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THE RPOF LAVENDER POLITICAL OPERATOR ANTHONY PEDICINI
I am Jon Susce the Publisher of Sarasota Phoenix Media Inc. We are currently being sued by a political operative Anthony Pedicini, who is using the legal system with "lawfare" tactics to damage and delegitimize Jon Susce and the Sarasota Phoenix. Pedicini has access to $ millions from his PACs, LLCs and from the Florida Republican establishment centered in Tallahassee to take out Pedicini media detractors. The Sarasota Phoenix needs funds to continue to take on the likes of Pedicini and this lawfare lawsuit so please contribute to our Go Fund me appeal .Fundraiser for Jon Susce by Concerned Citizen : Support Local News against "Lawfare"
FLORIDA BAR ASSOCIATION CONFIRMS THEY ARE FOLLOWING UP ON U.S HOUSE ETHICS REPORT ON GAETZ
According to Florida Bar Association spokesperson Jennifer Krell Davis, the Florida Bar Association has confirmed on 3/19/25 an investigation is being conducted by the Florida Bar concerning the recent U.S House of Representatives Ethics Committee report on Matt Gaetz.
Krell Davis stated on 3/19/25 in reply to the Sarasota Phoenix concerning the Florida Bar investigation of Gaetz was on going with this statement, " Was able to confirm that there is an open investigation and that no documents are public at this time."
On 4/22/2025, Knell Davis replied to a further inquiry from the Sarasota Phoenix in regard to an investigation by the Florida Bar concerning the U.S House of Representative Ethnics Committee on Gaetz stated, "The matter remains under review and is pending at the grievance committee level. All other information remains confidential."
The Florida Bar Association is investigating Gaetz, due to Gaetz being a member of the Association and practices law in Florida.
That Florida Bar Association investigation of Gaetz is in regard to the U.S House Ethics report that stated, “The House Ethics Committee found substantial evidence that former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) paid a 17-year-old high school student for sex when he was 35, used illicit drugs like cocaine and ecstasy, and obstructed Congress’s investigation into his conduct.“
The U.S House Ethnics report gives detail and documentation about accusations that have swirled around Gaetz for years, including testimony from the woman who was 17 years old at the time of the alleged 2017 sexual encounter with Gaetz.
Gaetz has repeatedly denied having sexual contact with a minor and other wrongdoings. Gaetz in response to the House Ethics report said he had engaged in “embarrassing, though not criminal” past behavior.
Federal prosecutors in a investigation of Gaetz concerning these allegations concluded that a conviction would be unlikely because of credibility problems of witnesses, including former Seminole County Tax Collector Joel Greenberg, who pleaded guilty last year to crimes such as sex trafficking of a minor.
Greenberg's attorney, Fritz Scheller said he was “disappointed” that the Justice Department has not charged anyone else as part of the sex-trafficking investigation, which includes Gaetz. Scheller previously said in court that Greenberg gave investigators information about seven or eight other men as it pertains to the illegal sexual contact with a minor.
MARIJUANA CONNECTION TO FEDERAL INVESTIGATION
The federal investigation of Greenberg's "trafficking of a minor" and others involved led investigations to potential public corruption tied to a marijuana-related pay-to-play aspect of the probe.
Under federal investigation was a trip to the Bahamas that included several young woman, Gaetz and two men involved with connections to medical marijuana legislation he’s sponsored and his connections to people involved in the industry. The two men were Jason Pirozzolo, a Florida doctor described as a “marijuana investor" and a fellow Republican member of the Florida Legislature, Halsey Beshears.
Interest in the Ethics panel’s investigation of Gaetz reached its peak after President-elect Trump picked Gaetz to be Attorney General, leading him to abruptly resign from Congress just before the panel was due to release the report. Amid opposition from GOP senators, Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration for AG the following week.
The Florida Bar’s Board investigation of Gaetz will center around the Florida Bar Ethnics, “Statement of purpose, emphasizing the importance of ethical conduct among lawyers. It includes guidelines for professional behavior and integrity in all dealings with clients and the legal system.
Dorworth
The U.S House Ethnics investigation centered around U.S federal court documents concerning witness testimony, “that in the summer of 2017, U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican, attended a party filled with drugs and paid escorts that was hosted by former state Rep. Chris Dorworth at his Heathrow, Fla., home.”
