{"id":39300,"date":"2025-11-14T12:18:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T12:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/39300\/"},"modified":"2025-11-14T12:18:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T12:18:08","slug":"matt-gaetz-sex-case-teen-started-sex-work-to-pay-for-braces-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/39300\/","title":{"rendered":"Matt Gaetz sex case teen started sex work to pay for braces: report"},"content":{"rendered":"

The woman who told the House Ethics Committee that she had sex with then-Rep. Matt Gaetz<\/a> at a house party when she was 17 years old, all but ending his national political career, lived part-time at a Florida homeless shelter with one of her parents and turned to selling her \u201ccompanionship\u201d to buy braces for her teeth.<\/p>\n

The still-unidentified woman\u2019s circumstances were detailed for the first time by her lawyer to the New York Times after a federal judge unsealed documents in a related civil case that described the alleged victim as a \u201cthen-homeless 17-year-old high schooler.\u201d<\/p>\n

The attorney, Laura Wolf, told the Times that the girl\u2019s parents were divorced and one of them was living in a homeless shelter, where the teen and her siblings would also stay when that parent had visitation rights.<\/p>\n

Rep. Matt Gaetz speaks to reporters at the Capitol on Oct. 2, 2023. REUTERS<\/p>\n

The girl took a job at McDonald\u2019s to make extra money, but also lied about her age to make an account on SeekingArrangement.com, a website that primarily connects older men with younger\u00a0women\u00a0for \u201csugar daddy\/sugar baby\u201d relationships.<\/p>\n

It was through Seeking Arrangement that the teen met Joel Greenberg, then tax collector of Seminole County, Fla. and a friend and political ally of Gaetz, in 2017. According to the Times, citing court documents, Greenberg paid her $400 at an initial meeting on his boat and also gave the teen ecstasy and implored her to try it.<\/p>\n

Former Rep. Matt Gaetz at a memorial service for Charlie Kirk in Arizona on September 21, 2025. AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Greenberg would have sex with the 17-year-old seven times for money, per the court records, occasionally paying her extra to take ecstasy during intercourse.<\/p>\n

That July, Greenberg and the girl were among guests at a party at the home of ex-Florida legislator Chris Dorworth, where \u2014 in the ethics panel\u2019s words \u2014 there was \u201csubstantial evidence that Representative Gaetz<\/a> had sex with [the girl],\u201d to whom he later paid $400.<\/p>\n

Rep. Matt Gaetz and his wife Ginger Luckey at the Trump National Doral golf resort on April 9, 2021. Getty Images<\/p>\n

At the time, the report notes, \u201cshe was 17 years old, and he was 35. Representative Gaetz\u2019s actions were in violation of Florida\u2019s statutory rape law \u2026 she had just completed her junior year of high school.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gaetz<\/a>, now 43, has denied the report\u2019s conclusions, telling the Times in a text message: \u201cI never had sex with this person. This person threatened me with a lawsuit if I didn\u2019t pay her $2.3 million dollars. She never sued me because her story is fiction.\u201d<\/p>\n

The New York Post front cover from Nov. 22, 2024. csuarez<\/p>\n

The Justice Department declined to prosecute Gaetz after a prolonged sex-trafficking investigation that ensnared Greenberg, who pleaded guilty in May 2021 to charges including child sex trafficking, wire fraud, stalking and conspiracy and was later sentenced to 11 years in prison.<\/p>\n

As part of his plea deal, Greenberg acknowledged introducing the teen \u201cto other adult men, who engaged in commercial sex acts\u201d with her.<\/p>\n

Gaetz, now a host at One America News Network, resigned from Congress on Nov. 13, 2024 \u2014 hours after President-elect Donald Trump tapped him to be the next US attorney general. The Floridian later withdrew his name from consideration after realizing not enough Republican senators would vote to confirm him.<\/p>\n

Matt Gaetz with his wife Ginger Luckey Gaetz in Santa Monica in September 2025. The Hollywood Curtain \/ BACKGRID<\/p>\n

The ethics report was made public Dec. 23 of that year, with the committee determining that despite Gaetz leaving office, it was \u201cin the public interest\u201d to release its findings.<\/p>\n

As for the girl, Wolf told the Times that she moved to Texas to live with a family member and continued to work minimum wage food service jobs, eventually saving up to buy braces.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe vulnerable circumstances most crime victims face are rarely known to the public,\u201d Wolf told the outlet. \u201cAlthough my client\u2019s circumstances were revealed outside of her control, I hope it helps for the public to see a fuller and more human picture of her than the press has reported on to date.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPower imbalances can be age, but they can also be financial. My client had little economic security, which allowed for financial leverage over her.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The woman who told the House Ethics Committee that she had sex with then-Rep. Matt Gaetz at a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39301,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[22890,22891,9,11,10,87,5474,4730,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-39300","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-dental","9":"tag-matt-gaetz","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-headlines","12":"tag-new-york-news","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-sexual-abuse","15":"tag-teens","16":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}