Former Rep. Matt Gaetz facing additional sex trafficking allegations

Former Rep. Matt Gaetz is facing additional allegations of sex trafficking by two women who filed a civil lawsuit against him and two other men in federal court Thursday.

The women, identified as Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2, are accusing Gaetz, former Florida state Rep. Chris Dorworth and Joel Greenberg, a former tax collector in Florida’s Seminole County, of “recruitment and sexual exploitation” from 2017 through January 2019. They allege Gaetz and Greenberg, who is serving an 11-year federal prison sentence in Florida on sex trafficking and fraud convictions, “coordinated the recruitment, payments, drugs, and travel to obtain commercial sexual acts from young women,” and accuse Dorworth of “knowingly” participating.

The 38-page complaint, filed in the Middle District Court of Florida, describes the defendants as “men of power, wealth, and privilege who used their positions not to protect the vulnerable but to prey upon them.”

The suit also names as defendants three dental companies that appear to be affiliated with Greenberg, which it says “supplied the money that funded these illicit acts.”

The plaintiffs are suing under federal laws aimed at combatting sex trafficking and are demanding a jury trial.

In a statement provided to the Miami Herald, which first reported the news on Thursday, Gaetz called the allegations “false,” and added that the lawsuit “relies almost exclusively on a Congressional Committee report that didn’t allow me to confront my accusers. Now I will finally have that chance.”

Gaetz abruptly resigned from Congress in November 2024, when then-President-elect Donald Trump announced he would nominate him for attorney general. But Gaetz withdrew from consideration for that position after facing mounting scrutiny over sex trafficking allegations, which he denied. Since then, he has worked as a host at the right-wing One America News Network.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates .

Lisa Rubin contributed to this report.

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