Matt Gaetz Has a $900 Problem.

The thing about acting as if you’re above the law is that you never truly are, even if you’re a Congressmember. Matt Gaetz’s legal woes deepened considerably in the last 24 hours, primarily because he left a pretty obvious electronic trail with his friend and associate, Joel Greenberg, the disgraced former Seminole County Tax Collector. Greenberg is currently under arrest and charged with 33 federal counts of sex trafficking, fraud, identity theft and stalking, among other crimes. Authorities now believe Greenberg acted as a conduit for Gaetz, arranging sexual partners in exchange for cash.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), early last year mocking pandemic precautions. He is not reviewing Venmo transactions. Photo from Gaetz’s Twitter Account.

Gaetz has maintained that he never paid women for sex, but this is starting to sound very Clinton-esque in its parsing. If Gaetz paid Greenberg, who then paid women with whom he arranged for Gaetz to have sex, this is essentially the same as paying for sex, but through a pimp. The case against Gaetz just got a lot more interesting thanks to a set of curious Venmo charges back in 2018. (These charges were publicly available until very recently, when they suddenly were deleted.)

As The Daily Beast reports, late one evening in May 2018, Gaetz sent Greenberg the sum of $900 in two separate payments via the app Venmo. The first he marked as “Test” in the memo field, and the second with “Hit up ____” (the nickname of the young woman was withheld due to the girl’s age at the time). The very next morning, over the course of eight minutes, Greenberg sent a total of $900 to three young women with the notes, “Tuition,” “School,” and “School.”

Creepiness aside, Gaetz's electronic financial trail is likely to be front and center in any charges brought against him, curiously echoing the financial clues that his idol and mentor Donald Trump left with respect to allegations of tax and bank fraud and hush-money payments to adult film stars. While Gaetz and Trump lie often and habitually, the numbers evidencing their activities are fixed and could tell a very clear story to a jury.

Gaetz insists that it was not wrong for him to be generous to his sexual partners, but outright cash payments in exchange for sex are actually still illegal in the state of Florida, so this particular set of exchanges looks fairly damning. And Greenberg is now cooperating fully with prosecutors, which is also very bad news for Gaetz. Prosecutors would not cut a deal with Greenberg unless he could deliver Gaetz (or someone even higher), that much is nearly certain. Greenberg can now fill in the blanks for what precisely was going on with these payments, whether there was more such activity, and what other illegal acts Gaetz was involved in with him—and who else might be implicated.

One question many observers have is whether Greenberg’s prior illegal use of surrendered Florida State Driver’s Licenses to create fake ID cards involved his friend, Congressmember Gaetz, in any way. Gaetz stands accused of sex trafficking a girl under the age of 18, so the possible tie-in to Greenberg’s Fake ID scheme, reported earlier last year, is an interesting angle for prosecutors to explore. No doubt Greenberg will also be shedding light on this for federal prosecutors, possibly putting Gaetz in even greater legal jeopardy. 

Indeed, Greenberg’s lawyer was asked point-blank by reporters yesterday, “Does Matt Gaetz have anything to worry about?” Greenberg’s attorney hemmed and stalled for a good moment, repeating the reframed questions as if buying time, and then finally admitting he was simply hoping to be able to keep talking without actually having to answer. Finally, he conceded, “I’m sure Matt Gaetz is not feeling very comfortable today.” That moment is worth watching here, if only for its telling awkwardness and serious implications for Gaetz.