Matt Gaetz associate pleads guilty to sex trafficking charges

Matt Gaetz denies any wrongdoing (AP/Phelan M. Ebenhack)

A politician who emerged as a central figure in the US Justice Department’s sex trafficking investigation into representative Matt Gaetz has pleaded guilty to six federal charges and agreed to co-operate with prosecutors as part of a plea deal.

Joel Greenberg, a long-time associate of Mr Gaetz, appeared in federal court in Orlando. He pleaded guilty to six of the nearly three dozen charges he faced, including sex trafficking of a minor, and he admitted that he had paid at least one underage girl to have sex with him and other men.