A Palm Beach County attorney known for representing victims of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is representing two women accusing former Florida U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz of operating a sex-trafficking venture to exploit young women for sex acts.
The federal lawsuit filed Oct. 15 by attorney Spencer Kuvin of West Palm Beach said the women, identified as Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2, allege they were lured into the scheme by Gaetz, who now hosts a OneAmerica television show, and former Seminole County Tax Collector Joel Greenberg.
The civil complaint filed by Kuvin in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida claims Gaetz and Greenberg provided the women, who were ages 20 and 21 at the time, with money, drugs, parties and luxury trips
between 2017 and 2019.
The accusations in the lawsuit mirror a similar scheme and conduct examined by federal investigators while Gaetz represented the Pensacola area in the U.S. House.
That probe was later discontinued. Greenberg, however, pleaded guilty in 2021 to six federal charges, including sex trafficking of a minor, and received a sentence of 11 years in federal prison.
Gaetz left Congress in 2024 after President-elect Donald Trump nominated him to serve as U.S. attorney general. That nomination was withdrawn, and Trump instead chose former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi for the position. At the time, Gaetz was the subject of a U.S. House ethics investigation.
Matt Gaetz civil trafficking lawsuit follows on U.S. House findings
The House Ethics Committee probe, launched in 2021, concluded that Gaetz "regularly paid women for engaging in sexual activity with him" from 2017 through 2020. It documented more than $90,000 in payments to about a dozen women that it concluded were likely linked either to sexual activity or drug use.
The lawsuit also cites evidence reviewed by the committee showing Greenberg told investigators he and Gaetz shared costs for "drugs, hotels, and girls."
It was not immediately clear whether the two women Kuvin is representing were part of the U.S. House inquiry.
The complaint that Kuvin filed this month seeks an unspecified damages under the federal Frederick Douglass Trafficking Cities Protection Reauthorization Act, alleging the defendants used their wealth, political power and public offices to prey on the financially vulnerable young women.
"Every part of this venture ran on an exploitative power imbalance," the lawsuit states. "On one side stood a sitting congressman, an elected tax collector, and a former state legislator, men with public office, private homes, and money to spend. On the other, stood young financially vulnerable women in their early twenties."
"The venture assumed that women with so little would never be believed over men with so much," it added.
The former state legislator to whom the lawsuit refers is Rep. Chris Dorworth, a friend of Gaetz and Greenburg whose Central Florida home was the scene of a 2017 party where Gaetz and one of the women reportedly had sex. Dorworth was in line to become the speaker of the Florida House before he was upset in a reelection bid.
The women claim the alleged conduct caused lasting emotional and psychological trauma, requiring mental health treatment. Kuvin said that because he filed the matter in civil court, he can seek to depose Gaetz, Greenberg and Dorworth.
Gaetz denied the allegations and vowed in a prepared statement to fight the claims in court. He said he was eager to depose his accusers as well.
“I look forward to taking the plaintiffs' depositions because much of the conduct alleged against me is false,” Gaetz said in the statement, reported by multiple news outlets. He argued the case relies heavily on congressional ethics findings that he has long been disputed.
Attorney Spencer Kuvin says lawsuit targets abuse of public trust
Kuvin, the chief legal officer at the Goldlaw firm in West Palm Beach, represented nine Epstein victims, including "Victim No. 1," the first girl to report Epstein to Palm Beach police in 2005.
Her accusations launched the initial investigation that brought down the Palm Beach financier, who died by suicide in a New York jail cell in 2019.
Kuvin also represented high-profile celebrities such as the model Chloe Goins in her sex-abuse lawsuit against the comedian Bill Cosby. He called the Gaetz-Greenburg case "sad, but it's also infuriating."
"Whether it's Epstein, Cosby, Gaetz, I see men who just seem to think that with money and power they are above the law and that seems to be repeated over and over again," he said. "I want to stress no one's above the law, and no victim is beneath its protection."
In this case, he said the fact that one of the accused was serving in Congress adds another feature — the violation of public trust.
"We want the best and brightest leading us. We don't want people that are engaging in sex acts online, in person, and trafficking young girls across state and country borders," Kuvin said. "That's not what we expect out of our representatives."
Valentina Palm covers immigration and breaking news for The Palm Beach Post. Email her at vpalm@pbpost.com and follow her on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, at @ValenPalmB. Support local journalism: Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: West Palm attorney files sex-trafficking lawsuit against Matt Gaetz
