WASHINGTON. An unauthorized person gained access to a file containing confidential testimony from women who have brought allegations against former Congressman Matt Gaetz, Donald Trump’s pick to be the next attorney general, a lawyer said Tuesday.
Attorneys involved in a civil case brought by Goetz’s partner were notified this week that an unauthorized person had accessed a file shared by the attorneys that included an unredacted statement from a woman who said Goetz had sex with her when she was 17. , and a second woman who says she saw the encounter, according to attorney Joel Leppard.
Goetz has denied the allegations, and the Justice Department dropped its sex-trafficking investigation without bringing any criminal charges against him. An attorney representing Goetz said he would not answer any questions when contacted by The Associated Press on Tuesday.
The apparent breach comes as Goetz faces intense scrutiny over allegations that threaten to complicate his path to confirmation as the nation’s top federal law enforcement officer. Several Senate Republicans have expressed concern about his nomination or have so far declined to say publicly whether they would support him.
The files the person was able to access are part of a defamation case brought by Goetz’s partner against Goetz’s former political ally Joel Greenberg, who pleaded guilty in 2021 to underage sex trafficking and admitted to paying at least one underage girl to have sex with him. by him and other men.
An email notifying the lawyers of the apparent breach said the files were downloaded by someone named “Altham Beasley” and when the lawyer emailed the person asking to identify himself, the email was returned because the email address was not found The apparent breach was first reported on Tuesday by The New York Times.
Lepard said this week that two women he represents told House Ethics Committee investigators that Goetz repeatedly paid them for sex beginning in 2017, when Goetz was in Congress.
According to Leppard, one of the women testified that she saw him having sex with a 17-year-old girl at a party in Florida in 2017. Leppard said his client testified that she didn’t think Goetz knew the girl was a minor, ended their relationship when he found out and didn’t resume it until she was 18. The age of consent in Florida is 18.
A Trump spokesman said Tuesday that these were “baseless allegations designed to derail the second Trump administration,” adding that the Justice Department “investigated Gaetz for years and cleared him of wrongdoing.”
Trump’s selection of Gaetz rattled many career Justice Department lawyers, who privately expressed concern that he would lead the same agency that investigated allegations of the trafficking of underage girls. Trump, who has opposed the Justice Department over two criminal cases brought against him, called Goetz the right person to “root out systemic corruption” at the agency.
The House Ethics Committee began investigating Gaetz in April 2021, delayed its work in response to a request from the Justice Department, and resumed shortly after Gaetz announced that the Justice Department was closing its sex-trafficking investigation. The committee’s investigation effectively ended last week when Goetz resigned from Congress shortly after Trump nominated him for attorney general.
Over the summer, the committee made an unusual public disclosure about its long-running investigation, saying its review now included whether Goetz engaged in sexual harassment and illegal drug use, accepted improper gifts and attempted to obstruct government investigations into his conduct.