CBS News
Two women told House ethics panel Gaetz sent Venmo payments “for sex” and asked about “party favors,” their attorney says
Two women interviewed by the House Ethics Committee about former GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to be attorney general, testified that Gaetz paid them directly and repeatedly in Venmo transactions “for sex,” and that those transactions were obtained by the committee, an attorney for the women told CBS News. The attorney, Joel Leppard, also said the women testified that Gaetz inquired in text messages about “party favors” and “vitamins” at upcoming parties, which was understood to be code for drugs.
Leppard, who is based in Orlando, said his clients testified that they attended parties from 2017 to January 2019 where Gaetz was present and sex and drug use took place. In an interview Monday with CBS News chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett, Leppard said one of his clients testified before the House Ethics Committee that she witnessed Gaetz having sex with a 17-year-old girl against a game table at a July 2017 party. Gaetz was sworn into Congress in January 2017, so all of the events the women allege took place while he was a member of the House.
Officials with the Trump transition team and attorneys for Gaetz did not respond to requests for comment Monday. One source familiar with Gaetz’s legal position questioned the credibility of the women and argued their recollections would not have withstood cross examination in court, had it come to that.
Gaetz, who has denied all wrongdoing, including having sex with a minor, has blasted the committee’s investigation against him and on Thursday called the testimony about him a “false smear.”
Gaetz’s conduct was also investigated by federal prosecutors, but they ended the probe in 2023 without filing charges.
As the House Ethics Committee weighs whether to release its report, which investigated allegations that Gaetz engaged in sexual misconduct, illicit drug use and bribery, Leppard said his clients want the public to know they are telling the truth.
One of his clients said in a text to Leppard, “‘Regardless of how many times he tries to distract from the truth, the public deserves to know that what we all experienced was real and actually happened.'”
“My clients are not political; they didn’t vote in the last two elections — they don’t care one way or another,” Leppard told Garrett. “But they do want the public to know that they are not lying. They did not come forward willingly — they have never spoken to anyone without a force of a legal subpoena.”
He continued, “And if the American people would know, then they could decide if that’s the person they want to be the next attorney general.”
One of Leppard’s clients is among at least four women who have told the committee they were paid to attend parties with drugs and sex where Gaetz was present, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. Her account corroborates the testimony of the then-minor, who told the committee that she had sex with Gaetz when she was 17 years old.
At the July 2017 party where his client alleges this occurred, Leppard said she and others were “at the party in order to provide entertainment, to be happy, to be lively and provide sexual favors for the gentlemen that were present.”
“The expectation was that they would have sexual intercourse,” Leppard said his clients testified about these parties. “They testified to the House that — and the House actually had their Venmo transactions, PayPal transactions, of Representative Gaetz.”
Leppard said the House panel asked the women about Gaetz’s PayPal and Venmo transactions.
“‘What was this for? What was this for,'” Leppard said his clients were asked.
“‘This was for sex,'” he said they responded. “‘This was for sex. This was for sex.'”
Leppard said the payments were typically between $200 and $500 at a time.
He said his clients also testified that sometimes, someone other than Gaetz would make a payment on his behalf. On at least one occasion, according to Leppard, that was Nestor Galban, a Cuban immigrant who is close to Gaetz and whom Gaetz has referred to as his “son.” He said other payments on Gaetz’s behalf were made by Gaetz associate Joel Greenberg, who was convicted in 2022 of sex trafficking of a minor and other crimes.
Leppard said his client who testified that she saw Gaetz having sex with the 17-year-old also told the panel she did not believe Gaetz was aware of her age at the time.
“My client, at least, testified that he did not know her age,” Leppard said.
Leppard’s client testified that she knew the 17-year-old girl and her age, and said the two attended high school together.
His client testified that she had sex with Gaetz after arriving at the July 2017 house party. Later during the party, his client testified, she was walking outside when she saw Gaetz having sex with her friend, the 17-year-old, against the gaming table.
