Matt Gaetz attended drug parties with call girls at the home of a Seminole lobbyist, witnesses say

In the summer of 2017, Republican U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz of the Florida Panhandle attended a drug-filled party with paid chaperones hosted by former state Rep. Chris Dorworth at his Heathrow home, according to testimony in recently filed federal court documents.

One of the escorts who attended the meeting was the 17-year-old girl – known in court documents only as AB – at the center of the Joel Greenberg sex trafficking scandal. According to testimony cited in the documents, call girls roamed the premises and had “access to the bedrooms in the Dorworth residence to engage in sexual activity, as well as alcohol, cocaine, ecstasy, also known as molly, and marijuana.”

The filing, which emerged as part of Dorworth's April 2023 federal court lawsuit against his former friend Greenberg, contains some of the most extensive details yet made public about the sex trafficking controversy that has dogged Gaetz for several years.

But although witnesses see him at the scene of the illegal activity, the documents contain no allegations or evidence that Gaetz himself used illegal drugs or had sex with the underage girl. He has denied those allegations and federal investigators have not pursued them over the past year. In one document, the girl is quoted as saying she had sex with Dorworth for $1,000, an accusation that Dorworth, now a lobbyist, vehemently denied on Friday.

The story told in the documents — particularly in a document filed by Greenberg's ex-wife that recounts evidence gathered as part of the lawsuit — is lurid. It includes descriptions of two separate parties at Dorworth's house a week apart, both of which Gaetz attended, although AB is only mentioned as attending the first.

AB, 17, had just completed her penultimate year at a local high school and drove her mother's car through the security entrance of the upscale condominium at around 6:15 p.m. on July 15, 2017, the day of the first party.

Upon arrival, attendees were asked to place their cell phones in a large bowl on a counter, apparently to prevent photos and videos. As the party continued, AB was naked among the adult attendees, according to the document from Greenberg's ex-wife Abby, which was based on an affidavit from one of the escorts, identified as KM.

In addition to Gaetz, Dorworth and Greenberg were also at the party at the 8,000-square-foot, six-bedroom home on Whitstable Court, according to KM, as Greenberg had only taken office as Seminole tax collector six months earlier.

Jacob Bliss, a spokesman for Gaetz's office, said in a brief email to the Sentinel on Friday that Gaetz “was never involved in the alleged events.”

“If people say otherwise, they are either confused or they are lying,” Bliss said.

Dorworth eventually withdrew his federal lawsuit against Greenberg this month without giving a reason.

But now Greenberg's family and the other defendants are seeking to recover hundreds of thousands of dollars in attorneys' fees, court costs and other expenses they spent defending themselves against Dorworth's lawsuit, leading to the filing of hundreds of pages of documents Thursday evening.

Other material collected as part of the case remains under seal, including an interview with AB, but it is briefly quoted in the Abby Greenberg material. In that excerpt, the underage girl is quoted as saying that she engaged in “various sexual activities” with Dorworth at a Lake Mary hotel in the summer of 2017 while Joel Greenberg watched. She also says that “at the end of the encounter, Mr. Greenberg gave me an envelope with a thousand dollars in cash and said to me, 'This is from Chris,' or something like that.”

Dorworth denied ever meeting the girl in a text message interview with the Orlando Sentinel on Friday and reiterated his previous claim that he did not have sex with her. He also said he did not attend the July 15 party at his home.

“I wasn't there that night,” Dorworth said via text message. “I was at a friend's birthday party at a lake far away.”

However, attorneys for the defendants in Dorworth's federal lawsuit against Greenberg and his family and businesses presented evidence to Dorworth that he made several calls to an area in Maitland from a cell tower less than two miles from his Heathrow home on the afternoon of July 15, when the party took place. He received calls even closer to his home that evening, according to court documents.

A week later, on July 22, a second party was allegedly held at Dorworth's home, according to lawsuit documents filed by another escort named LP.

LP said Gaetz and Greenberg were present again, along with several other call girls and lobbyists. AB is not mentioned by LP

LP said she was also told to put her cell phone in a bowl on the counter when she entered the house.

“To my knowledge, this was done because the party guests did not want to take photos or videos of the event,” she said in her statement. “The party included alcohol, drugs, middle-aged men and young, attractive women.”

LP also does not accuse Gaetz of taking illegal drugs or having sex with the escorts.

The U.S. Department of Justice decided in February 2023 not to bring sex trafficking charges against Gaetz, whose first district is in the Florida Panhandle.

The decision came after The Washington Post reported that federal prosecutors had doubts about the credibility of witnesses, including Greenberg.

Nevertheless, a U.S. House Ethics Committee continues to investigate whether Gaetz actually had sex with AB when he was 17.

Greenberg was friends with Gaetz and Dorworth while serving as Seminole County tax collector from January 2017 to June 2020, when he resigned after being first indicted on several federal offenses.

The trio was often seen partying at Dorworth's house and eating at restaurants in Orlando and Tallahassee.

In the spring of 2019, they all visited Washington DC with their families and took photos with then-US President Donald Trump on the White House lawn.

AB is now 25 years old and lives in Colorado.

Greenberg is serving an 11-year sentence in federal prison after pleading guilty to identity theft, stalking, conspiracy to bribe a public official, and child sex trafficking in connection with AB.

Originally published: September 20, 2024 at 18:38