It was only a matter of time until Roger Stone got involved. On Thursday, the Daily Beast reported that after being federally indicted on multiple charges ranging from stalking to sex trafficking, disgraced Seminole County tax collector Joel Greenberg sought assistance from Roger Stone in obtaining a pardon from Trump. In messages obtained by the Daily Beast, Greenberg discussed paying Stone $250,000 in the form of Bitcoin in exchange for his help in securing a pardon.
Stone appeared to have accepted the offer and been working on Greenberg’s behalf— “I hope you are prepared to wire me $250,000 because I am feeling confident,” he wrote to Greenberg on January 13th over the encrypted messaging app Signal. (Stone has since denied asking for payment). Stone also had Greenberg draft a “confession letter” in which he admitted to committing the very crime he is charged with—having sex with an underage girl—and claimed that his old pal, Sen. Matt Gaetz, did too.
“On more than one occasion, this individual was involved in sexual activities with several of the other girls, the congressman from Florida’s 1st Congressional District and myself,” Greenberg wrote about the girl who was 17 at the time. “From time to time, gas money or gifts, rent or partial tuition payments were made to several of these girls, including the individual who was not yet 18. I did see the acts occur firsthand and Venmo transactions, Cash App or other payments were made to these girls on behalf of the Congressman.”
Greenberg later wrote in his letter that he and then-Congressman Gaetz believed the girl to be 19 at the time. When he found out via an “anonymous tip” that she was actually 17 he and Gaetz discontinued the relationship only to pick it up a few months later, after she had turned 18. For what it’s worth, Gaetz has denied having anything to do with Greenberg’s allegations, and federal prosecutors are yet to charge him with any crimes. But the latest news is a damning development for Gaetz that indicates what many have long expected will happen: Greenberg will flip on Gaetz as part of a plea deal.
Abigail Covington is a journalist and cultural critic based in Brooklyn, New York but originally from North Carolina, whose work has appeared in Slate, The Nation, Oxford American, and Pitchfork
