联邦调查追踪盖茨向女性支付的款项
【中美创新时报2024年11月20日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）联邦调查人员准备的一份文件支持了女性的说法，她们称自己被候任总统唐纳德·J·特朗普选定的司法部长马特·盖茨雇佣进行性交易，但马特否认有任何不当行为。《纽约时报》记者Michael S. Schmidt对此作了下述报道。
根据《纽约时报》获得的一份文件和代表部分女性的律师的说法，联邦调查人员发现了候任总统唐纳德·J·特朗普选定的司法部长马特·盖茨向女性支付款项的线索，其中一些女性作证说盖茨先生雇佣她们进行性交易。
该文件是调查人员在对盖茨进行为期三年的性交易调查期间收集的，是一张图表，显示了盖茨与一群朋友、同事和女性在 2017 年至 2020 年期间通过 Venmo 支付的数千美元金额，这些女性举行了吸毒性派对。
据知情人士透露，在派对上，一些女性和一名当时 17 岁的女孩因性行为而获得报酬。
该文件支持了两名女性律师最近的说法，她们称自己与盖茨发生性关系是为了钱。它显示了盖茨向这两名律师的客户支付的数千美元金额。
42 岁的盖茨从 2017 年到上周一直代表佛罗里达州在国会任职。他坚决否认他们的账户，司法部结束了联邦调查，没有对他提出任何指控。当选副总统 JD Vance 周三陪同盖茨前往国会山，试图从共和党参议员那里争取对他的提名的支持，其中一些参议员对他能否获得提名表示怀疑。
这份文件是由众议院道德委员会获得的，该委员会于周三召开会议，要求公布一份关于盖茨的报告的压力越来越大，但对于是否公布报告却陷入僵局。
该文件的标题为“截至 2020 年 9 月 14 日所有个人之间的 VENMO 交易”，使用了盖茨、数十名女性和其他几名男性的缩略图来显示他们之间的付款方式。带箭头的线将男性和女性连接起来，显示了盖茨及其同伙向这些女性支付了多少钱等信息。
《纽约时报》获得的一张图表显示了联邦调查人员如何规划盖茨、他的同伙和女性之间的付款。《纽约时报》已删除了最初包括的大多数人的姓名和照片。
由于该部门拒绝对盖茨提出犯罪指控，调查期间收集的文件一直处于保密状态，因为该部门几乎从未公布执法机构在没有提出指控的调查中开发的材料。但众议院道德委员会在其对盖茨行为的广泛调查中获得了一份图表副本，包括他是否与当时 17 岁的盖茨发生过性关系。
特朗普的通讯主管 Steven Cheung 指责司法部披露了该文件，他声称该文件是机密文件，尽管它没有机密标记并且与国家安全无关。
“这种故意泄露机密调查材料的行为是司法部将政治化武器化的行为，Matt Gaetz 将终止这种行为，”张先生说。 “司法部调查盖茨多年，却未能发现犯罪行为，现在又泄露虚假信息，抹黑下一任司法部长。”
图表没有说明这些付款的用途，也没有显示盖茨向这名 17 岁女孩付款。但图表显示了当局认为盖茨及其同伙向其他女性支付的款项，其中包括两名女性，她们的律师表示，她们向众议院道德委员会作证说，她们与盖茨发生性关系以换取金钱。
多年来，公众都知道有女性声称盖茨付钱让她们做爱。2021 年，《纽约时报》披露了对盖茨的联邦性交易调查的存在后不久，该报报道称，调查人员正重点关注盖茨与多名在网上被招募进行性交易的女性的关系，以及她们如何获得报酬。
《纽约时报》当时报道称，它审查了来自移动支付应用 Cash App 和 Apple Pay 的收据，这些收据显示盖茨和他的同事兼朋友乔尔·格林伯格 (Joel Greenberg) 如何向其中一名女性支付性费用。
这些图表显示了通过 Venmo 进行的不同付款，并提供了联邦调查内部的第一份书面证据，显示了调查人员如何细致入微地审查盖茨的活动，不仅追踪他的付款，还追踪据称参与这些活动的一大群人的付款。
律师乔尔·莱帕德 (Joel Leppard) 说，他所代表的两名女性在众议院委员会作证时说，盖茨曾向她们支付性费用。莱帕德说，其中一名女性说，她目睹了盖茨与这名 17 岁的女孩发生性关系，但她不相信盖茨认为这名女孩未满 18 岁。
图表显示，莱帕德的一名客户收到了 4,025.27 美元，另一名客户收到了 3,500 美元。图表没有显示付款日期。这些金额似乎是这些女性从盖茨那里收到的几笔付款的总和；莱帕德说，这些女性每次与盖茨见面通常会得到 200 至 500 美元的报酬。
莱帕德在电话采访中证实，他的客户收到了盖茨通过 Venmo 支付的款项。美国广播公司新闻网早些时候报道了他关于这些付款的一些言论。
莱帕德说，除了 Venmo 付款外，他的客户还通过 PayPal 收到了盖茨的钱。他说，他最初以为他的客户收到了图表中列出的金额，但他说，当他的客户接受众议院委员会的采访时，发现委员会获得了其他证据，表明还有额外的付款。
他说，委员会掌握的记录显示，盖茨向其中一名客户支付了约 6,000 美元，向另一名客户支付了 4,000 美元。
他说，他相信委员会通过向 Venmo 和 PayPal 发送传票获得了付款信息。
该图表还有助于巩固盖茨的主要指控人、佛罗里达州前地方税务员格林伯格的证词。他在联邦调查中与司法部合作，告诉当局他和盖茨都与这名 17 岁的女孩发生过性关系，尽管他说他们认为她已经超过 18 岁。格林伯格于 2021 年对包括性交易在内的一系列指控认罪，并同意配合对盖茨的调查。他后来被判处 11 年监禁。
图表显示，格林伯格向这名 17 岁的女孩支付了 450 美元。
这表明，尽管司法部不愿向众议院委员会移交其在调查期间收集的有关盖茨先生的大部分证据，但该小组还是能够获得调查人员在检察官权衡是否对盖茨先生提出指控时收集的一些信息。
众议院委员会向司法部寻求有关盖茨先生的一系列信息，但一再遭到拒绝。
德夫林·巴雷特对本文亦有贡献。
题图：马特·盖茨身穿深色西装，系着红色领带。
附原英文报道：
Federal Inquiry Traced Payments From Gaetz to Women
