Hacker got damaging sealed testimony against Matt Gaetz, attorney says

PENSACOLA, Fla. ? Files containing statements from witnesses who gave damaging testimony against former Rep. Matt Gaetz, President-elect Donald Trump's pick for attorney general, were hacked on Monday, attorneys say.

The hacked files include an unredacted deposition of a woman who reportedly claimed to have had sex with Gaetz when she was 17.

The attorneys are involved in a federal defamation lawsuit against former Seminole County Tax Collector Joel Greenberg brought by former state lawmaker and lobbyist Chris Dorworth in 2023. The lawsuit accuses Greenberg, who is serving an 11-year prison sentence for sex trafficking, and several of Greenberg's family members of "conspiring with Joel’s sex trafficking victim ... to falsely accuse Dorworth and Gaetz of sexual misconduct."

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Greenberg's attorney, Fritz Wermuth, notified other attorneys in the case that unredacted documents were accessed from a secure document sharing service by an "unauthorized third party" on Monday afternoon.

In an email obtained by the USA TODAY Network to attorneys in a Florida defamation lawsuit, Wermuth warns that unredacted files with depositions of several witnesses were accessed.

"The exhibits included, for instance, unredacted copies of the deposition transcripts" of three witnesses, including the alleged trafficking victim, Wermuth wrote in the email.

Witnesses in the case said the 17-year-old alleged trafficking victim had "access to the bedrooms in the Dorworth Residence to engage in sexual activities" as well as "alcohol, cocaine, ecstasy also known as molly, and marijuana."

Several of the witnesses in the defamation case have also testified before the House Ethics Committee.

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Florida Attorney Joel Leppard told ABC News on Monday that he represents two women who testified that Gaetz paid them for sex through Venmo, and one witness said she saw Gaetz having sex with her then 17-year-old friend at a Florida house party in July 2017.

Gaetz has vehemently and repeatedly denied the allegations.

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The House Ethics Committee is expected to meet Wednesday behind closed doors to discuss whether to release its report on the allegations against Gaetz. Speaker Mike Johnson has publicly urged the bipartisan committee to not release the report because Gaetz is no longer a member of the House. House Ethics Chair Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss., told Politico the committee would make its own decision regardless of what Johnson said.

There is an ongoing battle in federal court to release the unredacted depositions that give full details of the accounts of a "sex party" at Dorworth's house in Central Florida on July 15, 2017.

Wermuth told attorneys in his email that the hacker appeared to use the name Altam Beezly, which was connected to a fake email address.

"I have not been able to identify the person who downloaded the files, but I have contacted the email address provided, asking the person to identify him or herself, instructing that their access is not authorized, and telling them that they should destroy the materials they downloaded," Wermuth wrote. "My email was returned because the email address was not found."

Tim Jansen, a Tallahassee attorney who represents an ex-girlfriend of Matt Gaetz's and was caught up in the lawsuit, received the email from Wermuth late Monday.

“We are concerned that documents, transcripts or other evidence collected in this case that were supposed to be protected and sealed have now been hacked," Jansen told the USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida. "We do not authorize the release of such material on behalf of my client."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Matt Gaetz accusers' sealed testimony hacked, attorneys say