Exclusive: Woman told House Ethics panel she witnessed Gaetz having sex with minor, lawyer says
An attorney representing two women who were witnesses in the House Ethics Committee's investigation into now-former Rep. Matt Gaetz is calling for the release of the committee's report, telling ABC News that one of his clients testified that she witnessed the Florida congressman having sex with a minor.
"My client testified to the House Ethics Committee that she witnessed Matt Gaetz having sex with a minor," Florida attorney Joel Leppard told ABC News.
"As the Senate considers former Rep. Gaetz's nomination for attorney general, several questions demand answers," Leppard said. "What if multiple credible witnesses provided evidence of behavior that would constitute serious criminal violations?"
"Democracy demands transparency. Release the Gaetz Ethics report," said Leppard, who represents two women who sat for closed-door testimony with the committee over the summer.
Gaetz, who President-elect Donald Trump selected this week to serve as his attorney general, has long denied any wrongdoing, including have an inappropriate relationship with a minor. The Justice Department declined to charge Gaetz last year after a yearslong investigation into the allegations.
In a statement issued in response to Leppard's claim, a spokesperson for Gaetz said, "Merrick Garland's DOJ cleared Matt Gaetz and didn't charge him. Are you alleging Garland is part of a cover up?"
The two witnesses, who ABC News is not naming, both allegedly attended parties with the congressman. Gaetz's one-time friend Joel Greenberg is currently serving an 11-year prison sentence after reaching a deal with prosecutors in May 2021 in which he pleaded guilty to multiple federal crimes including sex trafficking of the woman when she was a minor and introducing her to other "adult men" who also had sex with her when she was underage.
According to Greenberg's plea deal, the woman, who ABC News is not identifying, met Greenberg online in 2017 and began meeting him in hotels and houses in the Middle District of Florida, where he "introduced the Minor to other adult men, who engaged in commercial sex acts with the Minor in the Middle District of Florida," court documents said.
At the time, the minor "represented that she was an adult" on the website where she met Greenberg -- and according to his plea agreement, he acknowledges that he "acted in reckless disregard of the fact that the Minor was less than 18 years old when he engaged in commercial sex acts" and had a "reasonable opportunity to observe" that she was underage.
Leppard's statement comes after attorney John Clune, who represents the former minor at the center of the probe, called for the release of the Ethics Committee's report on Thursday.
"Mr. Gaetz's likely nomination as Attorney General is a perverse development in a truly dark series of events. We would support the House Ethics Committee immediately releasing their report. She was a high school student and there were witnesses," Clune said in a statement.
The woman, who is now in her 20s, testified to the House Ethics Committee that the now-former Florida congressman had sex with her when she was 17 years old and he was in Congress, ABC News previously reported.
In a statement responding to that reporting, Gaetz said, "These allegations are invented and would constitute false testimony to Congress. This false smear following a three year criminal investigation should be viewed with great skepticism."
The Justice Department spent years investigating the allegations against Gaetz, including allegations of obstruction of justice, before informing Gaetz last year that it would not bring charges.
Gaetz has long vehemently denied any wrongdoing related to the Justice Department probe. In September, he released a detailed response to questions sent to him by the House Ethics Committee, which was investigating allegations of alleged sexual misconduct and illicit drug use.
"Your correspondence of September 4 asks whether I have engaged in sexual activity with any individual under 18. The answer to this question is unequivocally NO. You can apply this response to every version of this question, in every forum," Gaetz said in a statement posted to his social media account.
Gaetz resigned from the House this week after being selected to lead Trump's Justice Department, which ended the House Ethics Committee's probe that sources tell ABC News had been entering its final stages. Prior to Gaetz's resignation, the committee had planned to meet this week to discuss whether to release their report on the investigation -- leaving it unclear if the report will ever see the light of day.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Friday that he does not think the House Ethics Committee should release the findings of its investigation into Gaetz, now that the Florida Republican is no longer a member of Congress.
"I believe it is very important to maintain the House's tradition of not issuing ethics reports on people who are no longer members of Congress. I think it would open a Pandora's box," he said.
Leppard told ABC News he supports the release of the report.
"What if sworn testimony detailed conduct that would disqualify anyone from serving as our nation's chief law enforcement officer?" the attorney said in his statement to ABC News.
