sextrafficking – COOPER GENERAL NEWS

Seminole County tax collector Joel Greenberg speaks to the Orlando Sentinel during an interview at his Lake Mary, Florida office. Greenberg was accused of trafficking a minor, persecuting a political opponent, producing forged ID, identity theft, embezzlement and bribery.

Joe Burbank | Orlando Sentinel | AP, file

Joel Greenberg, a former Florida tax collector and employee of GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz, is expected to close a plea deal in his criminal case, his attorney and prosecutor said Thursday, NBC News reported.

The case against Greenberg, who had previously pleaded not guilty to having been charged with underage sexual trafficking, stalking, cable fraud and identity theft, among other things, prompted federal investigators to open an investigation into possible sexual trafficking by Gaetz, several outlets reported .

The signal of an upcoming plea came during a status conference on Greenberg’s case in Orlando. The defense attorney and prosecutor didn’t say whether Greenberg should work together on the Gaetz investigation, according to NBC.

“I’m sure Matt Gaetz is not feeling very well today,” Greenberg’s lawyer Fritz Scheller told reporters on Thursday afternoon.

Scheller declined to answer when a reporter asked, “Has your client Matt Gaetz introduced underage girls for sexual relations?”

A Gaetz spokeswoman did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request to comment on Scheller’s remarks.

The New York Times first reported last month that the Justice Department is investigating whether Gaetz had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl and paid for her travels with him.

NBC reported Wednesday that investigators are investigating whether women were being paid to travel to the Bahamas with Gaetz to have sex, and whether Gaetz and Greenberg were using the internet to look for women who could pay them to have sex .

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., Conducts a television news interview outside the Capitol building prior to voting on the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2020 on Thursday, June 25, 2020.

Bill Clark | CQ Appeal, Inc. | Getty Images

Gaetz has emphatically denied the “terrible” allegations in the Times, declaring on a Monday that he was “absolutely not stepping down from Congress”.

Gaetz has also claimed he was the victim of a multi-million dollar extortion program involving a former DOJ official. Law enforcement sources told NBC that a separate investigation is currently underway into these extortion claims.

A spokesman for Gaetz told CBS News on Wednesday evening that the congressman “never paid for sex and never had sex with an underage girl. What started with headlines about” sex trafficking “has now become a general fishing exercise about vacation consensual relationships with adults. “

On Thursday afternoon, Gaetz announced a statement from his office in which the embattled Republican was defended as a “principled and morally founded leader” and vowed to “stand by him”.

This statement is attributed to “the women of Congressman Matt Gaetz’s office” and does not identify any specific employees.

Meanwhile, Gaetz’s former advisor Nathan Nelson said Monday that he had been approached by FBI agents and questioned about the alleged involvement of the GOP legislature in illegal activities.

Nelson told reporters that he had never seen any such illegal behavior and that his departure from Gaetz’s office last fall had nothing to do with the DOJ investigation, which reportedly began during the final months of former President Donald Trump’s tenure.

Nathan Nelson, a former employee of U.S. Representative Matt Gaetz, speaks to the news media on April 5, 2021 in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida.

Colin Hackley | Reuters

A former Rep. Matt Gaetz employee said Monday that FBI agents contacted him last week shortly after it became known that the Florida Republican was involved in a federal investigation into the sex trafficking.

Nathan Nelson, Gaetz’s former director of military affairs, said two agents questioned him at his home after hearing from media officials that Nelson knew of Gaetz’s alleged involvement in illegal activities. The media tipsters told the FBI that Nelson resigned based on this knowledge, the ex-aide said.

“I’m here this morning to declare that nothing could be further from the truth,” Nelson said at a press conference in northwest Florida. “Neither I nor any other employee of Congressman Gaetz had knowledge of illegal activities.”

Nelson His departure from Gaetz’s office last fall had nothing to do with investigating the Justice Department’s allegations against the 38-year-old congressman. The investigation into whether Gaetz trafficked an underage girl began in the final months of former President Donald Trump’s tenure, the New York Times reported on Tuesday.

In response to CNBC’s report on Nelson’s statements, Gaetz slammed the FBI, claiming the agency had “literally false media rumors”.

“Sounds familiar?” Gaetz added. He and other Republicans have accused government agencies and officials of conservative bias in recent years. In 2019, Gaetz accused special adviser Robert Mueller, who led the investigation into Russian interference and possible collusion with Trump’s campaign in the 2016 elections, of attempting to “stop Trump”. That investigation, which did not find enough evidence to suggest a collusion between Trump and Russia, has since become a powerful symbol for Republicans feeling targeted by government institutions.

The FBI did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

In the meantime, Gaetz stated in a new comment that he was “absolutely not resigning” and “not being intimidated or blackmailed” by his political opponents.

Gaetz, an outspoken Trump loyalist, has previously denied having a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl and paying for her trips with him, and he remained defiant on Monday morning.

“Since it is my turn under the gun, I would like to address the allegations against me directly. First, I never paid for sex. And second, as a grown man, I did not sleep at the age of 17 -old,” wrote Gaetz in the Washington Examiner.

Last week, Gaetz said in a statement that he and his family are threatened in a multi-million dollar extortion program involving a former Justice Department official. Police officers told NBC News that the DOJ is pursuing a separate investigation into Gaetz’s allegations of blackmail.

The sex trafficking investigation with Gaetz emerged from another case involving his former associate, Joel Greenberg, a local Florida official who was charged on numerous charges last summer, including sex trafficking in a child.

Nelson said at the press conference that he was approached by federal agents the day after the Times first reported on alleged sex trafficking.

The former Gaetz aide said he knew nothing specific about the investigation and had never heard of Greenberg before last week’s reports. But the “unsubstantiated allegation” that led the FBI to approach him “continues to convince me” that the allegations against Gaetz “are also fabricated,” Nelson said.

Another Gaetz employee, communications director Luke Ball, resigned last week.

Nelson worked in Gaetz’s office for more than four years before leaving last October, according to his LinkedIn profile. He said Monday that his departure was planned.

Nelson told reporters he was still “loosely linked to Gaetz’s office as a military advisor” in an unpaid capacity, “but said he had not spoken to Gaetz in” several months “.

Gaetz’s office had arranged Nelson’s press conference.