other gifts, but if prosecutors think they can prove that the payments to the women were for sex, they could accuse Mr. Gaetz of trafficking the women under “force, fraud or coercion,” The Times noted. “For example, prosecutors have filed trafficking charges against people suspected of providing drugs in exchange for sex because feeding another person’s drug habit could be seen as a form of coercion.”
It is also a violation of federal child sex trafficking law to provide someone under 18 with anything of value in exchange for sex, which can include meals, hotels, drugs, alcohol or cigarettes.
A conviction carries a 10-year mandatory minimum prison sentence.
