Gaetz Paid Over $10,000 to Women Who Testified in Ethics Probe: Report
Embattled attorney general nominee Matt Gaetz appears to have paid over $10,000 in Venmo transactions to two women who later testified in the House Ethics Committee’s investigation of allegations that Gaetz had sex with an underage girl, according to records obtained by ABC News.
The records, which were provided to the committee over the course of their investigation into Gaetz’s alleged sexual misconduct, show that between July 2017 and January 2019 the former congressman sent a total of $10,224.02 to the two women, across 27 separate payments. Both women have testified that Gaetz paid them for sex.
The payments range in amount from $100, to more than $700, and include subject lines like “Love You,” “Gift,” “Tickets,” “flight + xtra 4 u,” and “being my friend.” A source told ABC News that the witnesses confirmed to the committee that some of the Venmo payments were for sexual services.
Both women were of age but — according to sources with knowledge of the investigation who spoke to ABC News earlier this month — the committee also heard from a woman who testified that Gaetz had sex with her when she was 17 years old.
Gaetz’s Venmo history has long been a key part of the allegations against him. In 2021, The Daily Beast obtained records of Venmo transactions between Gaetz and his former associate: convicted sex trafficker Joel Greenberg, who allegedly had sex with the same underage girl as Gaetz. In one instance Gaetz sent Greenberg a late-night payment of $900. The next morning, Greenberg then made separate payments totaling $900 to three women, writing “school,” and “tuition” in the memo.
Gaetz resigned from Congress after President-elect Donald Trump announced he would be nominating the Florida representative to serve as his attorney general. Gaetz’s exit from Congress came days before the Ethics Committee was scheduled to vote on the release of a wide-ranging report on their investigation into the allegations against him — and effectively stripped the committee of jurisdiction to sanction him.
Republicans in turn have argued that since Gaetz is no longer a sitting member of Congress, the report should be buried for all eternity. Trump himself has been attempting to directly pressure members of the Senate to back Gaetz’s confirmation, with poor results.
Several Republican members of the Senate have called for the public release of the report. “There’s nothing about that that would smell right, to say, ‘Hey, there’s a report but none of us want to see it,’” Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) said on Tuesday.
The Ethics Committee is meeting on Wednesday to discuss whether to publicly release the report.
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