Gaetz associate pleads guilty to sex trafficking charges
Source: AP
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A Florida politician who emerged as a central figure in the Justice Department’s sex trafficking investigation into Rep. Matt Gaetz pleaded guilty Monday to six federal charges and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors as part of a plea deal.
Joel Greenberg, a longtime associate of Gaetz, appeared in federal court in Orlando. He pleaded guilty to six of the nearly three dozen charges he faced, including sex trafficking of a minor, and he admitted that he had paid at least one underage girl to have sex with him and other men.
Gaetz was not mentioned in the plea agreement or during the court hearing. But Greenberg’s cooperation — as a key figure in the investigation and a close ally of Gaetz — may escalate the potential legal and political liability that the firebrand Florida congressman is facing.
Federal prosecutors are examining whether Gaetz and Greenberg paid underage girls or offered them gifts in exchange for sex, according to two people familiar with the matter. Investigators have also been looking at whether Gaetz and his associates tried to secure government jobs for some of the women, the people said. They are also scrutinizing Gaetz’s connections to the medical marijuana sector, including whether his associates sought to influence legislation Gaetz sponsored.
Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/gaetz-associate-pleads-guilty-to-sex-trafficking-charges/ar-BB1gPunN?li=BBnb7Kz
Tick tock Matty.
= new reply since forum marked as read
By Lori Rozsa and Matt Zapotosky
May 17, 2021 at 11:06 a.m. EDT
ORLANDO — A Florida politician considered key to the investigation of Rep. Matt Gaetz formally pleaded guilty Monday to sex trafficking of a minor and a host of other crimes, agreeing to cooperate fully with prosecutors and testify in court in hopes of leniency for himself.
Appearing in court Monday, Joel Greenberg, a former tax collector for Seminole County, Fla., repeatedly said, “I do” in response to questions from the judge, affirming what he had already admitted in a written plea agreement made public last week. His plea and deal to cooperate is a potentially ominous sign for Gaetz, as it signals prosecutors have lined up a critical witness as they continue to investigate the congressman.
Greenberg was first charged last summer in a bare-bones indictment that accused him of fabricating allegations and evidence to smear a political opponent, but prosecutors superseded it multiple times as they uncovered more damaging evidence. He ultimately agreed to plead guilty to six criminal charges — including sex trafficking of a child, aggravated identity theft and wire fraud — which come with a mandatory minimum sentence of 12 years and a statutory maximum potentially decades longer.
In exchange, the prosecutors agreed to dismiss the other 27 counts Greenberg faced and recommend a term within federal sentencing guidelines, which are often far less than the statutory maximum penalties. They also agreed to recommend other possible sentencing breaks. If they determined, for example, that Greenberg provided “substantial assistance” in building other cases, they might ask a judge to deviate below the minimum required penalty, according to Greenberg’s plea agreement.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/matt-gaetz-joel-greenberg-guilty-plea/2021/05/17/b42e5a54-b70b-11eb-96b9-e949d5397de9_story.html
