Update:
Joel Leppard, a lawyer for the women, told ABC News that his clients testified to the House Ethics Committee that Gaetz paid twice for them to travel across states to have sex with him.
Leppard told ABC that Gaetz paid the women’s tickets to New York City in January 2019 for his appearance on Fox, with the promise of seeing a show afterward.
“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,” Leppard said. “So essentially, take care of things, and then later on, they could have their fun.”
ABC News was able to verify that Gaetz was in the Fox News studio to appear on the show “Outnumbered” on January 4, 2019, while Pretty Woman, which is about a man who falls in love with a prostitute, was still playing on Broadway.
“She testified [that] in July of 2017, at this house party, she was walking out to the pool area, and she looked to her right, and she saw Rep. Gaetz having sex with her friend who was 17,” Leppard told ABC News.
Leppard added that House investigators placed screenshots of Venmo payments on a screen during a hearing and asked his clients to give a reasoning for each payment. Leppard said they’d respond each time, “‘That was for sex.’”
“On more than one occasion, this individual was involved in sexual activities with several of the other girls,” Greenberg wrote in his confession, identifying Gaetz as “the congressman from Florida’s 1st Congressional District.”
Greenberg added, “From time to time, gas money or gifts, rent or partial tuition payments were made to several of these girls, including the individual who was not yet 18. I did see the acts occur firsthand and Venmo transactions, Cash App or other payments were made to these girls on behalf of the Congressman.”
At another point, Greenberg wrote that his lawyers “know he paid me to pay the girls” and “that he and I both had sex with the girl who was underage.”