Matt Gaetz Reportedly Used ‘Adopted’ Son’s PayPal to Pay for Sex

It’s definitely never a good time to be Matt Gaetz, an alleged sex pest and person who literally makes my skin crawl, but I suspect this past week has been an especially rough time to be Gaetz. Good! I hope he can feel his soul rot.

On Monday, Florida attorney Joel Leppard, who represents the two women who testified before the House Ethics Committee that Gaetz paid them for sex, spoke to the Washington Post and revealed that America’s potential future attorney general used his “adopted” son’s PayPal to pay them.

I’ll back up: In addition to paying women for “sexual favors,” Gaetz has been accused of having sex with a 17-year-old at a party in 2017. The Department of Justice investigated the allegation between 2021 and 2023, ultimately choosing not to charge Gaetz. However, they didn’t offer an explanation or clear his name, they just said they were moving on. Meanwhile, the House Ethics Committee has been separately investigating these claims since 2023 and was reportedly ready to release its findings. But then Trump nominated Gaetz to attorney general on Wednesday and Gaetz quickly and quietly resigned from the House—meaning the committee no longer has jurisdiction over him and might never release the report.

Now, Leppard’s on a media tour to try and encourage the committee to release it. Leppard’s two clients both testified that Gaetz paid them for sex with him as well as other people at these “sex parties,” and that the payments continued through 2019.

“There were events at Airbnbs. There were events at individuals’ houses. There were events that took place at political events,” Leppard told CNN’s Erin Burnett. “There was a trip to New York. There’s a trip to Bahamas. So events like this did happen from time to time, perhaps over 10 times over the course of July 2017 to early January 2019.”

One of the women said she saw Gaetz have sex with the minor. “She testified to the House that as she was walking out to the pool area, she turned to her right and she witnessed … her friend having sex with Representative Gaetz,” Leppard said. “And her friend at that time was 17.”

As for Gaetz’s “adopted” son, Nestor Galban,? There’s no evidence that he actually adopted him, but Gaetz tweeted about him after freaking out at Rep. Cedric Richmond for saying he doesn’t know what it’s like to have a Black son. The Daily Beast recently summarized the ordeal:

Gaetz was unmarried and—as far as the public knew—childless at the time, so many were left scratching their heads after his exchange with Richmond. That same day, however, the Florida congressman took to Twitter to post a photo of someone he described as “my son Nestor,” a 19-year-old from Cuba who’d apparently lived with him for six years. “We share no blood but he is my life,” Gaetz said. He also emphasized in his post that Nestor came to Florida “legally.”

Gaetz and Nestor’s relationship has since been scrutinized, however. Nestor is the son of Gaetz’s ex-girlfriend and spent time living with both Gaetz and his blood family in Florida. Gaetz was also discovered to have described Nestor in social media posts as a “local student” in 2016 and as “my helper” in 2017.

Mr. Gaetz’s likely nomination as Attorney General is a perverse development in a truly dark series of events. We would support the House Ethics Committee immediately releasing their report. She was a high school student and there were witnesses.

— John Clune (@CluneEsq) November 14, 2024