Matt Gaetz sex case teen started sex work to pay for braces: report

The woman who told the House Ethics Committee that she had sex with then-Rep. Matt Gaetz at a house party when she was 17 years old, all but ending his national political career, lived part-time at a Florida homeless shelter with one of her parents and turned to selling her “companionship” to buy braces for her teeth.

The still-unidentified woman’s circumstances were detailed for the first time by her lawyer to the New York Times after a federal judge unsealed documents in a related civil case that described the alleged victim as a “then-homeless 17-year-old high schooler.”

The attorney, Laura Wolf, told the Times that the girl’s parents were divorced and one of them was living in a homeless shelter, where the teen and her siblings would also stay when that parent had visitation rights.

The girl took a job at McDonald’s to make extra money, but also lied about her age to make an account on SeekingArrangement.com, a website that primarily connects older men with younger woman for “sugar daddy/sugar baby” relationships.

It was through Seeking Arrangement that the teen met Joel Greenberg, then tax collector of Seminole County, Fla. and a friend and political ally of Gaetz, in 2017. According to the Times, citing court documents, Greenberg paid her $400 at an initial meeting on his boat and also gave the teen ecstasy and implored her to try it.

Before the girl’s 18th birthday in December 2017, Greenberg would have sex with her seven times for money, per the court records, occasionally paying her extra to take ecstasy during sex.

That July, Greenberg and the girl were among guests at a party at the home of ex-Florida legislator Chris Dorworth, where — in the ethics panel’s words — there was “substantial evidence that Representative Gaetz had sex with [the girl],” to whom he later paid $400

At the time, the report notes, “she was 17 years old, and he was 35. Representative Gaetz’s actions were in violation of Florida’s statutory rape law … she had just completed her junior year of high school.”

Gaetz, now 43, has denied the report’s conclusions, telling the Times in a text message: “I never had sex with this person. This person threatened me with a lawsuit if I didn’t pay her $2.3 million dollars. She never sued me because her story is fiction.”

The Justice Department declined to prosecute Gaetz after a prolonged sex-trafficking investigation that ensnared Greenberg, who pleaded guilty in May 2021 to charges including child sex trafficking, wire fraud, stalking and conspiracy and was later sentenced to 11 years in prison.

As part of his plea deal, Greenberg acknowledged introducing the teen “to other adult men, who engaged in commercial sex acts” with her.