Matt Gaetz bought sex from 17-year-old

Published December 24, 2024 at 08.02

Foreign. The charges against Republican former congressman Matt Gaetz, 42, who recently retired from politics after first being nominated for attorney general by Donald Trump, have now been made public.

Share the article

TwittraShare

A report from the House of Representatives Ethics Committee states that Gaetz regularly paid prostituted women for sex between 2017 and 2020 and that on one occasion in 2017 he paid for sex with a 17-year-old girl.

It is partly about sex trafficking linked to the American fraudster and politician Joel Greenberg, who was previously a colleague of Gaetz and functioned a bit like a budget version of the notorious American pimp Jeffrey Epstein.

Greenberg has cooperated extensively with the authorities to frame Gaetz and has also dismissed criticism of himself in various ways.

– I am Jewish. We have always been one of the most hated groups, it was said, among other things, in a statement to Orlando Weekly.

Despite extensive cooperation with prosecutors, Greenberg was sentenced to 11 years in prison, and after many attempts by Republicans to cover up the investigation against Gaetz, the charges against the latter have also been made public.

The published report shows, in addition to the information about sex purchases, that Gaetz used a number of illegal drugs, including cocaine and ecstasy, on several occasions between 2017 and 2019.

He also accepted gifts, including an “all-inclusive” free trip to the Bahamas in 2018, the value of which exceeded permitted amounts.

In 2018, he assisted one of his mistresses in a private government case and then presented it, before the US State Department, as if she belonged to his constituency even though she did not.

According to the ethics committee, which published the report despite Gaetz having left his political duties, the member's behavior risks damaging the reputation of politicians in the United States.

It is unclear whether there is any evidence for the events, which have so far not led to any prosecution despite the fact that they involve several crimes. According to the ethics committee, however, everything is to be considered “proven”.