Matt Gaetz Hacker Claims: What We Know

A hacker has reportedly accessed a file containing damaging testimony about former Florida Congressman and attorney general nominee Matt Gaetz, including sworn testimony from a woman claiming she had sex with him at age 17.
According to The New York Times, the information was downloaded on Monday afternoon but has not yet been made public.
The material, which includes 24 exhibits, comes from investigations carried out by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the House Committee on Ethics, the latter of which is due to meet Wednesday to decide whether to release the material it has gathered.
The House Committee on Ethics told Newsweek it had no comment to make. Newsweek reached out to the DOJ and Gaetz’s office for further comment Tuesday afternoon.
A source told the Times that someone named Altam Beezley accessed the investigation files on Monday, at around 1:23 p.m.
A lawyer connected to the case tried to send an email to the address associated with Beezley, but an automated reply came back saying the address did not exist.
The hacker was reportedly able to access the files through a secure link shared among lawyers representing those who have given testimony against Gaetz.
The file contained 24 unredacted exhibits relating to the investigations into the former Congressman, who is President-elect Donald Trump’s favorite for attorney general come January.
Within those exhibits is the sworn testimony from a woman who claimed she had sex with Gaetz in 2017, when she was 17, alongside another woman’s testimony that she witnessed the event.
Hacked files included details from the DOJ’s investigation, which has not led to any charges filed, as well as the House Committee on Ethics’ inquiry.
Alongside these, the Times said, were files from a civil suit filed against the two women mentioned previously by a friend of Gaetz, Florida businessman Christopher Dorworth.
He is also suing Joel Greenberg, another Gaetz ally who is serving 11 years in prison for child sex trafficking, for allegedly making false claims about Dorworth after he refused to help him secure a pardon from Trump.
Much of the information is related to this case, but the Times reported it was more damaging to Gaetz than the other parties involved.
As of early Tuesday afternoon, the files had not been shared and a motive for the hack remained unclear.
The Ethics Committee’s report could be released Wednesday anyway, after growing pressure to make it public following Gaetz’s nomination for attorney general.
It is unclear whether that will happen, however, following his resignation from Congress, although the committee has allowed more sitting members to see its findings in recent days.