more breaking news tonight. a florida radio host formerly in matt gaetz s orbit is now cooperating with the justice department s investigation into the congressman. the republican lawmaker is facing allegations of sexual contact with a minor, sex trafficking and obstruction of justice. cnn s ryan nobles joins us from capitol hill. who is this third person said at one time to have been in the congressman s orbit, and how he is cooperating? reporter: his name is big j jjoe ell ellicott. he s worked out a plea agreement and the reason that his cooperation is significant, anderson, is because he could serve as someone who can corroborate the testimony of joel greenberg. he s the former tax collector from that part of florida who was a very close associate with matt gaetz and is suspected to be at least part of some of these crimes that they re investigating that matt gaetz
could be linked to. now, ellicott, his lawyer says by his own admission was not necessarily close himself with gaetz. but he did run in some of the same circles. they partied together at times, and it seems as though ellicott is going to serve as a corroborating witness as this investigation plays out. and how is congressman gaetz s office responded? reporter: from the beginning, anderson, he has claimed he did nothing wrong. in the past, he s said he s never had sex with a woman under the age of 17 while he was not above the age of 17, and his office put out a statement today continuing along that line, saying, quote, after nearly a year of false rumors, not a shred of evidence has implicated congressman gaetz in wrongdoing. we remain focused on our work representing floridians. so despite this new development, gaetz is not at all changing his story that he has done nothing wrong. is there any sense of what kind of a timeline this investigation is operating on because it has bee