A document prepared by federal investigators bolsters claims by women who say they were hired for sex by Matt Gaetz, President-elect Donald J. Trump’s choice for attorney general, who denies wrongdoing.
Matt Gaetz wearing a dark suit and red tie.
The Justice Department declined to charge former Representative Matt Gaetz with a crime after its investigation, and the related documents have remained secret.Credit…Kenny Holston/The New York Times
By Michael S. Schmidt Nov. 20, 2024
Federal investigators established a trail of payments from Matt Gaetz, President-elect Donald J. Trump’s choice to be attorney general, to women, including some who testified that Mr. Gaetz hired them for sex, according to a document obtained by The New York Times and a lawyer representing some of the women.
The document, assembled by investigators during a three-year sex-trafficking investigation into Mr. Gaetz, is a chart that shows a web of thousands of dollars in Venmo payments between Mr. Gaetz and a group of his friends, associates and women who had drug-fueled sex parties between 2017 and 2020, according to testimony that participants are said to have given to federal and congressional investigators.
At the parties, women, and a girl who was 17 at the time, were paid for sex, according to accounts of the participants’ testimony from people briefed on what they said.
The document bolsters recent claims by a lawyer for two of the women who say they had sex with Mr. Gaetz for money. It shows thousands of dollars in payments Mr. Gaetz made to both of the lawyer’s clients.
Mr. Gaetz, 42, represented Florida in Congress from 2017 until last week. He has vehemently denied their accounts, and the federal investigation was closed by the Justice Department without any charges against him. Vice President-elect JD Vance accompanied Mr. Gaetz to Capitol Hill on Wednesday in an effort to build support for his nomination from Republican senators, some of whom have expressed doubt that he is confirmable.
The document was obtained by the House Ethics Committee, which met on Wednesday amid growing pressure to release a report it has compiled on Mr. Gaetz but deadlocked on whether to do so.
Titled “VENMO TRANSACTIONS BETWEEN ALL INDIVIDUALS AS OF 09/14/20,” the document uses thumbnail photos of Mr. Gaetz, dozens of women and several other men to show how payments flowed between them. Lines with arrows connect the men and the women, showing, among other things, how much Mr. Gaetz and his associates paid the women.
