A 17-year-old Florida girl with a homeless parent was working at a McDonald’s in her junior year of high school when she met Joel Greenberg. The girl was hoping to save up enough money to buy braces to fix her teeth when she advertised herself as 18 on a website that matched young women with men looking for “companionship” for money. She eventually met up with former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, whose career was upended.
A House Ethics Committee determined that Gaetz had sex with a 17-year-old girl. Gaetz asserted he broke no laws, despite the Committee’s determination that he broke statutory rape laws. The DOJ did not press charges.
Matt Gaetz was Trump’s first choice to become U.S. Attorney General.
Last month, a federal judge in Florida unsealed court documents from a civil case involving the Florida girl that shed some light on her background in response to a media request. From that disclosure the New York Times contacted the girl’s lawyer, Laura B. Wolf, who said her client believed the public should have a fuller understanding of how she had been victimized.
Gaetz’s text response on Thursday: “I never had sex with this person. This person threatened me with a lawsuit if I didn’t pay her $2.3 million. She never sued me because the story was fiction.”
But that’s not what the DOJ found during a sex trafficking investigation involving Joel Greenberg, Matt Gaetz, and a party at the home of Chris Dolworth.
Gaetz’s victim, a junior in high school, turned 17 in December 2016. One of her parents, who were divorced, was living in and out of a homeless shelter. When she and her siblings visited the parent, they too stayed at the homeless shelter. In April of her junior year she met Joel Greenberg through a self-described “sugar-dating” website.
On their first meeting, Greenberg invited her to his boat, and paid her $400 without having sex with her. He also gave her the drug ecstasy to try at home. At their next meeting she was paid $400 for having sex with Greenberg, and subsequently seven more times before she turned 18.
On July 15, 2017, Greenberg invited her to a party at the home of Chris Dorworth, a former Florida GOP lawmaker. Matt Gaetz attended the party along with a girlfriend. The girl later testified she was offered both cocaine and ecstasy at the party. She took the ecstasy and drank, swam naked in Dorworth’s pool, and danced naked in front of him.
The ethics committee also heard her testimony admitting she had sex twice with Gaetz at that party, and was paid $400 for the sex. Gaetz also used cocaine that night, she testified.
Several years later, Joel Greenberg (a tax collector) was under investigation for foul play with a political adversary. Greenberg mailed fake letters to a school where the opponent was a teacher, claiming the opponent had sexual relations with a student.
- During the Greenberg investigation, the DOJ learned about the relationship with the 17-year-old girl, and the inquiry broadened to include Gaetz.
- The girl was subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury, and according to her lawyer, began mental health treatment.
- Greenberg pleaded guilty to sex trafficking a minor and was sentenced to 10 years. Gaetz was not charged.
In 2022, the girl’s lawyers sought a financial settlement from Gaetz and Dorworth, the host of the party, but never sued. Dorworth countersued the girl, which set off depositions and evidence from the girl’s testimony which ultimately was revealed to the Ethics Committee.
Fritz Scheller, Mr. Greenberg’s lawyer, said that throughout the entire ordeal, including the investigations and the civil litigation, it became apparent that the girl was a “victim that embodied unwavering strength and courage.”
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