A storm is brewing within the Republican Party over President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general. Former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz allegedly paid two women to have sex and watch his appearance on Fox News.
The women also claim he paid them to attend the Broadway show Pretty Woman, their attorney told ABC News. Pretty Woman is about a businessman who falls in love with a prostitute.
This all allegedly happened in 2019 and more than once, the women’s attorney, Joel Leppard, revealed.
Both women testified before the bipartisan House Ethics Committee. The two told the committee that Gaetz paid for them to travel across state lines to have sex on at least two occasions. Leppard said his clients provided the committee with text messages they allegedly exchanged with Gaetz that show he paid for sex and drugs.
Gaetz resigned from Congress following Trump’s announcement that he had been selected to serve as attorney general. Following a yearslong investigation, the Justice Department has declined to charge Gaetz, who has denied any wrongdoing. Meanwhile, the House Ethics Committee is considering releasing a report summarizing its investigation findings.
“These are baseless allegations intended to derail the second Trump administration,” said Trump transition spokesperson Alex Pfeiffer. “The Biden Justice Department investigated Gaetz for years and cleared him of wrongdoing.”
Leppard said his clients testified to the committee they had sex with Gaetz between 10 and 15 times. Most of the sexual interactions happened at what Leppard described as drug-fueled parties or during private trips to New York or the Bahamas.
According to the women’s testimony, other men, ranging from ages 30 to 50, attended the parties. The women were between 19 and 21. On some occasions, both women testified that Gaetz also paid them to travel to the Bahamas with other young women, including one who has accused the former congressman of having sex with her as a minor.
Venmo records and text messages provided to the House Ethics Committee allegedly show payments for sex and coded requests for illicit drugs, such as MDMA.
Gaetz’s friend, Joel Greenberg, would reference them in text messages as “vitamins” or “party favors.”
Greenberg is currently serving an 11-year prison sentence after reaching a deal with federal prosecutors in May 2021. He pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including sex trafficking of a woman when she was a minor and introducing her to other “adult men” who had sex with her when she was a minor.
As for Leppard’s clients, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has been paying for their counseling following the investigation despite his clients saying that their sexual interactions were fully consensual.
“Now that they’ve been through all that, they don’t want to go through this again, and now that it’s considered for Rep. Gaetz to be the most powerful law enforcement officer in the land, I think that’s relevant information for the American people to consider,” said Leppard.
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