最近几周，众议院道德委员会调查人员进行了一系列闭门采访，采访了许多女性，她们是司法部长达一年的性交易调查的证人众议员马特·盖兹熟悉该委员会工作的多个消息来源告诉ABC新闻。
调查人员已经采访了至少六名女性，据称她们参加了佛罗里达州议员也在场的聚会由乔尔·格林伯格支付盖兹曾经的密友。消息人士告诉ABC新闻，格林伯格在承认多项指控后，于2022年被判在联邦监狱服刑11年，这些指控包括性贩运未成年人以及将未成年人介绍给其他“成年男子”。
消息人士说，在以前没有报道过的采访中，一些证人看到了据称他们从Gaetz那里收到的Venmo付款，并问这些付款是否用于性活动。据消息来源称，一些证人已被委员会传唤，而其他人则同意合作。
多个消息来源告诉ABC新闻，一名美国广播公司新闻部没有透露身份的妇女告诉委员会，盖兹的付款是为了性，而其他人则说，他们被支付参加盖兹也参加的聚会，这些聚会以毒品和性为特色。
盖兹长期以来一直否认所有指控，包括花钱买春，并声称“有人试图将我对前女友的慷慨重新归类为更不合适的事情”，从而驳回了这些指控。司法部在2023年通知盖兹，在经过长达数年的调查后，它拒绝对他提出指控。
众议院道德委员会拒绝置评。莱帕德律师事务所的佛罗里达州律师乔尔·莱帕德证实，他的当事人正在与委员会合作，但拒绝进一步置评。
委员会传唤司法部今年早些时候，因其调查佛罗里达州议员的相关记录。消息人士称，该部门仍拒绝交出这些信息。
然而，消息人士告诉ABC新闻，委员会在向该公司发出传票后，获得了Gaetz的Venmo记录。在DOJ调查盖兹期间，包括《每日野兽》在内的公开报道主要集中在格林伯格的Venmo记录上，根据他的认罪协议，他使用自己的账户与他介绍给他人的女性“支付商业性行为”。ABC新闻还没有看到委员会获得盖兹的记录，这可能有助于向国会调查人员提供这位国会议员在与格林伯格成为朋友时可能支付的款项的路线图。
周二，众议院道德委员会(House Ethics Committee)提供了对盖兹调查的最新情况，并在周二的一份新声明中详细说明，在与十多名证人交谈、发出25张传票并审查了数千份文件后，两党小组将继续审查指控，包括佛罗里达州议员“从事不当性行为和非法药物使用”，以及他“试图阻挠政府对其行为的调查”。
该委员会还详细说明，它将不再追究盖兹“可能在众议院分享不适当的图像或视频，滥用州身份记录，将竞选资金转为个人使用，和/或接受贿赂或不适当的小费”的指控。
当联系到盖兹进行评论时，他的通讯主管将ABC新闻指向了这位议员社交媒体帖子周一称众议院道德委员会为“苏联”，并表示“对我的每一项调查都以同样的方式结束:我的无罪释放。”
格林伯格目前正在服11年徒刑，他承认犯有多项联邦罪行，包括对一名未成年人进行性交易，他承认将这名未成年人介绍给其他“成年男子”，这些成年男子在她未成年时也与她发生过性关系。司法部调查人员花了数年时间调查盖兹是否是格林伯格介绍未成年人的男子之一，然后在2023年拒绝对盖兹提出指控。
熟悉委员会工作的消息人士告诉ABC新闻，格林伯格在司法部自己的调查中提供了重要的合作，正在配合众议院道德委员会对佛罗里达州议员的调查。
在2022年底的判决中，法官格雷戈里·珀斯内尔称格林伯格的合作程度“超过了我22年来所见的程度。”格林伯格是佛罗里达州的一名前税务员，在认罪后于2022年底被判处11年监禁，罪名包括电信欺诈、跟踪和性贩运未成年人。
调查人员还询问了多名目击者关于美国广播公司新闻首次报道的2017年7月派对的情况。消息人士称，委员会从一名女子那里获得了一份宣誓证词，该女子称她参加了盖兹也参加的佛罗里达派对。消息人士称，多名证人也告诉委员会，他们看到盖兹在派对上使用非法药物。
该委员会于2021年首次对盖兹展开调查，随后因司法部开展自己的调查而搁置调查。
Witness tells House Ethics Committee that Matt Gaetz paid her for sex: Sources
In recent weeks, House Ethics Committee investigators have conducted a string of interviews behind closed doors with numerous women who were witnesses in the yearslong Justice Department sex trafficking investigation intoRep. Matt Gaetz, multiple sources familiar with the committee's work tell ABC News.
