Matt Gaetz has been subpoenaed to sit for a deposition in a civil defamation lawsuit, by lawyers representing a woman whom the Florida representative is accused of having sex with when she was just 17.
Lawyers for the woman, who is identified in the lawsuit by the initials “A.B.,” served Gaetz the subpoena on Thursday, ABC News reported, citing anonymous sources. The Republican congressman is slated to sit for deposition on April 5, and he will likely be asked questions about his alleged sexual activity, including whether he paid a minor for sex.
The subpoena is part of a larger defamation and racketeering suit brought last year by Gaetz’s friend, former Florida state Representative Chris Dorworth, against A.B. and Joel Greenberg, another former Gaetz associate. Dorworth accused Greenberg and A.B. of conspiring to falsely accuse Dorworth of “child sex trafficking, sex with a minor, prostitution, obstruction of justice, and an illegal ghost candidate scheme,” the lawsuit said.
Gaetz is not a party in the lawsuit, but the filing mentions him and the allegations against him several times. A.B.’s lawyers have subpoenaed him to establish that the woman was not Greenberg’s “partner in crime,” as Dorworth alleges.
Greenberg was convicted of sex trafficking following a Justice Department investigation, and in 2022, he was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison. But he cooperated with the department when it launched an offshoot investigation into Gaetz in March 2021. Greenberg alleged that Gaetz had paid him via Venmo for sex with a 17-year-old girl, which the congressman has denied.
The federal investigation ended in February 2023 with no charges, in part because the Justice Department had credibility issues with Greenberg and another key witness. But the House Ethics Committee opened a probe into Gaetz in July for alleged misconduct including sexual misconduct and illicit drug use.
And Gaetz’s testimony could also prove particularly damning in the House Ethics investigation, which already does not seem to be going all that well for him. In February, a potential witness came forward alleging that she had had sex with the lawmaker at a drug-fueled party in 2021, when she was older than 21 years of age. The woman said she was paid to attend the event and has texts to prove her claims.
