A month after news broke that Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz was under federal investigation for allegedly having a relationship with a minor, a confession letter written by Rep. Matt Gaetz’s associate Joel Greenberg claims that both Greenberg and Gaetz were “involved in sexual activities” with a girl who was only 17 years old at the time. Greenberg, a former Florida politician, is currently facing a 33 count indictment on charges ranging from stalking to sex trafficking.
The new revelations come from multiple drafts of a confession letter written by Greenberg as well as screenshots of messages between Greenberg and conservative lobbyist Roger Stone on the encrypted messaging app Signal, all of which were recently obtained by The Daily Beast. In the messages, which were sent in late 2020, Greenberg reportedly offered to pay Stone “$250k in Bitcoin” in order to get a pardon from then-President Trump. The confession letter was written by Greenberg as part of his effort to obtain a pardon, and even without the additional confessions in the Signal messages, the contents of Greenberg’s multiple drafts are pretty damning.
In the part of his letter referencing the 17-year-old, Greenberg wrote:
“On more than one occasion, this individual was involved in sexual activities with several of the other girls, the congressman from Florida’s 1st Congressional District and myself. From time to time, gas money or gifts, rent or partial tuition payments were made to several of these girls, including the individual who was not yet 18. I did see the acts occur firsthand and Venmo transactions, Cash App or other payments were made to these girls on behalf of the Congressman.”
Both in Greenberg’s letters and his messages with Stone, he admitted to paying a number of young women for sex and said that he, Gaetz, and others had sex with a girl who he claimed they believed to be 19 at the time. Greenberg wrote that he eventually learned she was actually 17 from “an anonymous tip” and informed Gaetz.
“Immediately I called the congressman and warned him to stay clear of this person and informed him she was underage,” Greenberg wrote. “He was equally shocked and disturbed by this revelation.”
Greenberg continued in the handwritten draft that he “confronted” the then-17-year-old and explained to her “how serious of a situation this was, how many people she put in danger.”
“She apologized and recognized that by lying about her age, she endangered many people,” he continued. “There was no further contact with this individual until after her 18th birthday.”
It’s hard to comprehend the sheer audacity of this adult man who had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl and then decided to scold her for his own predatory and illegal behavior. Only one person in this situation was an adult whose behavior could qualify as statutory rape!
The Signal messages between Greenberg and Stone were similarly damning.
“My lawyers that I fired, know the whole story about MG’s involvement. They know he paid me to pay the girls and that he and I both had sex with the girl who was underage. So naturally they think that is my golden ticket,” Greenberg wrote.
“And while I have not had any communication with MG, he absolutely has to know that the sex charge they hit me with would be what they would hit him with,” Greenberg continued.
Although Trump pardoned Stone in late December, administration officials rejected Greenberg’s application for a pardon. In a message to Greenberg, Stone claims that Gaetz refused to help Greenberg get a pardon and, despite the years-long friendship between the three men, Gaetz allegedly told Stone not to help Greenberg either.
Although Gaetz’s office didn’t respond to The Daily Beast directly, an outside PR firm Gaetz hired sent a statement saying:
“Congressman Gaetz has never paid for sex nor has he had sex with a 17 year old as an adult. We are now one month after your outlet and others first reported such lies, and no one has gone on record to directly accuse him of either. Politico, however, has reported Mr. Greenberg threatening to make false accusations against others, which seems noteworthy for your story and in fact sounds like the entirety of your story. Congressman Gaetz has had no role in advocating for or against a pardon for Greenberg and doubts such a pardon was ever even considered.”
(The Politico article referenced in the statement reportedly does not actually say that Greenberg was threatening to make false accusations against other people, but does say that Greenberg allegedly warned his associates that “everyone is going to need a lawyer.”)