A federal civil lawsuit filed Thursday in the middle district of Florida accuses former Republican congressman Matt Gaetz of participating in the sex trafficking of two young women between 2017 and January 2019. The 38-page complaint names Gaetz alongside Joel Micah Greenberg — the former Seminole County tax collector already serving 11 years for six federal offenses including child sex trafficking — and alleges the defendants "coordinated the recruitment, payments, drugs, and travel to obtain commercial sexual acts" from the plaintiffs. The two women, identified as Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2, were described as "recent high school graduates" at the time of the alleged misconduct. Jane Doe 1 was 20 when she says she was first introduced to Gaetz in the summer of 2017; Jane Doe 2 was 22 when Greenberg first contacted her. The complaint alleges Greenberg recruited both women through SeekingArrangement.com and introduced them to Gaetz. The lawsuit details a specific sequence of events. Jane Doe 1 alleges Gaetz had sex with her at a July 2017 party, that she later witnessed Gaetz having sex with a 17-year-old identified as "Victim A," and that Gaetz gave Victim A $400 in cash she "understood to be payment for sex." Three days later, Gaetz allegedly sent Jane Doe 1 $500 via PayPal — the first of thirteen payments. Between July 2017 and January 2019, Gaetz and Greenberg allegedly paid Jane Doe 1 on at least nineteen documented occasions, with amounts ranging from $150 to $1,000. Jane Doe 2 alleges she was promised she would be "well compensated" for attending a party at a rented house, where "pressed MDMA pills" were distributed. The complaint claims Greenberg and then Gaetz had sex with her that night. Both women allege the defendants arranged and funded travel to Venice Beach, Miami, Las Vegas, the Florida Keys, the Bahamas, and New York City — trips where "every part of that access, from the flights to the hotel rooms, was paid for by men, including the Defendants, who expected sex in return." Gaetz denied the allegations in a statement to the Guardian. "I look forward to taking the plaintiffs' depositions because much of the conduct alleged against me is false," he wrote, adding that the lawsuit relies on a congressional committee report that "didn't allow me to confront my accusers." He attached a photo appearing to show women on a beach in the Bahamas with the caption "#beers and #babes are all you ever need," suggesting the plaintiffs "seemed to portray their Bahamian trip differently on social media than in their lawsuit seeking money." The civil suit arrives after a bipartisan House ethics committee investigation that was terminated when Gaetz resigned from Congress in November 2024 — shortly after being nominated by Donald Trump to become attorney general. Gaetz withdrew from the AG nomination amid scrutiny of these same allegations. In December 2024, the ethics committee released findings that Gaetz made payments totaling tens of thousands of dollars to women for sex and drugs on at least 20 occasions and "engaged in sexual activity with a 17-year-old girl" in 2017. The civil case shifts the legal terrain. The Department of Justice declined to bring criminal charges against Gaetz, but civil litigation operates under a lower burden of proof and — critically — allows discovery, depositions, and cross-examination. Jane Doe 1 described having "no meaningful savings and no stable income" and alleged the defendants "led her to believe they could solve her financial problems as long as she kept performing sexual acts." The structural pattern is textbook: public office holders leveraging economic vulnerability for sexual exploitation, with a network of co-conspirators handling logistics, payments, and recruitment.