Leppard said one of his clients provided more than 100 texts involving Gaetz to the committee. Frequently, Leppard said, the texts his client provided showed Gaetz would have to be reminded to pay.
“There was a lot of texts requesting payment, like, ‘Hey, when are you going to pay me?'” Leppard said. “Or, ‘I don’t want to be that girl, but can you please go ahead and pay me what we agreed upon?’ Text messages along those lines. The texts the House was more interested in was the ones where Representative Gaetz was seemingly requesting that drugs be present.”
“So, in my line of work as a criminal defense attorney, no one ever requests, ‘Can you give me some drugs, please?'” Leppard said. “They usually use code words. And so Representative Gaetz would use terms like, ‘Can you make sure that there are party favors present?’ Or, ‘Who’s in charge of party favors?’ He used the term ‘party favor mecca’ when he was referring to another individual who was bringing party favors. He also used the term ‘vitamins,’ I believe.”
Still, Leppard’s clients told the House panel they could not specifically recall whether they had seen Gaetz use marijuana or other drugs.
The texts also included a “lot of positive emojis,” Leppard said, like hearts, and “positive statements” back and forth between Gaetz, his clients and others. Leppard characterized the relationship with Gaetz as a complicated one, but also one of friendship, and he also told Garrett that his clients knew Gaetz’s girlfriend at the time.
“At least one of my clients testified that, in a sense, they were required to please Mr. Gaetz before going out and attending their [Electronic Dance Music] show,” Leppard said of one alleged occasion about which his client testified. “And that was something that was of particular interest to the House. Representative Gaetz’s girlfriend texted them, and they essentially took care of their duties, and later on, they went to see their show.”
Leppard said his clients have “been through heck” and are worried that if they testify before the Senate or anywhere else publicly, “they might not be safe in their jobs.”
The House Ethics Committee had planned to vote Friday, Nov. 15, on releasing its report, but the meeting was canceled after Trump announced his intention Wednesday to nominate Gaetz, and then a few hours later, the Florida Republican abruptly resigned from Congress.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said Friday he would “strongly request” that the House Ethics Committee withhold the report on its investigation into Gaetz. The committee has equal representation among Democrats and Republicans — five Democrats and five Republicans.
Democratic and Republican senators who would vote on Gaetz’s confirmation as attorney general have said they want access to the ethics panel’s report.
contributed to this report.
Frito-Lay is recalling a limited number of 13 oz. bags of Lay’s Classic Potato Chips after being alerted by a consumer contact that the product may contain undeclared milk.
The bags of chips affected by recall were distributed to certain retail stores and e-commerce distributors in Oregon and Washington and were available for sale beginning Nov. 3, 2024.
“Those with an allergy or severe sensitivity to milk run the risk of a serious or life-threatening allergic reaction if they consume the recalled product,” the Food and Drug Administration said in the recall notice posted Thursday.
No allergic reactions related to the recall have been reported, according to the recall. Additionally, no other Lay’s products, flavors, sizes or variety packs are affected.
FDA
The recalled chips include Lay’s Classic Potato Chips, in flexible 13 oz. (368.5 grams) bags with UPC code 28400 31041, a “Guaranteed Fresh” date of 11 Feb 2025, and one of either two manufacturing codes: 6462307xx or 6463307xx.
General guidelines from the FDA advise consumers who have purchased any recalled food to dispose of the product or return it to the retailer for a full refund.
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What is the debt ceiling? Here’s why Trump wants Congress to abolish it before he takes office
Washington — President-elect Donald Trump, Vice President-elect JD Vance and billionaire Elon Musk blew up a GOP-backed deal to fund federal agencies into March, raising the pressure on Republican congressional leaders to craft a plan to avert a government shutdown just before the holidays.
In a statement Wednesday, Trump and Vance lambasted the agreement for including provisions favored by Democrats. But the incoming president and vice president also added a new, significant wrinkle to negotiations when they urged Congress to raise or abolish the debt ceiling now, instead of next year.
