New court filings reportedly show that Florida GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz attended a "drug-fueled" sex party in 2017 with a 17-year-old girl at the center of an alleged sex trafficking scandal.
The documents include sealed affidavits from three eyewitness testimonies that cite a party hosted at the home of lobbyist Chris Dorworth, a friend of Gaetz. One witness described the girl, a high school junior, as naked and said people were there to "engage in sexual activities" while drugs including cocaine and ecstasy were present.
The court filings were written by defense attorneys who interviewed witnesses as part of an ongoing civil lawsuit Dorworth brought in 2023, according to Notus. The lobbyist ultimately dropped the lawsuit, but his attorneys filed the documents in federal court to try and recoup legal fees.
The teenage girl was identified in the filings only as A.B.
"The discovery taken in this case to date reflects that on Saturday, July 15, 2017... Dorworth, hosted a party at his residence... with the following guests present: (1) A.B.; (2) K.M.; (3) B.G.; (4) Matt Gaetz," lawyers wrote in the filing, also listing several others. The defense lawyers filed testimonies from those three women under seal pending a judge's approval to make the records public.
Gaetz's own ex-girlfriend— who was present at the party— provided testimony that lawyers say rebuts Dorworth's claims that he was not here, according to the news organization.
The defense's court filings also showed a hired digital forensic examiner identified Gaetz's number, which has a Florida panhandle 850 area code and texted back and forth 30 times the day of the party, and then called Dorworth twice in the hours before the event.
Notus reports the new documents are the first time that "sworn testimony has been referenced in public court filings alleging that the congressman attended one of the long-rumored parties tied to an alleged underage sex scandal."
Previous details regarding Gaetz's involvement, such as reported Venmo transactions of Gaetz allegedly paying his friend Joel Greenberg to arrange sex with young women, have not been made public. Greenberg was convicted of several charges, including fraud and sex trafficking, in 2021, and is currently serving an 11-year prison sentence.
In 2021, the Daily Beast reported on a confession letter written by Greenberg. In the note, the associate claimed Gaetz paid him to arrange sex with several women and a girl who, at the time, was 17.
Gaetz has previously denied engaging sex trafficking or having sex with a minor, and a DOJ investigation from 2023 ended without charges being brought against the Representative.
Gaetz is currently under investigation by the House Ethics Committee, which announced in June it would continue its work looking at allegations that Gatez may have "engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, accepted improper gifts, dispensed special privileges and favors to individuals with whom he had a personal relationship, and sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct."
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