Former Rep. Matt Gaetz is facing a federal lawsuit from two women who accuse the one-time Trump nominee of participating in a sex trafficking operation while serving in Congress, the Miami Herald reported Thursday.
The new complaint alleges Gaetz, convicted former tax collector Joel Greenberg and former Florida lawmaker Christopher Dorworth exploited financially vulnerable women through paid sexual encounters and drugs.
“I look forward to taking the plaintiffs’ depositions because much of the conduct alleged against me is false,” Gaetz said in a statement.
The women, who were 20 and 22 when introduced to Gaetz, allege Greenberg recruited them online, according to the Herald. The complaint says drugs were supplied to facilitate sexual encounters and that the defendants arranged travel for the women.
The suit draws heavily on a House Ethics Committee investigation, reviving a scandal that helped derail Gaetz’s nomination as President Donald Trump’s attorney general.
“The lawsuit relies almost exclusively on a Congressional Committee report that didn’t allow me to confront my accusers,” Gaetz said in his statement. “Now I will finally have that chance.”