US Congressman Matt Gaetz fled to Southern California to marry his girlfriend Ginger Luckey on Saturday in a small ceremony on Catalina Island.
The controversial 39-year-old Republican, who is being investigated as part of a sex trafficking investigation, announced the wedding on his personal Twitter account. He posted the phrase “I love my wife!” along with a photograph of both of them, he wearing a sports jacket and she a white dress.
Vanity Fair magazine reported that Sergio Gor, a former employee of Senator Rand Paul, was present at the wedding, which was attended by about 40 people. The couple had previously announced that they would be married next year.
Gaetz was in Iowa on Thursday with Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, to attend an event that is part of a national tour in which they claim the 2020 election was stolen from President Donald Trump and downplay the COVID-19 pandemic.
Luckey, 26, hails from Southern California and works for a company that focuses on extending the life of products made from plant-based materials.
Gaetz is being investigated as part of an investigation that led to the arrest and plea deal of his close friend, Joel Greenberg, a former tax collector from Seminole County, Florida.
Greenberg pleaded guilty in May last year to six federal crimes, including sex trafficking of a minor, identity theft, stalking, fraud and conspiracy to bribe a public official. His plea agreement with the prosecution requires that he continue to cooperate with the ongoing sex trafficking investigation.
Gaetz, who represents much of Florida’s northeast strip, was not named in Greenberg’s plea deal. But Greenberg’s cooperation could influence an ongoing investigation into Gaetz’s alleged pay-for-sex relationship with a 17-year-old girl. Repeatedly, the representative has denied having committed any illegal action.