THE BAHAMAS, ALLEGEDLY (The Daily Whatever Press) — On Thursday, two women filed a federal lawsuit accusing Matt Gaetz of sex trafficking. By that afternoon, Gaetz had posted a photo on Twitter of three young women in bikinis, shot from behind, with a woman’s name attached and the caption “Jane Doe Strikes Again!”
Then he told a Miami Herald reporter that he wasn’t actually sure the photo showed either Jane Doe.
So here is the crisis-communications strategy of a man who was nearly the attorney general of the United States. Two women sue you anonymously. You post the backsides of three women, name one of them, and a wink to your followers. Then you admit you have no idea who they are.
The plaintiffs’ lawyer, Spencer Kuvin, called it an intimidation tactic and said they would handle it in court. That was a restrained response. Mine would have used more words, and a lot of them would have had four letters.
What the lawsuit says
Everything in a civil complaint is an allegation. Gaetz has not been criminally charged. Yet. His response is that “much of the conduct alleged against me is false.” Remember the word much. We’ll come back to it.
According to the complaint, Jane Doe 1 was 20 and Jane Doe 2 was 22 when they were introduced to Gaetz in the summer of 2017. He was 15 and 13 years older than them. The suit names Gaetz, Joel Greenberg (then the Seminole County tax collector), former Florida state Rep. Chris Dorworth, and a handful of Greenberg family businesses. It alleges that from 2017 through January 2019, the men coordinated recruitment, payments, drugs, and travel to obtain sex from young women with no financial cushion. The trips went to Miami, Las Vegas, New York, and the Bahamas, the kind of itinerary you put together when you know exactly who can’t afford to say no.
Then there are the payments. Jane Doe 1 says she received more than $6,000 from Gaetz. Jane Doe 2 says she received more than $4,000. The payment descriptions allegedly included “Being my friend,” “car deductible,” and “Love you.”
“Love you.” That was the memo on a payment the lawsuit says was for sex.
Then there’s the detail that turns my stomach: Jane Doe 1 also alleges that she watched Gaetz have sex with a 17-year-old girl.
We already knew this
This story didn’t come out of nowhere. In 2021, Joel Greenberg pleaded guilty to six federal crimes, including sex trafficking of a child. He got 11 years and cooperated with investigators. In February 2023, the Justice Department closed its investigation of Gaetz without filing charges.
In November 2024, Donald Trump picked Gaetz to run that same Justice Department. Gaetz resigned from Congress the same day and withdrew from the nomination eight days later. In December, the House Ethics Committee released its report anyway. It found substantial evidence that Gaetz paid for sex and used illegal drugs. It found he paid roughly $90,000 to 12 women between 2017 and 2020. It also found substantial evidence that he had sex with a 17-year-old girl.
The committee did not find a federal sex-trafficking violation, and that matters. It’s part of why two women are now asking a federal court to look again. Gaetz has said he “NEVER had sexual contact with someone under 18,” in capital letters, the way people type when they really mean it.
Here’s where the dots connect. A congressional committee found substantial evidence of sex with a minor. Gaetz denied it in all caps. Now a woman says, under her own legal risk, that she was in the room and saw it.
Oh. Oh no.
And fucking Florida keeps rewarding him
You might think that kind of record would end a public career. It hasn’t.
He got a show on One America News. Then, in June, Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez appointed him to a four-year term on the board of Triumph Gulf Coast. Triumph is the state-created nonprofit that hands out Deepwater Horizon oil-spill settlement money, a little over $100 million a year through 2033, to eight Panhandle counties. Gaetz’s father, Don, sat on the original board and chaired it from 2018 to 2022.
“I am returning to public service!” Matt announced on X. The exclamation point is his.
So the man the House Ethics Committee says paid women for sex now helps decide where the oil-spill money goes, on a board his dad used to run. It’s a family tradition, I guess.
Those of us who grew up on after-school specials and stranger-danger filmstrips know the warning by heart. Don’t take candy from the creepy guy with the van. Nobody ever made the filmstrip about the creepy guy with the congressional pin, the friends in high places, and a memo line that says “Love you.” Women didn’t need that filmstrip. We already knew the story. We just could never get anyone in power to air it.
“Much” of it
Let’s go back to that statement. “Much of the conduct alleged against me is false.” He didn’t say all of it. He said much. That’s a word you choose when your lawyer has read the complaint.
Gaetz also says the lawsuit relies almost entirely on a congressional report that didn’t let him confront his accusers, and that “now I will finally have that chance.” He confronted them on Thursday. He did it with a photo of women who may not even be them, which means some woman out there, who may have nothing to do with any of this, is now a punchline for a former congressman’s followers. That isn’t confronting your accusers. It’s pointing a crowd at a stranger and seeing what happens.
I’d like to tell my daughters that when two women walk into federal court, the man they’re accusing doesn’t get to do that. I’d like to tell them a lot of things.
Gaetz never had any trouble finding words for women. He wrote “Love you” on the payments and “Jane Doe Strikes Again!” on the photo. He says he’s looking forward to depositions.
Keep on posting, Matt.
The judge is reading. And so are we.
Hi, I’m Dana — and I Write Out Loud
I Write Out Loud is my primary home for cultural memoir, personal essays, and live conversations about the strange, brave process of becoming yourself in midlife. If you like essays with a point of view and apex pulse, you’ll find plenty to read there.
And if you enjoyed this story — why not buy me a coffee? ☕
{Make mine a decaf iced oat milk mocha, please!}
Thanks for stopping by!
We’re Dana DuBois and Lawrence Winnerman, lifelong BFFs and co-hosts of The Daily Whatever Show — our independent home for smart, irreverent conversations about culture, politics, media, creativity, relationships, aging, and whatever else is shaping modern life this week.
We’re live every Friday at 10am ET with thoughtful analysis, sharp interviews, cultural commentary, humor, and the kind of conversations that don’t pretend everything is fine when it clearly isn’t.
If you’re enjoying what we’re building, please consider supporting our work with a paid subscription. Your support helps us keep the show independent, book fascinating guests, and continue creating smart conversations with your morning coffee.
We love you — mean it!
Weird looking freak
What a pos!