The partygoers, sometimes dressed in formal attire from a political event they had just left, mingled and shared drugs such as cocaine and ecstasy. Some had sex.
One of the women claims that Gaetz, the naughty Republican, liked to talk politics. He behaved like a “party boy,” he said, sometimes taking pills he thought were recreational drugs.
Two women who attended several of them in recent years described the details of the parties on CNN, which have not been previously reported. They both spoke on condition of anonymity.
After a few parties, the money changes hands. According to receipts reviewed by CNN, Gaetz and his partner Joel Greenberg, a former county prosecutor charged last year with various federal charges, used digital payment apps to send hundreds of dollars to at least one woman who attended the parties.
Receipts seen by CNN record payments that occurred between 2018 and 2019 and include at least one that indicated on a label that it had to offset travel.
One of the women said she received money from Greenberg after some of the parties. He said some of the payments were for providing sex, but would not say who he slept with. He said he never received money directly from Gaetz.
Some of the parties were more discreet matters, the other woman said. Some took place in hotel suites at the end of alcohol-filled political functions.
“No one wants to stop partying, stop drinking, once you’ve had a few glasses of champagne,” he said.
A Gaetz spokesman did not respond directly to CNN’s request for comment, but challenged the use of anonymous sources.
According to people familiar with the investigation, authorities have spoken to some of the women involved with the congressman and his close friend, Greenberg, the former tax commissioner in Seminole County, Florida, who currently faces 33 federal charges, including child sex trafficking.
One of the women who spoke to CNN said she did so in part because Gaetz’s image potentially related to the sex trafficking that has emerged in recent days doesn’t fit what she saw. The two women said they never saw anyone at the parties who appeared to be a minor. Neither has spoken to federal investigators, they said.
Gaetz has denied ever paying for sex and, for the past two weeks, has tried to frame the charges against him as a result of political bias in the judicial system and the media.
He has also accused investigators of turning his generosity towards women into something criminal.
“Providing flights and hotel rooms for people with whom you go out is not a crime,” Gaetz said in an interview with Fox News late last month.
Last week, Greenberg’s attorney and a federal prosecutor told a judge that Greenberg would likely enter into a claims agreement in the coming weeks, possibly giving the Justice Department even more access to a witness with an intimate knowledge of the possible violations of Gaetz.
Speaking to reporters after last week’s hearing on Thursday, Greenberg’s lawyer Fritz Scheller declined to say whether his client would be willing to cooperate as part of the possible appeal agreement and would not disclose whether Greenberg is already he had met with prosecutors to describe what he knows. about Gaetz.
He added, however, that his client is “uniquely located.”
“I’m sure Matt Gaetz doesn’t feel very comfortable today,” Scheller said
Scheller declined to comment to CNN for this story.
Gaetz’s investigation began in the last months of the Trump-era Justice Department under the rule of then-Attorney General William Barr and was initially part of a broader investigation into allegations of trafficking against Greenberg.
As part of the ongoing investigation, investigators are studying Gaetz’s connections with several Florida associates who may have benefited politically in exchange for providing favors to the congressman, including escorts, travel and campaign donations, according to sources familiar with the research.
One of the highlights is a trip Gaetz made to the Bahamas with friends and young women, CNN reported. Investigators are trying to determine whether Gaetz received travel and women in exchange for political favors as part of his broader investigation, sources said.
In recent days, some of these allies have been drawn to the scandal. Chris Dorworth, a former state lawmaker whom Gaetz has described as a friend and “legislative mentor,” resigned Friday from a high-pressure lobby, a day after the New York Times reported he had spoken to Gaetz. about running a third-party candidate in local elections, which could be considered a violation of campaign finance laws if the third-party candidate was secretly paid to run.
“The current political environment is unpleasant and I told Brian that I don’t think it’s fair for the recent media storm to withdraw from its missions,” Dorworth wrote on Twitter, referring to Brian Ballard, the group’s founder. Florida pressure with close ties to former President Donald Trump administration.
Dorworth told CNN on Wednesday that he did not recall talking to Gaetz about submitting a third candidate and noted that he did not believe it would have been illegal if it had occurred. He did not respond to CNN’s request for his resignation.
So far, Greenberg appears to be the only person in Gaetz’s orbit who currently faces charges related to the scandal. First indicted in 2020 for allegedly persecuting a political rival, Greenberg has since been accused by federal prosecutors of illegally accessing a motor vehicle database to obtain and use the personal information of people, including some of whom “was related to” sugar father “relationships.
According to a person close to Greenberg, the former tax commissioner regularly sent messages with identical words to several women who invited them to parties through so-called dating sites with sugar daddy, where men connect with women who usually make up for it. with money or gifts.
Few details about the sex trafficking of a minor charge imposed on Greenberg last year have been revealed to the public, but in an August indictment, prosecutors said the minor was between 14 and 17 years old and accused Greenberg of obtaining a photograph illegally. and identification number of the person’s driver.
People close to both Greenberg and Gaetz have described them as good friends whose connection was both Republican party politics in Florida and after-hours socialization.
Greenberg, a newcomer to the elected office when he won the county seat in 2016, enjoyed the political status he gained thanks to friendships with Gaetz and other lawmakers, people close to the men said.
According to the person close to Greenberg, Greenberg would brag about his friends partying with Gaetz and women, out of public view.
For his part, Gaetz appeared to have found an ally in Greenberg, giving $ 1,000 to one of his campaigns and promoting him to a higher position in an interview.
“If Joel left Seminole Co., I think he would become the next congressman in the seventh district,” Gaetz told a Florida radio station in 2017.
This relationship is now being tested. Gaetz, in turn, has boosted his defense team and hired two New York lawyers late last week, including Marc Mukasey, a former federal prosecutor who also represented the Trump Organization.
This story has been updated with additional reports that Greenberg provided information to researchers since last year, as well as to include Dorworth’s comments.