Two women sue Matt Gaetz in federal court, accusing him of coordinating sex-trafficking scheme

Two unnamed women have filed a federal lawsuit against former Rep. Matt Gaetz in the Middle District of Florida, accusing him of orchestrating a sex-trafficking scheme that included paying them for sexual encounters and offering drugs. The complaint, described by the Washington Examiner, says Gaetz paid the two plaintiffs roughly $10,000 while he served in Congress.

The suit names Joel Greenberg and Christopher Dorworth as co-defendants and alleges those men helped arrange sexual encounters for Gaetz and other political figures. According to the complaint cited by the Washington Examiner, the two plaintiffs were introduced to Gaetz in 2017; one was 20 and the other was 22 at that time.

The filing also contains an allegation that one plaintiff saw Gaetz having sex with a girl who was 17. The article notes that the plaintiffs remain unnamed in the court filing.

The complaint reportedly leans heavily on a Congressional Committee report, which the Examiner says concluded there was "substantial evidence" that Gaetz had paid several women, including at least one minor, to have sex with him.

The Examiner reports that Joel Greenberg, a named co-defendant, is already serving an 11-year sentence in Florida on sex-trafficking and fraud convictions. Christopher Dorworth is also named in the complaint; the article says both men are alleged to have coordinated sexual encounters.

The Washington Examiner frames the lawsuit as relying largely on the earlier Congressional Committee report rather than new eyewitness testimony made public in full in the article.

Gaetz issued a statement to the Washington Examiner denying large parts of the complaint, saying "much of the conduct" he is accused of is false and that he looks forward to taking the plaintiffs' depositions.

The article does not report any criminal charges filed against Gaetz in relation to the new civil complaint, nor does it report any law-enforcement action tied to the filing.

Headlines from other outlets indicate the complaint has drawn wider media attention: Yahoo, The Guardian, 1290 WJNO and the Miami Herald all ran headlines reporting that women sued Gaetz alleging sex trafficking.

The Examiner's coverage supplies the detailed allegations that the complaint contains, the names of the co-defendants, the cited $10,000 figure, the ages given for the women in 2017, and Gaetz's denial quoted in his statement. The filing begins a civil legal process that could produce depositions and discovery about the claims the plaintiffs have made.

The Washington Examiner's account is the primary source for the factual assertions about payments, ages, the co-defendants named and the reliance on the Congressional Committee report in the complaint.