Nathan Nelson, a former staff member of U.S. Representative Matt Gaetz, speaks to the media in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, on April 5, 2021.
Colin Hackley | Reuters
A former employee of Rep. Matt Gaetz said Monday that FBI agents contacted him last week, shortly after news broke that the Florida Republican was embroiled in a federal sex trafficking investigation.
Nathan Nelson, Gaetz’s former director of military affairs, said two officers questioned him at his home after hearing from members of the media that Nelson knew of Gaetz’s alleged involvement in illegal activities. Media informants told the FBI that Nelson resigned as a result of this knowledge, the former aide said.
“I’m here to declare this morning that nothing could be further from the truth,” Nelson said at a press conference in Northwest Florida. “Neither I nor any other member of Congressman Gaetz’s staff were aware of any illegal activities.”
Nelson said his departure from Gaetz’s office last fall was unrelated to the Justice Department’s investigation into the 38-year-old Republican congressman’s allegations. The investigation into whether Gaetz trafficked a minor girl began in the final months of former President Donald Trump’s term, The New York Times reported Tuesday.
Gaetz, a loyal Frank loyalist to Trump in Florida, has strongly denied the allegations that he is said to be under investigation.
Last week, Gaetz said in a statement that he and his family are being threatened in a multi-million dollar extortion plan involving a former Justice Department official. Law enforcement officials told NBC News that the Justice Department is pursuing an independent investigation into Gaetz’s claims of being extorted.
Gaetz-related sexual trafficking investigation emerged from another case involving his partner, Joel Greenberg, a local Florida official who last summer was charged with numerous charges, including sex trafficking of a child.
Nelson told the news conference that federal agents had approached him the day after the Times’ first report on alleged sex trafficking.
Gaetz’s former aide said he knows nothing specific about the investigation and had never heard of Greenberg before last week’s reports. But the “baseless claim” that prompted the FBI to approach him “leaves me more convinced” that the allegations against Gaetz “are also fabricated,” Nelson said.
Another Gaetz staff member, communications director Luke Ball, resigned last week.
Nelson worked in Gaetz’s office for more than four years before leaving last October, according to his LinkedIn profile. He said his departure was scheduled for Monday.
Nelson told reporters he is still “unrelated” to Gaetz’s office as a military adviser “on an unpaid basis,” but said he has not spoken to Gaetz in “several months.”