A former Matt Gaetz pal who pleaded guilty to underage sex-trafficking charges once used an image of the pol in what appears to be a classroom as his pitch to “meet” a 20-year-old woman in exchange for $400, an ethics report alleges.
Joel Greenberg, 40, an ex-tax collector in Florida, stumbled upon the woman on the website SeekingArrangement.com, which is known for so-called sugar-daddy dating, according to a damning House Committee on Ethics draft report on Gaetz, a 42-year-old former congressman from the Sunshine State.
“I have a friend who introduced me to the website that I could bring,” the woman wrote Greenberg in a September 2018 message, according to the draft report. “She’s very pretty, great personality. I usually do $400 per meet, does your friend use the website as well?”
Greenberg replied, “Very cool.
“Yes he understands the deal :)” Greenberg added. “What does your friend look like? $400 is not a problem. Are you both old enough to drink?”
Greenberg then sent the photo of Gaetz taking a selfie with someone who was blurred out in front of what appears to be a classroom whiteboard.
“Oooh my friend thinks he’s really cute!” the then-20-year-old replied.
Greenberg, who is now serving an 11-year prison sentence, stressed that he and Gaetz “work hard and play hard,” before asking the woman if she’s tried Molly, another nickname for the stimulant drug Ecstasy.
Gaetz ended up meeting the unidentified woman “on several occasions,” paid her over $2,000 and “continues to follow her on social media,” the draft report alleges.
Two weeks after their initial introduction, Gaetz invited her and “another woman who he regularly paid for sex to meet him at the hotel, without disclosing to her that others would be present,” the draft report says.
That other woman, who was 21 at the time, allegedly pleaded with Gaetz to help her foot the bill for her college tuition.
“The 21-year-old woman told the Committee there was an ‘expectation’ of a ‘sexual encounter,’ ” the draft report claimed, noting that the three of them and Greenberg had sex.
“Afterwards Representative Gaetz gave her a $750 check made out to cash with ‘tuition reimbursement’ in the memo line, which she deposited the next day to help pay her tuition.”
Later on, the woman suggested to the House Committee on Ethics that the exchange “could potentially be a form of coercion because I really needed the money.”
On Monday, the House Committee on Ethics unveiled its draft report detailing its findings on Gaetz, following its lengthy investigation into accusations against him. Gaetz later sued to block the report’s release.
The panel cited the Greenberg message as a sampling of evidence it obtained to back up its claims of Gaetz meeting with women — at least 20 times between early 2017 through mid-2020 — “who were paid for sex and/or drugs.”
Gaetz later tied the knot with Ginger Luckey in 2021.
The House Committee on Ethics’ investigation into Gaetz commenced in 2021 but was halted by a Justice Department sex-trafficking probe that revolved around him. In February of last year, the DOJ opted against charging him. Then the ethics panel recommenced its probe of him shortly thereafter.
Many details of the report’s accusations had been previously known, such as allegations that he had sex with a minor.
A lawyer for one of the people who claimed to have witnessed Gaetz’s alleged sexual encounter with a minor said her “understanding was that Matt Gaetz did not know that [the 17-year-old] was a minor.
“When he learned that she was a minor … he broke off things and did not continue a sexual relationship until she turned 18,” the lawyer said, quoting her client, ABC News reported.
Gaetz had been President-elect Donald Trump’s initial pick to serve as US attorney general, though he bowed out of consideration last month when it became clear he faced an uphill battle to get confirmed.
The pol stepped down from the 118th Congress and has indicated that he won’t return to the 119th Congress when it gets sworn in next month. He is set to anchor a show on the One America News Network next month.
The former congressman has blasted the House committee for releasing its report and underscored that the DOJ did not pursue charges against him.
“In my single days, I often sent funds to women I dated — even some I never dated but who asked,” Gaetz has previously written on X. “I dated several of these women for years. I NEVER had sexual contact with someone under 18.
“My 30’s were an era of working very hard – and playing hard too. It’s embarrassing, though not criminal, that I probably partied, womanized, drank and smoked more than I should have earlier in life. I live a different life now.”
