A sealed file containing unreacted, sworn testimony by a woman who says that when she was a 17-year old minor she had sex with Matt Gaetz, the Republican now-former U.S. Representative who is President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Attorney General, was reportedly accessed by an unknown person or entity on Monday.
The alleged hacker gained access to a “computer file shared in a secure link among lawyers whose clients have given damaging testimony related to Matt Gaetz,” The New York Times reports, citing a person with knowledge of the activity. “The file of 24 exhibits is said to include sworn testimony by a woman who said that she had sex with Mr. Gaetz in 2017 when she was 17, as well as corroborating testimony by a second woman who said that she witnessed the encounter.”
The “documents include information that is under seal with the Justice Department, which investigated Mr. Gaetz but did not file charges, and the House Committee on Ethics, which has completed its own inquiry into the former congressman,” according to The Times.
It appears the documents are from a civil lawsuit filed by a friend of Gaetz, Christopher Dorworth, who “filed the suit against both the woman who says she had sex with Mr. Gaetz when she was a minor and Joel Greenberg, an erstwhile ally of Mr. Gaetz who is serving an 11-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to federal sex trafficking charges involving the woman.”
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“Mr. Dorworth has claimed that he was defamed by Mr. Greenberg and the woman, both of whom had told federal authorities that Mr. Dorworth hosted parties where he, they, Mr. Gaetz and others took drugs and openly had sex.”
Overnight, ABC News investigations reporter Will Steakin posted what appears to be an email alerting attorneys of the breach:
Pointing to his reporting from October, Steakin adds that the House Ethics Committee had subpoenaed these documents “involving Gaetz in the civil case a few weeks back.”
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ABC 7 reports that an attorney for two women says Gaetz flew them both to New York and paid them to have sex. One of the women, he says, also testified she saw Gaetz having sex with a 17-year old girl.
Watch the ABC 7 video below or at this link.
Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license