A diagram obtained by The New York Times shows how federal investigators mapped out payments between Mr. Gaetz, his associates and women. The Times has redacted the names and images of most of the individuals who were originally included.
Because the department declined to charge Mr. Gaetz with a crime, the documents amassed during the investigation have remained secret, as the department almost never releases materials that law enforcement agencies develop in investigations in which no charges are brought. But a copy of the chart was obtained by the House Ethics Committee during its own wide-ranging investigation into Mr. Gaetz’s conduct, including whether he had sex with the then-17-year-old.
Steven Cheung, the communications director for Mr. Trump, blamed the Justice Department for disclosure of the document, which he claimed was classified even though it has no classified markings and does not relate to national security.
“This purposeful leaking of classified investigative materials is the sort of politicized D.O.J. weaponization that Matt Gaetz will end,” Mr. Cheung said. “The Justice Department investigated Gaetz for years, failed to find a crime and are now leaking material with false information to smear the next attorney general.”
The chart does not say what the payments were for, nor does it show that Mr. Gaetz made a payment to the 17-year-old girl. But the chart shows payments the authorities believed Mr. Gaetz and his associates made to other women, including the two whose lawyer has said they testified to the House Ethics Committee that they had sex with Mr. Gaetz in exchange for money.
It has been publicly known for several years that women have claimed that Mr. Gaetz paid them for sex. Shortly after The New York Times revealed the existence of the federal sex trafficking investigation into Mr. Gaetz in 2021, it reported that investigators were focusing on Mr. Gaetz’s involvement with multiple women who were recruited online for sex and how they received payments.
The Times reported at the time that it had reviewed receipts from Cash App, a mobile payments app, and Apple Pay showing how Mr. Gaetz and Joel Greenberg, his associate and friend, had paid one of the women for sex with them.
The charts show different payments, all through Venmo, and provide the first documentary evidence from inside the federal investigation, showing how investigators examined Mr. Gaetz’s activities in meticulous detail, tracking not just his payments but also those of a large network of people said to have been involved in the parties.
The lawyer, Joel Leppard, said that two women he represents testified before the House committee that Mr. Gaetz had paid them in exchange for sex. One of the women said that she had witnessed Mr. Gaetz having sex with the 17-year-old but that she did not believe Mr. Gaetz thought the girl was under 18, according to Mr. Leppard.
The chart shows that one of Mr. Leppard’s clients received $4,025.27 and the other $3,500. It does not show the dates of the payments. Those amounts appear to be figures that combine several payments the women received from Mr. Gaetz; Mr. Leppard said that the women were typically paid $200 to $500 for each encounter with Mr. Gaetz.
Mr. Leppard confirmed in a telephone interview that his clients had received Venmo payments from Mr. Gaetz. Some of his remarks about the payments were reported earlier by ABC News.
Mr. Leppard said that along with Venmo payments, his clients had received money from Mr. Gaetz on PayPal. He said that he initially thought that his clients had received the amounts listed in the chart but said that when his clients were interviewed by the House committee, it turned out that the panel had obtained other evidence that showed additional payments.
Records the committee had, he said, showed payments from Mr. Gaetz to one of his clients totaling around $6,000, and showed payments to the other of $4,000.
He said he believed the committee had obtained the payment information by sending subpoenas to Venmo and PayPal.
The chart also helps to solidify the testimony of Mr. Gaetz’s chief accuser, Mr. Greenberg, a former local tax collector from Florida. He cooperated with the Justice Department in the federal investigation, telling the authorities about how he and Mr. Gaetz both had sex with the 17-year-old, although he said they believed she was over 18. Mr. Greenberg pleaded guilty in 2021 to an array of charges — including sex trafficking — and agreed to cooperate against Mr. Gaetz. He was later sentenced to 11 years in prison.
The chart shows that Mr. Greenberg paid the 17-year-old girl $450.
And it demonstrates that despite an unwillingness by the Justice Department to hand over to the House committee much of the evidence it developed about Mr. Gaetz during its investigation, the panel was able to obtain some of the information that investigators gathered as prosecutors weighed whether to charge Mr. Gaetz.
The House committee sought a range of information from the Justice Department about Mr. Gaetz but was repeatedly rebuffed.
Devlin Barrett contributed reporting.
