Two women are accusing former congressman Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) and two other men of involvement in a sex trafficking scheme involving recent high school graduates and drugs, according to a federal lawsuit filed Thursday.
The plaintiffs, identified as Jane Does 1 and 2, allege that Gaetz and former Seminole County, Florida, tax collector Joel Micah Greenberg coordinated “recruitment, payments, drugs, and travel” to obtain “commercial sexual acts” from young women. The lawsuit also accuses former Florida state representative Chris Dorworth (R) of having “knowingly participated in these events” by making his home available for them.
The alleged “sexual exploitation” took place from 2017 through January 2019, when Gaetz was a sitting member of Congress, according to the complaint, filed in the Middle District of Florida.
Gaetz did not respond Thursday to a request for comment from The Washington Post. He told the Miami Herald, which first reported the lawsuit, that he looks forward to taking depositions from the plaintiffs “because much of the conduct alleged against me is false.”
“The lawsuit relies almost exclusively on a Congressional Committee report that didn’t allow me to confront my accusers,” Gaetz said in a statement, according to the Herald. “Now I will finally have that chance.”
An attorney who has previously represented Greenberg, as well as a dental office owned by Greenberg’s family, did not respond to messages seeking comment. A person who answered a phone number associated with Dorworth in public records declined to comment.
A report released by the House Ethics Committee in December 2024 said that Gaetz regularly paid for sex from 2017 to 2020, including with a 17-year-old girl, and that he possessed illegal drugs. The Justice Department investigated Gaetz over allegations of wrongdoing but never charged him. That investigation began in 2020, during President Donald Trump’s first administration.
Gaetz has repeatedly denied the charges but resigned from Congress shortly before the report was expected to be released. Gaetz had been an avid defender of Trump, who tapped him to serve as attorney general during his second administration. But amid intense opposition from Republicans, Gaetz withdrew in November 2024.
The plaintiffs in the new lawsuit are 15 and 13 years younger than Gaetz, the filing said. Both were recent high school graduates when Greenberg found them through an online dating website, the complaint said.
The lawsuit alleges that Greenberg recruited “economically vulnerable young women” on the website, SeekingArrangement.com, introduced them to Gaetz and “supplied the drugs he paid the women extra to take, including a minor.”
Greenberg pleaded guilty in 2021 to sex trafficking of a minor and other charges. Although he admitted to paying for sex acts with a minor and said he “introduced” the minor to other adult men, he did not explicitly mention Gaetz in his plea deal. Greenberg was sentenced to 11 years in prison and agreed to cooperate with the investigation into Gaetz.
The new lawsuit alleges that Gaetz sent about $6,200 electronically to Jane Doe 1 with the comments “Being my friend” and “1x flight + xtra 4 u,” and roughly $4,025 to Jane Doe 2 with the words “Car deductible” and “Love you.”
One of the plaintiffs alleges that she saw Gaetz having sex with a 17-year-old during a party at Dorworth’s home.
The complaint also said the three men “arranged and funded travel” for the plaintiffs, other women and “other prominent political figures” to locations including Miami and the Bahamas.
“These trips took Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2 to places they had never been and into rooms with men they would never otherwise have met, and every part of that access, from the flights to the hotel rooms, was paid for by men, including the Defendants, who expected sex in return,” the complaint said.
The lawsuit adds: “The venture assumed that women with so little would never be believed over men with so much.”
Razzan Nakhlawi contributed to this report.
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