Two women have filed a federal lawsuit accusing former Rep. Matt Gaetz and others of running a scheme involving payments, drugs and travel in exchange for sex. Gaetz denies the allegations.
Matt Gaetz has spent years insisting the most serious allegations against him were politically motivated, unproven or recycled from hostile investigations. Now two women have taken many of those claims out of the congressional-report world and put them directly into federal court.
The lawsuit, filed in Orlando, accuses Gaetz, former Seminole County tax collector Joel Greenberg and former Florida state lawmaker Chris Dorworth of participating in a scheme involving payments, drugs and travel in exchange for sex with young women. The plaintiffs, identified as Jane Does, say they were in their early 20s when the alleged conduct began in 2017.
According to the complaint, Greenberg introduced the women to Gaetz after recruiting them through SeekingArrangement.com, a website that connected so-called sugar daddies with younger women. The lawsuit alleges that money, flights, hotel rooms and other expenses were provided with the expectation of sex.
Gaetz denies the allegations. In a statement, he said much of the conduct described in the lawsuit is false and argued that the complaint relies heavily on a House Ethics Committee report that did not allow him to confront his accusers.
That distinction matters. A civil lawsuit contains allegations, not findings of fact, and Gaetz has not been convicted or criminally charged over the claims described in this case. The Justice Department previously investigated him and ultimately declined to bring federal charges.
The new lawsuit is still unusually serious because it alleges violations of federal anti-trafficking law rather than merely improper personal behavior. One of the plaintiffs says she witnessed Gaetz having sex with a 17-year-old girl during a gathering at Dorworth’s home.
Greenberg’s role is already established in a separate criminal case. He pleaded guilty to multiple federal crimes, including sex trafficking of a minor, and is serving an 11-year prison sentence. His plea agreement did not explicitly accuse Gaetz, but Greenberg agreed to cooperate with federal investigators.
The 2024 House Ethics Committee report also found substantial evidence that Gaetz paid women for sex and used illegal drugs while serving in Congress. Gaetz denied those findings and resigned from the House shortly before the report was released.
The complaint alleges that Gaetz sent thousands of dollars electronically to the plaintiffs, sometimes with notes attached to the payments. The women argue those transfers, combined with travel and other expenses, were part of a broader pattern of exploitation.
Their attorney says the central issue was the power imbalance. On one side were elected officials and politically connected men with money, status and access; on the other were young women with far less financial security.
Then, because this story apparently needed one more bizarre chapter, Gaetz responded on social media by posting an old photo of women in bathing suits facing the ocean. He mocked what he described as their supposed “cries for help,” a response that immediately became part of the story itself.
That post may be politically on-brand for Gaetz, who has always preferred confrontation over carefully lawyered silence. It is also the kind of litigation strategy most attorneys probably do not teach in the first week of civil procedure.
The lawsuit does not simply recycle old headlines. Moving the allegations into federal court gives the plaintiffs discovery tools, sworn testimony and a venue where claims can be tested under evidentiary rules.
Gaetz appears to welcome that part. He says he will finally have the opportunity to challenge the women’s accounts directly rather than responding to a congressional process he has long described as unfair.
That means the case could reopen a set of allegations that never fully disappeared after the Justice Department closed its investigation. The House report damaged Gaetz politically, helped sink his brief nomination for attorney general and followed him into his post-congressional media career.
Now the dispute is entering a venue where memes and floor speeches matter a lot less than documents, depositions and sworn testimony.
For everyone involved, that makes this more than another Washington scandal cycle. It is a live federal case, built around some of the most disturbing allegations ever attached to Gaetz’s name.
