Matt Gaetz allegedly took two women to see Pretty Woman on Broadway after he flew them out to New York City and paid them for sex, an attorney representing the women has claimed.
Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general has been battling allegations of sexual misconduct – which he denies – for years, which could hurt his chances at Senate confirmation hearings next year.
While pressure is now mounting for a House Ethics Committee investigation report to be released, Trump is standing by his choice and is personally lobbying congressional Republicans to make sure his choice is approved in the upper chamber.
Joel Leppard, an attorney for the two women who gave closed-door testimony to the House Ethics Committee, told ABC News new details about his clients’ alleged encounters with the man who could soon become the nation’s top law enforcement officer.
Leppard said the women testified that Gaetz paid them to cross state lines and have sex with him on at least two occasions.
In January 2019, Gaetz brought the women – who were adults at the time – to visit the Fox News studios in the city before he appeared on the show Outnumbered, Leppard claims.
Afterwards, he took them to dinner and then to see Pretty Woman – the plot of which involves a wealthy businessman who falls for a sex worker.
“[The women] testified that they met up with Matt Gaetz in New York in January of 2019 for his appearance on Fox News,” Leppard told ABC.
“Gaetz paid them for the tickets to come to New York for the trip. They were asked to go and have sex with Rep Gaetz, and then they could go out and see a show that they wanted to see that night. So essentially, take care of things, and then later on, they could have their fun.”
According to ABC, Gaetz appeared in the Fox studio on January 4 2019 – the same day the women claimed they were with Gaetz in New York – and Pretty Woman was running on Broadway at the time.
“Both of my clients testified that they had sex with Rep. Gaetz and that the payments they received from him were in part for sexual favors,” Leppard added.
The lawyer, summarizing what the women allegedly told the ethics committee, said that Gaetz allegedly had sex with them on approximately 10 to 15 occasions at “drug-fueled parties,” or on trips to New York or the Bahamas, and were paid “on many occasions by the congressman.”
“They did testify to the House that that was their understanding of the payments, that that’s why they were there, to provide a good time, to have fun, be free and to have sex with the gentlemen who were present, including Rep. Gaetz,” Leppard said.
The men who attended the parties, according to Leppard, were aged between 30 to 50, while the women were between the ages of 19 and 21.
The Independent has contacted the Trump transition team for comment.
In a statement, Trump transition spokesperson Alex Pfeiffer denied the allegations to ABC. “These are baseless allegations intended to derail the second Trump administration,” Pfeiffer said. “The Biden Justice Department investigated Gaetz for years and cleared him of wrongdoing.”
Pfeiffer also maintained that “Matt Gaetz will be the next Attorney General.”
Leppard said that his clients were not forced into doing anything and their sexual interactions with Gaetz were fully consensual.
“They did testify that everything they did was consensual, that they were never forced to do anything,” Leppard told ABC. “They did testify that the drugs sometimes impaired their judgment, and that they were expected to do drugs, but then they were never forced to do drugs, but that the drugs made it easier to do what they were doing.”
Gaetz was the subject of a Department of Justice sex trafficking investigation for several years, though prosecutors ultimately never brought charges against the Florida congressman. He vehemently denies the allegations.
The ethics committee was set to release the findings of its probe late last week but Gaetz’s abrupt resignation from Congress – as soon as his attorney general nomination was announced – effectively ended it.
Now its members are expected to convene on Wednesday, as calls grow from both Democrats and Republicans for the report to be made public.
Leppard said he hopes that a media blitz of findings from the congressional investigation into the nation’s next potential top law enforcement official “puts a lot of pressure on the panel to release the report.”
“My clients have already been through this several times and they really, really do not want to testify again, especially not on the floor of the Senate,” he told Politico.
