Hacker Is Said to Have Gained Access to File With Damaging Testimony About Gaetz

d8a347b41db1ddee634e2d67d08798c102ef09ac

By The New York Times

Published 6 months ago on

November 20, 2024

FILE — Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) speaks to reporters at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, April 9, 2024. An unidentified hacker has gained access to a computer file shared in a secure link among lawyers whose clients have given damaging testimony related to Gaetz, a person with knowledge of the activity said. (Kenny Holston/The New York Times)

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

WASHINGTON — An unidentified hacker has gained access to a computer file shared in a secure link among lawyers whose clients have given damaging testimony related to Matt Gaetz, the former Florida member of Congress who is President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to be attorney general, a person with knowledge of the activity said.

The file of 24 exhibits is said to include sworn testimony by a woman who said that she had sex with Gaetz in 2017 when she was 17, as well as corroborating testimony by a second woman who said that she witnessed the encounter.

The information was downloaded by a person using the name Altam Beezley at 1:23 p.m. Monday, according to the person, who was not authorized to speak publicly. A lawyer connected to the case sent an email to the address associated with Altam Beezley, only to be informed in an automated reply that the recipient does not exist.

The material does not appear to have been made public by the hacker.

The documents include information that is under seal with the Justice Department, which investigated Gaetz but did not file charges, and the House Committee on Ethics, which has completed its own inquiry into the former member of Congress. The Ethics panel’s members are scheduled to meet Wednesday to decide whether to vote to release material it has gathered.

But the hacked trove of documents stems from an altogether different source: a civil suit being pursued by a friend of Gaetz’s, Christopher Dorworth, a Florida businessperson. Dorworth filed the suit against both the woman who says she had sex with Gaetz when she was a minor and Joel Greenberg, an erstwhile ally of Gaetz who is serving an 11-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to federal sex trafficking charges involving the woman.

Dorworth has claimed that he was defamed by Greenberg and the woman, both of whom had told federal authorities that Dorworth hosted parties where he, they, Gaetz and others took drugs and openly had sex.

In mustering their defense, lawyers for Greenberg and the woman have solicited sworn statements from others who they say were witnesses. The 24 exhibits were attached to a motion prepared by lawyers for Greenberg and the woman in response to Dorworth’s suit.

The hacked information also includes sworn testimony from Dorworth and his wife, as well as testimony from Michael Fischer, Gaetz’s former campaign treasurer, who is also said to have attended the party. It also contains various supporting material, such as the gate logs showing who entered the property of the Dorworth home on the evening in July 2017 when the two women said the sexual encounter with Gaetz occurred.

The material apparently taken is unredacted and includes the names and other personal information of the witnesses but is otherwise said to be more damaging to Gaetz than to his accusers, according to the person familiar with the hack. The hacker had not contacted the lawyers as of Tuesday morning, and it was not clear what motive the person might have.

—

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Robert Draper/Kenny Holston
c. 2024 The New York Times Company