Former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz and two other defendants are accused of participating in an alleged sex trafficking scheme, according to a civil lawsuit filed by two women.
The federal civil complaint also accuses Gaetz and his co-defendants of being involved with young women, drugs and traveling across state lines, the Miami Herald reported.
Gaetz, 44, was a conservative Republican congressman from the Florida Panhandle who was Donald Trump’s original choice as U.S. Attorney General for the president’s second term.
The high-profile sex scandal led Gaetz to resign from Congress in 2024 as the bipartisan House Ethics was deep into an investigation over his alleged conduct, according to the Herald.
“I look forward to taking the plaintiffs’ depositions because much of the conduct alleged against me is false,” Gaetz said in a statement. “The lawsuit relies almost exclusively on a Congressional Committee report that didn’t allow me to confront my accusers. Now I will finally have that chance.”
The complaint also names former Seminole County Tax Collector Joel Greenberg, WPTV reported. The third defendant is former Florida House member Christopher Dorworth, according to the Herald. Dorworth represented a district in Central Florida that included Orange and Seminole counties.
The 33-page complaint, filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, alleges that Gaetz used Greenberg and Dorworth to “coordinate the recruitment of young women” -- referred to as Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2 -- whom they gave drugs to enable sexual encounters between 2017 and January 2019, the Herald reported.
According to the newspaper, Greenberg is currently serving an 11-year federal prison sentence after pleading guilty in 2021 to sex trafficking of a minor, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, stalking and conspiracy.
West Palm Beach attorney Spencer Kuvin, who represents the plaintiffs, told WPTV that the complaint was intentionally detailed.
“We wanted the courts to understand the full breadth of this operation,” Kuvin told the television station.
Kuvin told WPTV that attorneys for the plaintiffs believe communications and other evidence, particularly text messages, support their allegations.
“The text messages we have we believe are incredibly damaging to Mr. Gaetz and Mr. Greenberg,” Kuvin said.
Jane Doe 1 was 20, and Jane Doe 2 was 22 when they were introduced to Gaetz in the summer of 2017, according to the lawsuit. Both women said they had no stable income when they were recruited by Greenberg, the Herald reported.
The plaintiffs allege that the three defendants participated in or financially supported a system that exploited young, vulnerable women, including through paid sex encounters and the use of controlled substances.
Gaetz has denied the charges.
“I look forward to taking his deposition under oath where he will be under penalty of perjury -- which the (ethics) committee wasn’t able to do,” Kuvin told the newspaper.