Investigators have interviewed at least half a dozen women who allegedly attended parties where the Florida congressman was also present and whowere paid by Joel Greenberg, Gaetz's one-time close friend. Greenberg was sentenced in 2022 to 11 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to multiple charges including sex trafficking a minor and introducing the minor to other "adult men," sources tell ABC News.
In the interviews, which have previously not been reported, some witnesses have been shown Venmo payments they allegedly received from Gaetz and asked if those payments were for sexual activities, sources said. Some of the witnesses have been subpoenaed by the committee while others have agreed to cooperate, according to the sources.
One woman, who ABC News is not identifying, told the committee that a payment from Gaetz was for sex, while others have said they were paid to attend parties that Gaetz also attended and that featured drugs and sex, multiple sources told ABC News.
Gaetz has long denied all of the allegations, including paying for sex, and previously dismissed them by claiming "someone is trying to recategorize my generosity to ex-girlfriends as something more untoward." The Justice Department informed Gaetz in 2023 that it was declining to bring charges against him after its yearslong investigation.
The House Ethics Committee declined to comment. Florida attorney Joel Leppard of Leppard Law confirmed his client was cooperating with the committee, but declined to comment further.
The committeesubpoenaed the Justice Departmentearlier this year for records related to its probe into the Florida congressman. Still, the department has resisted turning over the information, sources said.
However, the committee has obtained Gaetz's Venmo records after issuing the company a subpoena, sources tell ABC News. During the DOJ investigation into Gaetz, public reporting, including by The Daily Beast, largely focused on Venmo records from Greenberg, who according to his plea agreement used his account to "pay for commercial sex acts" with women he also introduced to others. The committee obtaining Gaetz's records, which ABC News has not seen, could help provide congressional investigators with a roadmap for payments the congressman may have made while he was friends with Greenberg.
On Tuesday, the House Ethics Committee provided an update on its investigation into Gaetz, detailing in a new statement on Tuesday that after speaking with over a dozen witnesses, issuing 25 subpoenas, and reviewing thousands of documents, the bipartisan panel will continue to review allegations including that the Florida congressman "engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use" and that he "sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct."
The committee also detailed that it will no longer pursue allegations that Gaetz "may have shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused state identification records, converted campaign funds to personal use, and/or accepted a bribe or improper gratuity."
When reached for comment, Gaetz's communications director pointed ABC News to the congressman'ssocial media poston Monday calling the House Ethics Committee "Soviet" and stating that "every investigation into me ends the same way: my exoneration."
Greenberg is currently serving an 11-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to multiple federal crimes, including the sex trafficking of a minor whom he admitted to introducing to other "adult men" who also had sex with her when she was underage. Justice Department investigators spent years looking into whether Gaetz was one of the men Greenberg introduced the minor to before declining to pursue charges against Gaetz in 2023.
Greenberg, who offered the Justice Department significant cooperation in its own probe, is cooperating with the House Ethics Committee probe into the Florida congressman, sources familiar with the committee's work tell ABC News.
At his sentencing in late 2022, Judge Gregory Persnell called Greenberg's degree of cooperation "more than I've seen in 22 years." Greenberg, a former Florida tax collector, was sentenced to 11 years in prison in late 2022 after pleading guilty to crimes including wire fraud, stalking and sex trafficking a minor.
Investigators have also asked multiple witnesses about a July 2017 party that ABC News first reported on. The committee obtained a sworn statement from a woman who said she attended the party in Florida that Gaetz also attended, sources said. Multiple witnesses have also told the committee that they saw Gaetz engage in illicit drug use at parties, sources said.
The committee first launched its probe into Gaetz in 2021 before putting it on hold as the Justice Department conducted its own investigation.
