Federal prosecutors have closed a long-running sex-trafficking investigation into Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and have decided not to press charges against him, attorneys for the congressman said.
“We have just spoken with the DOJ and have been informed that they have concluded their investigation into Congressman Gaetz and allegations related to sex trafficking and obstruction of justice and they have determined not to bring any charges against him,” Marc Mukasey and Isabelle Kirshner said in a statement.
In September, The Washington Post reported that career prosecutors had recommended against charging Gaetz, telling Justice Department superiors that a conviction was unlikely in part because of credibility questions with the two central witnesses, according to people familiar with the matter. CNN first reported Wednesday that the Justice Department decided to close the investigation.
A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment.
The investigation into Gaetz, who has served in Congress since 2017, began in 2020, during the Trump administration. It focused on the congressman’s alleged involvement several years earlier with a girl who was 17 at that time. Investigators examined Gaetz’s dealings with the alleged victim and set out to determine if he paid for sex in violation of federal sex-trafficking laws, people familiar with the matter have said. Earlier this year, a federal grand jury in Orlando heard testimony from associates of Gaetz’s, including an ex-girlfriend.
Gaetz, 40, has repeatedly denied wrongdoing, saying he has never paid for sex. He has also said the only time he had sex with a 17-year-old was when he was also 17.
The ex-girlfriend who testified to the grand jury was among several women on a trip Gaetz allegedly took to the Bahamas in 2018 that has been of particular interest to investigators. The 17-year-old at issue in the investigation was also on that trip, though by that time she was already 18 or older, people familiar with the matter have said. She was a central witness in the investigation. People familiar with the case said she is one of two people whose testimony had issues that veteran prosecutors felt would not pass muster with a jury.
The other is a former friend of Gaetz’s, Joel Greenberg, a former tax collector for Seminole County, Fla. Greenberg pleaded guilty in 2021 to sex trafficking of a minor and a host of other crimes as part of a cooperation deal with authorities.
Greenberg was first charged in 2020 with fabricating allegations and evidence to smear a political opponent, but prosecutors continued to investigate and added charges to his case. He ultimately agreed to plead guilty to six criminal charges, including sex trafficking of a child, aggravated identity theft and wire fraud.
The Post reported in September that Gaetz — a staunch conservative and Trump ally — reportedly asked then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows for a preemptive pardon from Trump regarding the sex-trafficking investigation
John McEntee, a former Trump White House aide, testified to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol that Gaetz told him he was seeking the pardon. McEntee told the committee that Gaetz said “he did not do anything wrong but they are trying to make his life hell, and you know, if the president could give him a pardon, that would be great.”
Gaetz ultimately did not receive a pardon from Trump.
“Congressman Matt Gaetz discussed pardons for many other people publicly and privately at the end of President Donald Trump’s first term,” a spokesperson for Gaetz wrote in an email in September. “As for himself, President Trump addressed this malicious rumor more than a year ago stating, ‘Congressman Matt Gaetz has never asked me for a pardon.’ Rep. Gaetz continues to stand by President Trump’s statement.”