A lawyer for the key witness against Rep. Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida, said Friday that the witness was cooperating with an investigation by the House Ethics Committee into whether Mr. Gaetz had sex with an underage girl while he was in Congress.
Fritz Scheller, a lawyer for Mr. Gaetz’s former friend and political ally Joel Greenberg, said he had provided the committee with documents that he said supported his client’s claims that he saw Mr. Gaetz have sex with a 17-year-old girl had.
“Mr. Greenberg has and will cooperate with any request from Congress,” Mr. Scheller said in an email Friday.
Mr. Greenberg, who pleaded guilty in May 2021 to sex trafficking charges, among other charges, is serving an 11-year prison sentence. He had previously participated in a Justice Department investigation into whether Mr. Gaetz was involved in sex trafficking of minors, a federal crime punishable by at least 10 years in prison.
Last year, the Justice Department quietly closed its investigation into Mr. Gaetz after investigators concluded they could not make a compelling case against him in court, people familiar with the matter said.
Mr. Scheller said the documents he gave to Congress were in response to a request from the House Ethics Committee.
A spokeswoman for Mr. Gaetz, Jillian L. Wyant, said Friday that the Justice Department had received the same material as that sent to the Ethics Commission and “found it unreliable and declined to file charges.” The news media, she added, “should not launder slander from people in prison.”
It is unclear how useful the documents will be to the committee, which began investigating Mr. Gaetz several months ago after completing an investigation into George Santos, the former New York representative who was a big contender in his run for Congress had invented parts of his past. The House of Representatives expelled Mr. Santos late last year after the committee released its report.
The investigation into Mr. Gaetz was slow as a number of tips were sent to investigators. Mr. Gaetz has alleged that the investigation is retaliation against him for taking the lead in ousting Kevin McCarthy as House speaker.
The Justice Department’s decision not to prosecute Mr. Gaetz came two months after Mr. Greenberg was sentenced to prison. Mr. Scheller said at the time that the Justice Department’s decision proved the country had “two systems” – one that favors politicians like Mr. Gaetz and punishes those who are less powerful, like Mr. Greenberg.
“Why prosecute the privileged when defendants with limited guilt provide ample cannon fodder?” Mr. Scheller said at the time.
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2024-02-09 17:31:10
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