Former Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz is a defendant again, this time in civil court. Two women, identified in court papers only as Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2, have filed a 38-page federal lawsuit accusing Gaetz, former Florida state Rep. Chris Dorworth and former Seminole County tax collector Joel Greenberg of running a sex-trafficking scheme built on young women, drugs and interstate travel.
The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, according to the Daily Wire, which reported that the plaintiffs are seeking a jury trial and that the Miami Herald reported the story first. The Justice Department declined to prosecute Gaetz. A civil complaint is one side's account, and none of its allegations has been tested in court. This report is based on secondhand coverage; the complaint itself has not been reviewed.
Gaetz has responded. In a statement reported by the Daily Wire and Just the News, which attributes it to a statement to the Miami Herald, he said:
"I look forward to taking the plaintiffs' depositions because much of the conduct alleged against me is false."He added that the suit "relies almost exclusively on a Congressional Committee report that didn't allow me to confront my accusers."
What the women allege
According to Just the News, the women say they were introduced to Gaetz in their 20s, and the incidents described date to 2017 through 2019. The Boston Globe's coverage, as seen in a search snippet, and the Daily Beast's opening paragraph tie that period to Gaetz's time as a House member. Both women allege Gaetz paid them thousands of dollars. They allege they were supplied with drugs to facilitate sexual encounters, and that Gaetz hid his direct role in paying for travel by routing it through other people he recruited. One of the women alleges she saw Gaetz having sex with a 17-year-old girl.
The Boston Globe reported that the complaint says Greenberg recruited the women through the same website used to recruit the girl the House Ethics Committee called "Victim A," and that it cites Greenberg's own Ethics Committee testimony that he and Gaetz would split the costs of "drugs, hotel[s], and girls." Whether the plaintiffs' account lines up with the Ethics findings has not been independently confirmed.
Reports also disagree on when the suit was filed. Just the News put the filing on Monday, Oct. 12; the Globe said Thursday, Oct. 15. The court docket should settle it.
The Ethics report behind the suit
Gaetz resigned from Congress in November 2024 after President Trump nominated him for attorney general, days before the Ethics Committee was set to vote on releasing its report. He later withdrew from consideration. The committee found evidence that he violated statutory rape laws and paid women for sex between 2017 and 2020, according to the Daily Wire.
The Daily Wire's account says the report centered on Victim A, a 17-year-old high school junior who was homeless at the time and worked at McDonald's, and who allegedly met Greenberg through a "sugar dating" site. The report said Gaetz had sex with her twice at a July 15, 2017, party at Dorworth's home; Dorworth was then a lobbyist at Ballard Partners. Florida law makes sex between someone 24 or older and a 16- or 17-year-old a felony. Gaetz has denied it. The Daily Wire cited a text he sent to the New York Times about Victim A, in which he wrote, "I never had sex with this person." That statement does not concern the plaintiffs in this suit.
Greenberg pleaded guilty to charges that included underage sex trafficking and was sentenced in 2022 to more than a decade in prison, the Daily Wire reported.
What Gaetz has and has not said
Gaetz's statement disputes "much of" the conduct alleged, not all of it, and he has not said which parts he considers accurate. No comment has been reported from Dorworth, Greenberg or the plaintiffs' attorneys.
What comes next
The next steps are the defendants' responses to the complaint and any motions to dismiss, which are possible. Gaetz has said he wants to depose the plaintiffs. Meanwhile, he is scheduled to speak at Turning Point USA's AmericaFest in December. The Daily Wire said it asked the group whether that appearance still stands; no answer has been reported.
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