Lawyer tells ABC News his 2 clients told House Ethics Committee that Gaetz paid them for sex
An attorney representing two women who testified before the House Ethics Committee told ABC News in an interview that former Rep. Matt Gaetz paid both his adult clients for sex.
Florida attorney Joel Leppard told ABC News' Juju Chang that one of his clients also witnessed Gaetz having sex with a third woman -- who was then 17 years old -- at a house party in Florida.
"She testified [that] in July of 2017, at this house party, she was walking out to the pool area, and she looked to her right, and she saw Rep. Gaetz having sex with her friend, who was 17," Leppard said.
The Justice Department spent years probing the allegations against Gaetz, including allegations of obstruction of justice, before informing Gaetz last year that it would not bring charges. Gaetz has long denied any wrongdoing related to the allegations investigated during Justice Department probe.
"Matt Gaetz will be the next Attorney General. He’s the right man for the job and will end the weaponization of our justice system," Trump transition spokesperson Alex Pfeiffer told ABC News regarding all the allegations involving Gaetz.
"These are baseless allegations intended to derail the second Trump administration. The Biden Justice Department investigated Gaetz for years and cleared him of wrongdoing," Pfeiffer said of the allegations, which the Justice Department began investigating during the first Trump administration.
Leppard, who has called for the House Ethics Committee to release its report amid Gaetz's nomination to serve as President-elect Donald Trump's attorney general, told ABC News that the former congressman paid both of his clients for sex using Venmo.
"Just to be clear, both of your clients testified that they were paid by Rep. Gaetz to have sex?" Chang asked Leppard.
"That's correct. The House was very clear about that and went through each. They essentially put the Venmo payments on the screen and asked about them. And my clients repeatedly testified, 'What was this payment for?' 'That was for sex,'" Leppard said.
Leppard also told ABC News that his client testified to House Ethics Committee that, based on her knowledge, Gaetz stopped having sex with the minor after he learned she was underage.
"Her understanding was that Matt Gaetz did not know that she was a minor, and that when he learned that she was a minor, that he broke off things and did not continue a sexual relationship until she turned 18," Leppard said.
Leppard's interview with ABC News comes days after he publicly called for the House Ethics Committee to be released.
"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?"
The House Ethics Committee is expected to meet on Wednesday and discuss its report on Gaetz and potentially vote on its release, despite the fact that the investigation ended when Gaetz resigned from the House, multiple sources told ABC News.
The development comes after Leppard on Friday first told ABC News that one of his clients had witnessed Gaetz having sex with a minor -- amid mounting pressure on the House Ethics Committee to release its report on its probe into the former Florida congressman.
The two witnesses, who ABC News is not naming, both allegedly attended parties with the then-congressman and testified in both the DOJ and House Ethics investigations.
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 a woman when she was a minor and introducing her to other "adult men" who also had sex with her when she was underage.
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.
Sources said 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.
Gaetz faces an increasingly uphill nomination process in the Senate, with at least five Republican senators signaling skepticism that he could get enough support to be confirmed.
President-elect Trump has repeatedly urged GOP leadership to bypass the traditional confirmation process through recess appointments, whereby Trump could appoint his cabinet while Congress is out of session.