“Increasing the debt ceiling is not great but we’d rather do it on Biden’s watch,” Trump and Vance said in their statement. “If Democrats won’t cooperate on the debt ceiling now, what makes anyone think they would do it in June during our administration? Let’s have this debate now.”
What is the debt ceiling?
Set by Congress, the debt ceiling, or limit, is the maximum amount of money the U.S. Treasury is authorized to borrow to pay debts incurred by the federal government. Lifting the debt ceiling does not authorize new spending, but instead lets the government spend money on obligations that Congress has already been approved.
Failing to address the debt ceiling could lead the U.S. to default on its debt, which would have devastating effects on the economy. The government has never defaulted, and the Treasury typically uses accounting moves, known as “extraordinary measures,” to delay breaching the debt ceiling.
While raising the debt ceiling used to be routine, legislation addressing it has in recent years been used as leverage to force policy concessions and fuel debates over government spending.
Congress last addressed the debt ceiling in June 2023 as part of a legislative package negotiated by President Biden and then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. That deal suspended the debt ceiling through Jan., 1, 2025, ensuring any fight over it would take place after the 2024 elections.
The Treasury Department will likely implement extraordinary measures to stave off a default in the new year. It will also announce an “X date,” the estimated point at which the government will no longer be able to pay its obligations. The Economic Policy Innovation Center, a conservative think tank, projected in an analysis released Monday that it’s possible the debt limit will be reached by June 16.
While the Treasury Department’s use of extraordinary measures would give Congress more time to address the debt ceiling, Trump is now urging lawmakers to take action now, before he takes office.
Why does Trump want to raise the debt ceiling?
The president-elect will come into office with a legislative to-do list that includes securing the border and extending provisions of his signature Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which was enacted in 2017 and overhauled the tax code. But a fight over the debt ceiling could complicate efforts by the Republican-led House and Senate to focus on those legislative initiatives and pass them quickly.
Trump is urging lawmakers to eliminate the debt ceiling altogether, a position that some prominent Democrats have endorsed in the past.
“Number one, the debt ceiling should be thrown out entirely,” Trump said in a phone interview Thursday with CBS News’ Robert Costa. “Number two, a lot of the different things they thought they’d receive [in a recently proposed spending deal] are now going to be thrown out, 100 percent. And we’ll see what happens. We’ll see whether or not we have a closure during the Biden administration. But if it’s going to take place, it’s going to take place during Biden, not during Trump.”
Trump separately told ABC News that “there won’t be anything approved unless the debt ceiling is done with,” indicating any spending deal to prevent a shutdown must address the debt limit.
“If we don’t get it, then we’re going to have a shutdown, but it’ll be a Biden shutdown, because shutdowns only [injure] the person who’s president,” he told ABC News.
Whether Republicans and Democrats would go along with such a plan, though, is far from clear. GOP lawmakers in both chambers have opposed raising the debt ceiling without spending reforms, and debates over the debt limit often give way to broader fights over the federal budget, which conservatives in Congress have said is bloated and should be reduced. Plus, Democrats still control the Senate and the White House.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement Wednesday that shutting down the government would harm families and endanger services Americans rely on.
“Republicans need to stop playing politics with this bipartisan agreement or they will hurt hardworking Americans and create instability across the country,” she said. “President-elect Trump and Vice President-elect Vance ordered Republicans to shut down the government and they are threatening to do just that — while undermining communities recovering from disasters, farmers and ranchers, and community health centers.”
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries suggested Democrats would not go along with a plan pushed by Republicans to raise the debt limit.
“GOP extremists want House Democrats to raise the debt ceiling so that House Republicans can lower the amount of your Social Security check. Hard pass,” the New York Democrat wrote on the social media platform Bluesky.
Jeffries also told reporters “the debt limit issue and discussion is premature at best.”