In an article written by Orlando Sentinel reporter Martin E. Comas it was detailed what federal documents revealed about Gaetz, and others involved in the U.S. Federal investigation.
Martin Comas reports:
In the summer of 2017, U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican, attended a party filled with drugs and paid escorts that was hosted by former state Rep. Chris Dorworth at his Heathrow, Fla., home, according to witness testimony in a filed federal court document.
One of the escorts attending the get-together was the 17-year-old girl — known only as A.B. in court filings — who is at the center of the Joel Greenberg sex-trafficking scandal. Call girls roamed the premises with “access to the bedrooms in the Dorworth residence to engage in sexual activities, as well as alcohol, cocaine, ecstasy, also known as molly and marijuana,” according to statements quoted in the documents.
The case-file material, emerging as part of Dorworth’s April 2023 federal lawsuit against his former friend Greenberg, includes some of the most extensive details made public so far regarding a sex-trafficking controversy that has swirled around Gaetz for several years.
The tale told in the documents — primarily in a document submitted by Greenberg’s ex-wife that recounts evidence gathered as part of the suit — is lurid. It includes descriptions of two separate parties at Dorworth’s house a week apart, both attended by Gaetz, although A.B. is mentioned as attending only the first one.
A.B., 17, had just completed her junior year at a local high school and drove her mother’s car through the upscale community’s security entrance at about 6:15 p.m. on July 15, 2017, the date of the first party. Upon arrival, attendees were told to put their cellphones into a large bowl on a counter, to prevent photos and videos.
As the party went on, A.B. was naked among the adult attendees, according to material in the document from Greenberg’s ex-wife, Abby, attributed to an affidavit from one of the escorts, identified as K.M.
Besides Gaetz, Dorworth and Greenberg also were at the party at the 8,200-square foot, six-bedroom home on Whitstable Court, according to K.M. Greenberg who had taken office as Seminole’s tax collector just six months earlier.
Dorworth eventually dropped his federal lawsuit against Greenberg, without giving a reason.
But now, Greenberg’s family, and the other defendants are seeking to recoup hundreds of thousands of dollars spent in attorney’s fees, court costs and other expenses defending themselves against Dorworth’s litigation. That led to the filing of hundreds of pages of documents.
Other material collected as part of the case remains sealed, including an interview with A.B., although it is briefly excerpted in the material from Abby Greenberg. That excerpt quotes the underage girl as saying she “engaged in various sexual activities” with Dorworth in a hotel in Lake Mary in the summer of 2017 while Joel Greenberg watched. She also says that at the conclusion of the encounter, “Mr. Greenberg provided me with an envelope with one thousand dollars in cash and said to me ‘this is from Chris’ or words to that effect.”
Dorworth denied ever meeting the girl in a text message interview with The Orlando Sentinel, and said again as he had previously that he did not have sex with her. He also said he did not attend the July 15 party at his home.
“I was not there that evening,” Dorworth said by text. “I was at a friend’s birthday party on a lake far away.”
Attorneys for the defendants in Dorworth’s federal lawsuit against Greenberg and his family and businesses, however, presented Dorworth with evidence that he received phone calls from a cell tower less than two miles from his Heathrow home to an area in Maitland several times in the afternoon on the day of the July 15 party. He then received calls even closer to his home that evening, according to court records.
A week later, on July 22, a second party allegedly was held at Dorworth’s home, according to lawsuit documents from another female escort identified as L.P.
L.P. said Gaetz and Greenberg again were in attendance, along with several other call girls and lobbyists. A.B. is not mentioned by L.P.
L.P. said she was also told to put her cellphone in a bowl on the counter when she walked into the home.
“It was my understanding that this was done because the party goers did not want any photographs or videos taken of the event,” according to her testimony. “The party included alcohol, drugs, middle-aged men and young and attractive women.”
Greenberg was a friend of Gaetz and Dorworth while he was Seminole County’s tax collector from January 2017 until June 2020, when he resigned after he was first indicted on several federal charges.
The trio were often seen at parties at Dorworth’s house and dining at restaurants in Orlando and Tallahassee.
In the spring of 2019, they all visited Washington, D.C., with their families and took photos with then U.S. President Donald Trump on the White House lawn.
A.B. is now 25 years old and living in Colorado.
Greenberg is serving an 11-year federal prison sentence after pleading guilty to identity theft, stalking, conspiracy to bribe a public official and child sex trafficking, tied to A.
Martin E. Comas