In two late-Venmo deals in May 2018, Rep. Matt Gaetz charged his friend, accused sex trader Joel Greenberg, with $ 900. The next morning, over the course of eight minutes, Greenberg uses the same app to send three young women different amounts of money. In total, the transactions amounted to $ 900.
The memorandum field for the first of Gaetz’s transactions to Greenberg was entitled ‘Test’. In the second, the Florida GOP congressman wrote ‘hit up ___’. But instead of a blank, Gaetz wrote a nickname for one of the recipients. (The Daily Beast does not share the nickname because the teenager turned 18 less than six months earlier.) When Greenberg made his Venmo payments to these three young women, he described the money for ‘Teaching’, ‘School, ”And“ School. ”
The Daily Beast investigated these records as a scandal, rooted in a criminal case against Greenberg, which engulfed Gaetz.
The Strange Friendship That Matt Gaetz Can Drop
Greenberg – the former tax collector in Seminole County – has now been charged on 33 charges federally, including felony crimes involving a 17-year-old. According to court documents, Greenberg was’ engaged in ‘sugar daddy’ relationships. ‘And The New York Times says a Justice Department investigation is investigating Gaetz’s involvement in the cash-for-sex ring.
According to a friend of the girl, Gaetz and Greenberg were connected by Venmo to this then 18-year-old woman – who now works in the porn industry. Greenberg’s attorney and prosecutors indicated during a court hearing Thursday that they expect Greenberg to strike a plea deal, which likely means he intends to work with investigators.
This could possibly be disastrous for Gaetz, as investigators are investigating the links between these two men. And a particularly damning connection is their financial transactions.
This week, while reporting this story, Gaetz’s once public list of Venmo deals disappeared. Greenberg’s Venmo account is currently not publicly available. But The Daily Beast was able to obtain partial records of Greenberg’s online transactions through a source.
Republicans wait for Matt Gaetz scandal to break
Greenberg and Gaetz are also linked at Venmo to at least one other woman who paid Greenberg with taxpayer funds with a credit card issued by the government. Seminole County auditors have marked hundreds of payments as “questionable or unexplained” and found more than $ 300,000 in total in suspicious or unjustified expenses. The Daily Beast was able to obtain the credit card data through a public record request.
‘Nobody has any idea what he did. Zero, ”said Daniel J. O’Keefe, an accountant who conducted a forensic audit for the country. ‘The arrogance of these guys. They just felt like they were above the law. I’ve never seen it so bad. ”
O’Keefe was particularly surprised by weekend expenses, hotels, unspecified high-dollar consultation fees and cash advances Greenberg made to himself and others. The Daily Beast compared Greenberg’s credit card statements and Venmo transactions with Gaetz’s spending and travel records – compiled by reports on campaign funding, Instagram posts and Venmo – and found that the two timelines and contact circles overlapped in some key locations.
Gaetz and Greenberg share Venmo relationships with at least two women who have received payments from Greenberg, and both have professional relationships with each other.
In 2018, Greenberg also paid another woman, a mutual friend of Gaetz, several thousand dollars using the Wells Fargo Visa card backed by Seminole County by the taxpayer, according to the province’s financial records that The Daily Beast acquired. Auditors marked the transactions, saying that despite a contract and invoice from the company, they ‘did not know what it was for’.
Last week, The New York Times reported that the Justice Department investigated Gaetz for allegedly paying a 17-year-old girl to travel with him across state lines and inciting her to have sex – an act that federal laws on sexual trafficking in children transgress. The investigation apparently extends to last summer when it emerged from the ongoing Greenberg investigation. According to the Times, the two men apparently had sex with the same 17-year-old girl and traded.
The three-term Republican acknowledged the existence of the investigation, but denied the allegations. In a text message on March 31, he told The Daily Beast: “The last time I had a seventeen-year sexual relationship, I was seventeen.” And in a remark in the conservative Washington Examiner last weekend, Gaetz claims that he “never ever paid women for sex.”
Matt Gaetz said his ‘travel records’ would acquit him. Not so fast.
Gaetz is not charged with any crime, and Gaetz’s congressional office declined to comment directly on the story.
Instead, a representative of an external liaison firm, the Logan Circle Group, responded with this statement from Gaetz: “The rumors, gossip and self-serving misrepresentations of others will eventually be addressed by my legal team.”
Login Circle’s Erin Elmore – a pro-Trump expert and former participant in The apprentice– Added that a lawyer ‘closely monitors your coverage’.
Also on the email was another Logan Circle Group employee: Harlan Hill, who was banned from Fox News after calling current Vice President Kamala Harris an “unbearable lie.”
Greenberg’s defender, Fritz Scheller, also did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But during a press conference after a hearing for the case, Scheller offered that the Florida congressman is unlikely to welcome the news that Greenberg is going to accept a plea agreement.
“I’m sure Matt Gaetz does not feel very comfortable today,” Scheller said.
—Updated with comments from Gaetz.
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