Former Rep. Matt Gaetz and his wife, Ginger, are expecting baby No. 2 as the former politician faces a federal sex trafficking lawsuit accusing him and two others of taking part in “recruitment, payments, drugs and travel” for “commercial sexual acts” from two women.
“God has blessed us beyond measure,” Ginger, 32, announced via Instagram on Monday, November 9. “[Older son] Luckey is going to be a big brother.”
In an accompanying photo, Matt, 44, and Ginger held up their 2-year-old son Luckey as they revealed a series of ultrasound photos. (Ginger and Matt tied the knot off the coast of California on Catalina Island in August 2021.)
Matt also informally raised U.S. Air Force recruit Nestor Galban, now 23, who legally immigrated from Cuba to live with the GOP politician when he was 12 years old.
“He is a part of my family story,” Gaetz insisted to People in 2020 of his alleged role in raising Nestor. “My work with Nestor, our family, no element of my public service could compare to the joy that our family has brought me.”
The announcement about Matt’s growing family comes less than one month after he was named as one of the defendants in a federal lawsuit accusing him of allegedly “coordinat[ing]” a sex trafficking operation.
Two women — referred to as Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2 to protect their privacy — filed a 38-page lawsuit, obtained by Us, in the Middle District Court of Florida in October. The Jane Does alleged that Matt, former Florida House Rep. Chris Dorworth and former Seminole County tax collector Joel Greenberg used their “public office, power, and wealth to prey on the economic vulnerability” to take advantage of the two women.
Matt was specially accused of exploiting a “significant age difference” between himself and the two alleged victims, who were recent high school graduates when the alleged offenses occurred between “2017 through January 2019.” The politician and Greenberg, 42, allegedly “coordinated the recruitment, payments, drugs, and travel to obtain commercial sexual acts from young women,” per the lawsuit.
“[Matt and his associates] were men of power, wealth, and privilege who used their positions not to protect the vulnerable but to prey upon them,” the Jane Does’ lawyers alleged in their court filing.
The Jane Does asked for a trial by jury and are seeking “reasonable attorney’s fees” as well as “costs, interest as allowed by law, and other appropriate relief.”
Matt dismissed the two accusers’ accusations as “false” in a statement to The Guardian at the time.
“[The legal action] relies almost exclusively on a Congressional Committee report that didn’t allow me to confront my accusers. Now I will finally have that chance,” he added.
In a subsequent social media post, the former congressman seemingly objected to the two alleged victims’ identities being protected during ongoing legal proceedings.
“Jane Doe Strikes Again! Two adult women sued me today alleging they were sex trafficked to the Bahamas. I’m shocked nobody responded to their repeated cries for help, posted to instagram,” he wrote via X alongside a photo of three unknown women wearing bikinis.
A prominent supporter of President Donald Trump, Matt resigned as the representative for Florida’s 1st congressional district in November 2024 after Trump, 80, nominated him to become the U.S. Attorney General for his then-incoming administration. Matt eventually withdrew his own nomination amid public and political outcry over an ethics investigation in the House of Representatives.
“I’m still going to be in the fight, but it’s going to be from a new perch. I do not intend to join the 119th Congress,” he told late conservative pundit Charlie Kirk at the time. “There are a number of fantastic Floridians who stepped up to run for my seat, people who have inspired with their heroism, with their public service. And I’m actually excited to see Northwest Florida go to new heights and have great representation.”
A U.S. House Ethics Committee report released on December 23, 2024, determined that there was “substantial evidence” that Matt “violated House Rules, state and federal laws, and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, acceptance of impermissible gifts, the provision of special favors and privileges, and obstruction of Congress” though there was not “sufficient evidence to conclude that Representative Gaetz violated the federal sex trafficking statute.”
If you or someone you know is a human trafficking victim, contact the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888.
