That federal investigation that attracted national attention for a few weeks last year has since gone quiet. But it’s not over. Eight people with direct knowledge of the investigation confirmed to The Daily Beast that the case is still unfolding — albeit at a methodical pace — as federal prosecutors try to crack down on a string of rumors of possible criminality. While each zone has its own sets of witnesses, subjects and targets, they all stem from one man: a rogue local tax official and Gaetz’s former “wingman,” Joel Greenberg. Lyle Mazin, a criminal defense attorney who is representing a witness in the case, told the Daily Beast that the silence should not be mistaken for reluctance on the part of Roger Handberg, a federal prosecutor who led the local team that conducted the investigation and now leads the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Middle District of Florida. “He is methodical. He doesn’t let anything go,” Mazin said. “If you’re going after a monster, you’ve got to do it right — especially when you’ve got a bunch of Trump supporters coming after you.” No one who spoke to The Daily Beast believes the Gaetz investigation is closed, and witness and subject advocates who have recently enjoyed a quiet season said they are waiting to hear from prosecutors again. Some have entered into agreements for advance notice of charging decisions. A spokeswoman for Gaetz did not respond to a request for comment. Gaetz vehemently denies all allegations of wrongdoing. A lawyer for one person already charged in the case told The Daily Beast that, in his experience, prosecutors “have always been tight on the timeline.” “They only strike when the case is tightly built, unfortunately,” this lawyer said. That day, if it comes, is likely to be months away. Two lawyers said prosecutors will go to extreme lengths to avoid the appearance of meddling in the midterms, and they expect any announcements about Gaetz will likely come several weeks after the November election. A strange twist in the Gaetz saga ended Monday after a federal judge sentenced Stephen M. Alford, a Florida man who tried to defraud the Gaetz family, to five years in prison. Alford somehow caught wind of the sex-trafficking investigation and promised Gaetz a presidential pardon, which Alford knew he could not deliver, if the family paid $25 million to bring an alleged US hostage to Iran. The investigation into Gaetz himself is just one item in an expanding queue. Greenberg’s investigation alone revealed so many layers of public corruption in Central Florida that investigators had to peel them back one by one: illegal real estate deals; misappropriation of federal COVID-19 payroll assistance; a local Republican scheme to run “ghost” candidates; a public corruption conspiracy involving a number of powerful government figures. and finally the sex-trafficking investigation involving the MP himself. In late 2020, while Greenberg was seeking a presidential pardon, he wrote a confessional letter — obtained exclusively by The Daily Beast — detailing how Gaetz would use him as a go-between to pay for sex with young women and at least a minor girl. Greenberg’s non-public Venmo payments — also obtained exclusively by The Daily Beast — reflect that arrangement. In one example, Gaetz paid his friend $900, writing in a memo field, “hit ___,” using a nickname for the former minor girl, who by then had just turned 18. Greenberg was charged with trafficking that teenager in August 2020. The Daily Beast confirmed that the FBI opened its investigation into Gaetz that same month. After pleading guilty to a minor trafficking charge last May, Greenberg struck a deal with federal prosecutors in Orlando. Since then, investigators have been using the information he shared to target his accomplices one at a time. In May, the district’s state attorney charged Seminole County Republican Party Chairman Ben Parish and two others with hatching a scheme to run a nonexistent “ghost” candidate. The operation drew votes from Democratic candidate Patricia Sigman and propelled Republican candidate and Gaetz ally Jason Broder to the Florida state senate. (The Gaetz campaign donated to Brodeur months after the victory.) On Tuesday, prosecutors filed documents in court indicating that Greenberg was scheduled to be a witness in the trial, which begins Monday.) In January, Handberg’s team of local federal prosecutors secured a guilty plea from a tag-along in the alleged Gaetz-Greenberg sex-trafficking of minors: a former radio shock jock and associate of Greenberg’s named “Big Joe” Ellicott. Ellicott revealed his intimate knowledge of sex crimes in text messages obtained exclusively by The Daily Beast. He was also reportedly present at a pivotal moment when Greenberg called the congressman to inform him that one of the teenagers he had allegedly paid for sex was a minor, The Daily Beast previously reported. Weeks before that, Gaetz’s ex-girlfriend testified before the grand jury, reportedly under an immunity deal. The ex-girlfriend, who is considered a witness for potential obstruction charges against Gaetz, reportedly feared that the teenager at the center of the investigation had taped her in conversations with Gaetz and other women in December 2020—around which time federal agents seized both of her phones and the deputy. In November 2021, two months before Gaetz’s ex testified, Handberg’s team indicted two Greenberg associates for bilking an investor out of $12 million in a real estate fraud scheme, another example of the many corruption cases plaguing the investigators. Two high-ranking prosecutors at the Justice Department’s headquarters in Washington — Todd Gee and Lauren Britsch — led Gaetz’s part of the investigation, according to sources who have interacted with them. Meanwhile, federal prosecutors in Orlando – Roger Handberg, Jennifer Harrington and Amanda Daniels – continue to investigate local evidence of overlapping crime rings. For some involved in the case as witnesses or potential targets of the broader sex-trafficking investigation, it’s been months since they’ve heard from prosecutors. An associate of Gaetz-Greenberg’s who allegedly participated in drug-fueled sex parties has not heard from a federal grand jury in nearly a year, according to a person familiar with his situation. A key witness who knew about child sex trafficking and testified before a grand jury has been in the dark for months, according to another person familiar with her situation. “This is the quietest whole deal,” said a witness who first alerted the Secret Service to possible criminal behavior by the congressman. The lull is beginning to frustrate more than a dozen witnesses and lawyers representing people opposed to Gaetz or Greenberg, though most said they remain optimistic. “We certainly know that there are dozens of other actors who have engaged in sex parties with underage girls and other criminal financial schemes. If at the end of the day only two or three people are held accountable by the feds, that would be a real miscarriage of justice and transparency,” said David Burr, an Orlando attorney who has counseled many would-be victims. Abuse of power by Greenberg while in office. In another sign of the scope and progress of the investigation, three sources told The Daily Beast that prosecutors turned their attention to Tallahassee this spring. According to the sources, this previously unreported action included interviews with potential witnesses and subjects in connection with another spoke out in the Gaetz case — an alleged public corruption scheme to influence marijuana policy said to involve state officials. Gaetz is reportedly also part of that investigation. There, federal prosecutors with the DOJ’s public integrity unit are reportedly looking into whether a group of men provided gifts including marijuana and prostitutes during a 2018 trip to the Bahamas in exchange for political favors. Overall, the limited amount of prosecutorial action—after an explosive two months of headlines last year—has left many outside observers curious, confused and skeptical. Some, like Mark Lombardo, are annoyed. The Vietnam veteran and FedEx executive lost to Gaetz in Tuesday’s Republican primary. He told the Daily Beast that the sex-trafficking investigation against the congressman “played a factor” in his decision to file his campaign documents in June, and he believes an indictment would have saved him a million dollars in campaign spending. “If you’re asking me if I’m disappointed, of course I am,” Lombardo said. “I thought he was long gone … the wheels of justice don’t grind very fast.”
