The Gaetz file
Matt Gaetz is a Florida lawyer in good standing. He’s also Vice Chair of Triumph Gulf Coast, the board that controls about $1.5 billion in BP oil-spill money for the Panhandle. I’ve filed five Bar complaints and a pile of public records requests about him. Every piece of paper I can post goes here.
Where it stands
As of October 27, 2026
- Fifth Bar complaint
- Filed October 19. The Bar assigned reference number 27-4786 on October 22. An intake lawyer reviews it next.
- Triumph Gulf Coast records
- Three responses so far. Nobody has searched Gaetz’s Triumph email account. Follow-up sent October 23.
- Florida House records
- Requested October 20.
- Doe 1 v. Gaetz II
- Filed October 15 in federal court in Orlando. No. 6:26-cv-02402.
How to read this page
Every claim below carries one of three tags. They mean different things, and I keep them apart.
It’s in a court filing, a government record, or a mainstream news report.
It’s a claim in a lawsuit that nobody has proven. Gaetz denies the allegations.
A government body investigated and reported a conclusion. A finding isn’t a conviction.
Gaetz has never been charged with a crime. The Justice Department closed its investigation in 2023 without charges. The Florida Bar has warned him twice and disciplined him zero times.
Timeline
- February 26, 2019Documented
Gaetz tweets at Michael Cohen the night before Cohen testifies to Congress. He deletes it the next day and apologizes.
- August 2019Documented
A Bar grievance committee closes the Cohen matter with a letter of advice calling the conduct “unprofessional, reckless, insensitive, and demonstrated poor judgment.” A letter of advice is a warning. It doesn’t count as discipline.
- 2023Documented
The Justice Department closes its investigation of Gaetz without charges.
- Sept. to Nov. 2024Documented
I file four complaints against Gaetz with The Florida Bar.
- December 2024Found
The House Ethics Committee reports it found “substantial evidence” that Gaetz paid women for sex, used illegal drugs, and violated Florida’s statutory rape law with a 17-year-old. That’s the Committee’s finding. Gaetz denies it.
- May 12, 2025Documented
The Bar closes the file on my four complaints.
- August 15, 2025Documented
After the Ethics report, the Bar sends Gaetz a second letter of advice. Its line: “a lawyer is a lawyer is a lawyer.”
- June 23, 2026Documented
Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez appoints Gaetz to the Triumph Gulf Coast board. The term runs July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2030.
- July 10, 2026Documented
Gaetz files his 2025 financial disclosure, Form 1, with the Florida Commission on Ethics.
- August 30, 2026Documented
A Triumph staff member emails an outside company about recruiting a firm called Saildrone, “at the request of” new board member Gaetz.
- October 15, 2026Alleged
Two women file Doe 1 v. Gaetz II, No. 6:26-cv-02402, in federal court in Orlando. The suit brings federal sex-trafficking claims under 18 U.S.C. § 1595 against Gaetz, Joel Greenberg, Christopher Dorworth and four companies. Gaetz denies the allegations. Docket.
DocumentedGreenberg pleaded guilty in May 2021 to six federal counts, including sex trafficking of a minor, and got 11 years.
DocumentedThat same afternoon Gaetz posts a beach photo of three women to X with the caption “Jane Doe Strikes Again!” He later tells the Miami Herald he isn’t sure the photo shows the plaintiffs. Their lawyer, Spencer Kuvin, calls the post an intimidation tactic.
- October 19, 2026Documented
I file a fifth Bar complaint, 18 pages. It cites Rules 4-8.4(a), 4-8.4(b), 4-8.4(d) and 4-3.6(a) of the Rules Regulating The Florida Bar, and it uses the Bar’s own August 2025 letter as proof he was on notice. It asks that any referral go to a grievance committee outside the First Judicial Circuit, where Gaetz lives. The Bar assigned it reference number 27-4786 on October 22.
- October 20 to 23, 2026Documented
I send public records requests to Triumph Gulf Coast and the Florida House. Triumph’s lawyer produces the appointment letter, the transmittal emails, a conflict-of-interest acknowledgment and a bio the same day. By October 23 he says staff searched their own inboxes and nobody ran a search of Gaetz’s Triumph email account. On October 23 I send a follow-up asking for a full export of that mailbox.
- October 23, 2026Documented
The Pensacola News Journal covers the fifth complaint. The story runs across the USA Today Network.
Documents
Source files, as filed or as produced. Anything with someone’s private information in it gets redacted before it goes up. Request letters stay off this page.
- Fifth Florida Bar complaintHeld for redaction
- The Bar’s acknowledgment of the fifth complaintHeld for redaction
- Public records request to Triumph Gulf CoastNot posted here
- Triumph’s response letterHeld for redaction
- Triumph production 1Held for redaction
- Follow-up request to TriumphNot posted here
- Triumph production 2Held for redaction
- Records request to the Florida HouseNot posted here
- Doe 1 v. Gaetz II, docketRead the docket
Correction, October 24, 2026
I wrote that Gaetz hadn’t filed his 2025 financial disclosure. He filed it July 10, 2026. The Commission on Ethics search portal showed nothing and I trusted it. I corrected it within a day and pulled the ethics complaints I’d built on it.
Follow the file
New documents get posted here first. The write-ups go out by email and on Substack.
Need records pulled?
This is what REVOLT Training does for a living. I find the record that has to exist, ask for it in a way that’s hard to dodge, and read what comes back.
I’m Chaz Stevens, founder of REVOLT Training. I’m not a lawyer and nothing here is legal advice. A Bar complaint is my allegation that a lawyer broke the Bar’s rules. The Bar decides what happens to it.
This work is reader-funded. Chip in for the next filing.