Reactions mounted Thursday after a woman sharing her story for the first time said that then-Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) sexually abused her when she was just 17, while she was living in a homeless shelter and trying to save money to buy braces to fix her teeth.
Laura B. Wolf, an attorney for the then-teenager and now-woman, spoke to The New York Times about the ordeal. Times journalists reached out to Wolf after a federal judge in Florida unsealed court documents that described the victim as “a then-homeless 17-year-old high schooler.”
Wolf said her client was living with a parent in a homeless shelter and needed money when she falsely advertised herself as an 18-year-old on a “sugar daddy” dating website in 2017.
Responses on social media grew in the wake of the new information:
“Beyond horrific details coming out about Matt Gaetz. Details that @SpeakerJohnson fought to cover up. The GOP has a MASSIVE pedophilia problem. It’s sick,” communications director for Leaders We Deserve Matilda Bress wrote on X.
“Matt Gaetz, who is now accused of paying a homeless minor for sex, was Donald Trump’s top pick for Attorney General. There are no coincidences,” The Lincoln Project wrote on X.
