Report: Matt Gaetz showed off photos of nude women with Joel Greenberg Florida reports 3,480 new cases of COVID-19, adds 36 fatalities

U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz “repeatedly” boasted to people in Florida politics about women he met through former Seminole County Tax Collector Joel Greenberg, and showed off pictures of nude women from parties the two men attended together, according to a report by the Washington Post.

The Post cited two people who’d heard the congressman’s comments directly, who described Gaetz bragging about the access to women that Greenberg had given him.

“Matt was never shy about talking about his relationship to Joel and the access to women that Joel provided him,” said one of the people, who spoke to the newspaper on the condition of anonymity.

The relationship between Greenberg and Gaetz, and their alleged interactions with women — and at least one girl — are now reportedly being scrutinized by federal prosecutors, who have already charged Greenberg with sex trafficking, among numerous other offenses.

The Post’s report Monday did not say when Gaetz made the boasts or showed off the photos, or when they were taken, nor did it say where the parties with Greenberg occurred.

The women in the photos “appeared to be adults,” the report said. In one, the Post reported, a woman was seen using a hula hoop without clothing. A CNN report from Thursday, which said that Gaetz had shown nude photos and videos to fellow lawmakers, also mentioned that image.

The New York Times first reported last week that Gaetz, a Republican ally of former President Donald Trump, has been under investigation since last year, with federal authorities examining whether he had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old and paid for her to travel with him.

The Times later reported that the probe also concerns whether Gaetz and Greenberg broke any laws by recruiting women online for sex and paying them. Investigators believe Greenberg connected Gaetz to the women, whom he met through so-called “sugar daddy” websites.

Gaetz has not been charged with any crime. He has repeatedly denied ever having paid for sex or had sex with an underage person as an adult. In a fiery op-ed published Monday by the Washington Examiner, he argued he was being targeted with “lies” by “power-hungry hypocrites.”

“Folks won’t be surprised that bizarre claims are being made about me shortly after I decided to take on the most powerful institutions in the Beltway: the establishment; the FBI; the Biden Justice Department; the Cheney political dynasty; even the Justice Department under Trump,” he wrote.

The investigation of Gaetz reportedly began during the Trump administration, under then-Attorney General William Barr.

The Times reported last week that it had seen receipts from mobile payment services Cash App and Apple Pay that show payments from Gaetz and Greenberg to one of the women involved in the investigation and a payment from Greenberg to a second woman.

Gaetz and Greenberg were also recorded entering the Seminole County Tax Collector’s Office while it was closed on a weekend night in April 2018, a person familiar with office operations who saw the videotape told the Orlando Sentinel last week.

The person said the footage showed Greenberg and Gaetz entering the agency’s Lake Mary office on Primera Drive and Greenberg was seen going through baskets that held driver’s licenses turned in by residents for disposal. Greenberg later confirmed that he and Gaetz had been in the office that weekend in text messages to an employee.

The visit is potentially important because the open container of discarded IDs, which other agencies typically store securely until they’re destroyed, figures into some of the nearly three-dozen charges Greenberg faces.

An indictment states that Greenberg used his access as an elected official to look up information about a girl between the ages of 14 and 17 in a state database, in order “to produce a false identification document and to facilitate his efforts to engage in commercial sex acts.”

The Times reported that the same girl is the 17-yearold at the center of the trafficking investigation targeting Gaetz.

Greenberg is also accused of using discarded driver’s licenses to make fake IDs for himself.

Florida reported 3,480 new coronavirus cases on Monday and another 36 new resident deaths linked to COVID-19. The state has now reported 2,085,306 cases since the pandemic began.

South Florida

South Florida counties reported 2,333 new cases Tuesday. July 2020 was the worst month for cases in South Florida.

Palm Beach County: 285 additional cases and 11 more deaths. The county now has 133,571 confirmed cases and 2,724 deaths, including 52 non-residents.

Broward County: 404 additional cases and 0 more deaths. Broward has a known total of 218,184 cases and 2,747 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic. The death tally includes 46 non-residents.

Miami-Dade County: 810 additional cases and 0 new deaths. The county now has 451,829 confirmed cases and 5,959 deaths, including 42 non-residents.

Testing and positivity

Public health experts say the virus is considered under control when the COVID-19 test positivity rate is under 5%. But since Oct. 29, Florida has exceeded 5% in its widely publicized calculation for assessing the rate for testing of residents.

The state reported a daily positivity rate of 7.37% on Monday, up from 7.02% the day before. This method of calculating positivity counts new infections only, but also counts repeat negative tests, which skews the figure downward.

According to the state, the new reported case numbers reflect the results of 48,494 COVID-19 tests of Florida residents received from labs in the past day, down from 68,714 results reported the day before.

Palm Beach County: Test results for 3,712 residents were reported Monday, leading to a daily positivity rate of 7.70%. That’s up from 6.12% the previous day.

Broward County: Test results for 5,411 residents were reported Monday, leading to a daily positivity rate of 7.41%. That’s down from 7.93% the previous day.

Miami-Dade County: Test results for 12,714 residents were reported Monday, leading to a daily positivity rate of 7.08%. That’s up from 6.73% the previous day.

Deaths

The state’s pandemic data report shows a total of 33,710 Floridians have died from COVID-19. In addition, 654 non-residents have died after contracting the virus. Most of the fatalities reported Monday happened over several weeks but were just confirmed in the past day.

Out of all 50 states and the District of Columbia, Florida ranks No. 23 for deaths per 100K residents and No. 16 for cases per 100K residents, according to the latest data from the health department and the COVID Tracking Project.

Hospitalizations

As of Monday, there were 2,989 people hospitalized in Florida with a primary diagnosis of COVID-19, according to the state Agency for Health Care Administration.

In South Florida, Broward County reported 449, Palm Beach County had 178 and Miami-Dade had 545.

Hospitalizations hit a peak in late July of about 9,500 patients statewide.

Vaccines

More than 5.67 million people in Florida have received at least one dose of a COVID vaccine.

In Florida, 2,638,758 people have received their first dose of the vaccine, or about 12.29% of the population.

So far, 3,660,880 people have completed the series of doses required to be vaccinated.

That represents about 17.04% of the population.