Matt Gaetz' crime partner has decided he's not going down alone

A confession letter written by Joel Greenberg in the final months of the Trump presidency claims that he and close associate Rep. Matt Gaetz paid for sex with multiple women—as well as a girl who was 17 at the time.

“On more than one occasion, this individual was involved in sexual activities with several of the other girls, the congressman from Florida’s 1st Congressional District and myself,” Greenberg wrote in reference to the 17-year-old.

“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.”

  Daily Beast

Does Gaetz have his passport up to date?

The letter, which The Daily Beast recently obtained, was written after Greenberg—who was under federal indictment—asked Roger Stone to help him secure a pardon from then-President Donald Trump.

A series of private messages starting in late 2020—also recently obtained by The Daily Beast—shows a number of exchanges between Greenberg and Stone conducted over the encrypted-messaging app Signal, with communications set to disappear. However, Greenberg appears to have taken screenshots of a number of their conversations.

Sounds like Greenberg knew Stone well.

“My lawyers that I fired, know the whole story about MG’s involvement,” Greenberg wrote to Stone on Dec. 21. “They know he paid me to pay the girls and that he and I both had sex with the girl who was underage.”

[...]

“If I get you $250k in Bitcoin would that help or is this not a financial matter,” Greenberg wrote to Stone, one message shows.

“I understand all of this and have taken it into consideration,” Stone replied. “I will know more in the next 24 hours I cannot push too hard because of the nonsense surrounding pardons.”

“I hope you are prepared to wire me $250,000 because I am feeling confident,” Stone wrote to Greenberg on Jan. 13.

In a text message to The Daily Beast, Stone said that Greenberg had tried to hire him to assist with a pardon, but he denied asking for or receiving payment or interceding on his behalf.

So...hoping to get $250,000 because he was confident was about what exactly?

[In a draft letter, Greenberg] claimed that he, Gaetz, and others had sex with a minor they believed to be 19 at the time. Greenberg said he learned she was underage on Sept. 4, 2017, from “an anonymous tip” and quickly contacted Gaetz.

“Immediately I called the congressman and warned him to stay clear of this person and informed him she was underage,” Greenberg wrote. “He was equally shocked and disturbed by this revelation.”

Greenberg continued in the handwritten draft that he “confronted” the then-17-year-old and explained to her “how serious of a situation this was, how many people she put in danger.”

“She apologized and recognized that by lying about her age, she endangered many people,” he continued. “There was no further contact with this individual until after her 18th birthday.”

[...]

But after she reached the age of legal consent in Florida, Greenberg re-established contact. As The Daily Beast previously reported, about five months after her 18th birthday, Gaetz sent Greenberg $900 in two Venmo transactions—one titled “Test” and the other titled “hit up ___.” The blank contained a nickname for this girl, and Greenberg paid her and two other women a total of $900 about six hours later.

In his confession letter, Greenberg also admitted he facilitated Gaetz’s interactions with college students—and paid them on his behalf.

I'm confused. Is this the same girl he claimed in the first reported letter, admitting she was 17? Or another girl?

The Daily Beast also talked to 12 of the more than 40 different women who received money, and they all said they understood Greenberg was paying them at least in part for sex.

Greenberg, a disgraced local politician in Florida, currently faces a sweeping 33-count indictment that ranges from stalking to sex trafficking.

[...]

The messages [between Greenberg and Stone] show that in November, the pair discussed putting together a “document,” which later took the form of a confession letter and background missive about all the ways in which Greenberg had been loyal to Trump. In their early conversations, Greenberg told Stone that the letter was “about 8-10 pages” and asked if it should be shortened.

“No,” Stone replied, “use as much space as you need to tell the story fully but be certain to include your leader ship [sic] for Trump prominently.”

[...]

The letter went through multiple drafts and detailed Greenberg’s encounters with Gaetz, but it also focused on Greenberg’s early support of Trump’s run in 2016, such as posting a “Super Trump” highway billboard on Interstate 4. (A version of the letter actually includes the image Greenberg used for the billboard.)

On Nov. 20, 2020, Stone told Greenberg he had received “the document” and would show it to the team that “got me my commutation.”

“I will review it with them and give you a budget. This is very doable and the time is now,” Stone wrote.Federal prosecutors have not criminally charged Gaetz—or even publicly confirmed the expansion of their probe.

[...]

An update from Stone came just after midnight on Dec. 8: “Your thing is being looked at and I will have an answer by Saturday as to whether you have a viable shot for justice and how to go about it.”

“Thank you so much Roger,” Greenberg replied. “I am very thankful for you. I pray that the Lord will help. I remain optimistic and will wait to hear back from you.”

Stone quickly sought to dampen expectations surrounding “the whole pardon circus.”

“This is treacherous territory with a lot of different players such as Jared and Giuliani playing a hand,” Stone wrote, presumably referring to Trump adviser Jared Kushner and the president’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. “I have two things I’m trying to get done. Sit tight.”

So...he wasn't involved in interceding for Greenberg, eh? If true, that would mean he was just lying to Greenberg and hoping for money. Would that be extortion?

A distressed Greenberg told Stone that he felt “abandoned" by his allies, but emphasized that Gaetz—who was “like a son” to the president of the United States—could save him: “One conversation with POTUS and he can get this done and it all goes away.”

Greenberg said that while he had discussed pardons with Gaetz’s lawyer, he had not heard a reply and would “have to do what’s best for me and my family” after Trump left office.

[...]

It’s unclear if money was ever exchanged, but Greenberg offered to pay extra if Stone could, in fact, get him a pardon.“If you can get this done today I’ll add another 50k,” Greenberg texted Stone. In a subsequent message, Stone wrote that White House lawyer Pat Cipollone had taken Greenberg’s name out of the list of hundreds of people who might be pardoned. Cipollone didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment Thursday, but according to three people familiar with the matter, Greenberg’s name repeatedly made it to the Trump White House for a presidential pardon. The Daily Beast was shown an image of one such list, and Greenberg’s name and a favorable mini-profile were indeed included.

[...]

“What I don’t understand is why [Gaetz] would not help me at all and actually told me not to help you which I tried to do anyway. In the end it would not have mattered. Cipollone killed everything we wanted to get done and that includes stuff MG wanted,” Stone wrote.

[...]

“Ok. He actually said not to help me? Wow,” Greenberg replied.

“If you repeat it you’re really going to hurt me,” Stone warned.

“I won’t Roger. I don’t and haven’t talked to him. I won’t,” Greenberg said.

Nobody would help poor Joel Greenberg. The ride was over.

“Urge you to be very careful,” Stone said at the end of his text [to this reporter]. “I will take any appropriate legal action in the event that you publish anything that is false or defamatory. Sounds to me like you have been presented some kind of cut and paste record.”

Sure, Roger. Sure.

While Gaetz acknowledges the existence of the investigation, he denies having sex with an underage teen. But at some point, Greenberg began to cooperate with investigators, a development his lawyer has suggested poses a serious problem for Gaetz.

Get that passport read, Matt.

And perhaps you, too, Roger.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

Does it end in Argentina?