We knew that Democrats and swampy Republicans would never just sit back and allow Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) to be confirmed as Attorney General for Donald Trump’s second administration without a knock-down, drag-out fight, and the shenanigans in the effort to derail the nomination are ramping up. The New York Times reported Tuesday morning that 24 files with “damaging testimony” about Gaetz were obtained by a “hacker,” but that so far the hacker has not publicly released any of the information.
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An unidentified hacker has gained access to a computer file shared in a secure link among lawyers whose clients have given damaging testimony related to Matt Gaetz, the former Florida congressman who is President-elect Donald J. Trump’s choice to be attorney general . . .
The information was downloaded by a person using the name Altam Beezley at 1:23 p.m. on Monday, according to the person, who was not authorized to speak publicly. A lawyer connected to the case sent an email to the address associated with Altam Beezley, only to be informed in an automated reply that the recipient does not exist.
The files are all exhibits to a motion filed in a defamation case in Florida related to the sex trafficking allegations levied against Gaetz – allegations the US Department of Justice investigated for 18 months before declining to pursue charges because, sources told the Washington Post, the two main witnesses weren’t credible. Some of the exhibits, including deposition testimony from a woman who claims she had sex with Gaetz when she was 17, have been sealed by the judge presiding over that case.
According to the NYT:
The documents include information that is under seal with the Justice Department, which investigated Mr. Gaetz but did not file charges . . .
The hacked information also includes sworn testimony from [Christopher] Dorworth and his wife, as well as testimony from Michael Fischer, Mr. Gaetz’s former campaign treasurer, who is also said to have attended the party. It also contains various supporting material, such as the gate logs showing who entered the property of the Dorworth home on the evening in July 2017 when the two women said the sexual encounter with Mr. Gaetz occurred.
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Last week, “sources close to the [House Ethics] investigation” told ABC News that the woman testified before the Committee that Gaetz had sex with her when she was 17. In reply to ABC’s “story,” Gaetz said:
“These allegations are invented and would constitute false testimony to Congress. This false smear following a three-year criminal investigation should be viewed with great skepticism.”
Sunny Hostin was forced to read a similar statement on the air during Tuesday’s episode of The View:
CNN reported that the woman said in her deposition testimony that she had sex with Gaetz on an air hockey table at a party in 2017 and that her friend and Dorworth watched. Her friend said she also had sex with Gaetz at the same party. Dorworth had a different story, saying he didn’t know the woman and wasn’t even at his house during the 2017 party. In his deposition, Dorworth said :
“The thing I didn’t really contemplate when this whole thing started was the idea that people would lie themselves into these stories because of Matt’s political celebrity. I truly believe that is what happened.”
On Tuesday, Dorworth said on X that he passed 3 polygraph tests related to his testimony in the case and that “Matt Gaetz did not do this.”
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Federal prosecutors working on the investigation told their superiors at the Justice Department that the woman had credibility issues:
Career prosecutors have recommended against charging Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) in a long-running sex-trafficking investigation — telling Justice Department superiors that a conviction is unlikely in part because of credibility questions with the two central witnesses, according to people familiar with the matter.
. . .
She has been a central witness in the investigation, but people familiar with the case said she is one of two people whose testimony has issues that veteran prosecutors feel would not pass muster with a jury.
The woman’s deposition and other materials allegedly downloaded by the hacker are part of materials the Miami Herald is seeking to have unsealed, so it’s interesting that they’ve now allegedly been obtained by a hacker.
The other witness in the case the DOJ deemed not credible is disgraced Florida politician Joel Greenberg, who first levied the allegations against Gaetz. He told federal authorities that Dorworth hosted parties at which Greenberg, Gaetz, and others “took drugs and openly had sex,” leading to Dorworth’s defamation suit. In 2021 Greenberg was indicted for dozens of crimes, including sex trafficking a minor, stalking, identity theft, fraud of federal taxpayers, and ripping off local taxpayers in a cryptocurrency scheme, eventually pleading guilty to just six out of the 33 charges for which he was indicted. He is currently serving 11 years in federal prison.
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Greenberg first came into contact with the woman on the website “Seeking Arrangements,” a site where young women look for “sugar daddies.” She was 17 at the time but lied about her age, and she and Greenberg had an ongoing sexual relationship. According to Mollie Hemingway at The Federalist:
The woman is referenced in news reports and legal documents as “A.B.” A 2023 lawsuit from Chris Dorworth, a former Florida state representative and friend of Gaetz, reveals that Greenberg said A.B. performed deviant acts on the internet for money and “would do whatever he said because he was paying her legal bills.”
The younger woman has gone on to be an “active participant” on OnlyFans and has appeared in pornographic videos under a stage name, according to the lawsuit. News reports claim she told the House Ethics Committee the same information she told the DOJ before it closed the investigation on the grounds she and Greenberg had credibility problems. Judge Presnell referred to the woman as “essentially a prostitute.”
According to court documents, Greenberg made these allegations against Gaetz and other Florida Republicans after they refused to help him attempt to obtain a pre-emptive pardon, and has been paying the accuser’s legal fees.
Obviously, anyone with the list of convictions Greenberg has would have a credibility issue, but Greenberg has also admitted to fabricating sexual allegations against another political rival. From the Washington Post:
Greenberg’s credibility would be a significant challenge for any prosecution of Gaetz, in part because one of the crimes Greenberg admitted to was fabricating allegations against a schoolteacher who was running against him to be a tax collector. Greenberg had sent letters to the school falsely claiming the teacher had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a student — a similar allegation to the Gaetz case.
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Even Politico had this to say about Joel Greenberg (in 2021, emphasis mine):
What makes Greenberg’s case so unusual is the scope of crimes he committed and pleaded guilty to, making him one of the most corrupt Florida politicians of all time. In all, there are five different categories of crimes Greenberg pleaded guilty to that are found in different sections of federal law: sex-trafficking a minor, stalking, identity theft, fraud of federal taxpayers and ripping off local taxpayers in a cryptocurrency scheme.
After The New York Times reported on the investigation into Gaetz in 2021 a number of Republicans on Capitol Hill distanced themselves from him, and the investigation had a chilling effect on Gaetz’s ability to effectively battle against Deep State actors like FBI Director Christopher Wray, former NIAID Director Anthony Fauci, and others. As I wrote back then, after Gaetz blistered Wray over the FBI’s harassment of COVID whistleblower and Chinese defector Dr. Yan Li-Meng during a congressional hearing:
Is it any wonder that the entire Democrat/Media Complex is trying to destroy Matt Gaetz? Think about when the questions into his supposedly improper relationships with females started flooding the airwaves and which government organization is “investigating” Gaetz. I’m sure it’s all just a big coincidence and not an attempt to silence or intimidate Gaetz.
The House Ethics Committee is scheduled to meet Wednesday to discuss releasing its investigative files related to Gaetz.
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