(State Senator Maria Sachs today released the following statement. It is accompanied by copies of a notarized affidavit dated Jan. 21, 2016, and a related document regarding the employment separation of a former member of her Senate staff. See the attachment below.)

Early in 2016, I first learned that a member of my staff in the Florida Senate, Matthew Damsky, had engaged in a protracted pattern of abusing his position and our trust to fraudulently obtain compensation and purchases of products and services.