After narrowly avoiding a government shutdown, the Ethics Committee of the House of Representatives released an 11-page ledger revealing former Representative Matt Gaetz paid multiple women for drugs and sex. The ledger shows payments linked to accounts that belonged to Gaetz between 2017 and 2020 and spent tens of thousands of dollars.
“Representative Gaetz appears to have initially set up [a] pseudonymous email account to make payments relating to cannabis products, and then also used it to make payments to women,” the House ethics panel reported.
The ledger also revealed that Gaetz paid Joel Greenberg, a former friend of his who pleaded guilty to sex trafficking of a minor in 2022 after cooperation with a federal investigation into Gaetz. No charges were placed on Gaetz following that investigation. In the ledger, Gaetz used digital payment transfer apps such as Venmo and PayPal to send funds directly to the women he was paying and third parties like Greenberg. He often labeled these payments with pseudonyms such as “groceries,” “dry clean,” “reimbursement,” “Relaxation,” and “Being my friend.”
The report also released text messages sent from Gaetz asking women to secure him illegal drugs. According to the report, he would often use the code “party favors” when referring to illicit substances. The messages also reveal conversations between women who he allegedly paid for sex work. In one released conversation, two women compared how much he paid them, claiming he refused payment after receiving services.
The report concluded that Gaetz “violated House Rules and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, impermissible gifts, special favors or privileges, and obstruction of Congress.”
Before the release of the report, Geatz filed a lawsuit, claiming that the information regarding his purchasing illegal narcotics is false and that, due to his resignation, he does not have the grounds to defend himself in Congress. His lawsuit was denied.
