Former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz now holds a seat on the Triumph Gulf Coast board, which controls settlement money meant to help Gulf Coast communities recover from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. On October 15, 2026, two women filed a federal lawsuit accusing him of sexual exploitation under federal anti-trafficking law. Florida leaders should suspend his seat until the case is resolved and require real ethics screening for anyone appointed to a board that manages public money.

The women say they were in their early twenties in 2017 when Joel Greenberg, a former Seminole County tax official who is now in prison, introduced them to Gaetz. According to the lawsuit, Gaetz supplied drugs and paid the women for sex, travel and hotel stays. The scheme “ran on an exploitative power imbalance,” according to the women’s attorney, Spencer Kuvin. On the day the suit was filed, Gaetz appeared to mock the women in a post on X.

These are not the first serious claims. Nearly two years ago, the House Ethics Committee reported that Gaetz regularly paid for sex, that one of those encounters involved a 17-year-old girl, and that he bought and used illegal drugs while serving in Congress. Those findings helped sink his nomination for U.S. attorney general. Gaetz denies wrongdoing and says much of what the lawsuit claims is false.

The courts will decide the lawsuit. But a seat overseeing disaster recovery money is a position of public trust, and Gulf Coast families who lived through the spill deserve board members who are not facing unresolved trafficking allegations. Governor Ron DeSantis and Florida’s legislative leaders have the power to pause this appointment and set clear ethics standards for every future one. This is not about party. It is about protecting money that belongs to the people of the Gulf Coast.

Sign the petition to suspend Gaetz from the Triumph Gulf Coast board before another dollar of recovery money is decided.