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The House Ethics Committee on Monday accused Matt Gaetz of “regularly” paying for sex, including with a 17-year-old girl, and buying and using illegal drugs as a member of Congress.
The bipartisan panel’s 37-page report includes graphic details about the parties and sex-filled vacations Gaetz, now 42, took part in from 2017 to 2020 while representing the Florida bum.
Congressional investigators concluded that Gaetz violated multiple state laws related to sexual misconduct while in office, but not federal sex-trafficking laws. They also found that Gaetz “knowingly and willfully sought to obstruct and obstruct” the committee’s work.
“The committee found substantial evidence that Rep. Gaetz violated the House Rules and other standards of conduct that prohibit prostitution, statutory rape, use of illicit drugs, illicit gifts, special favors or privileges, and obstruction of Congress,” the report said.
A report by the House Ethics Committee found that former Florida congressman Matt Gaetz violated ‘House Rules and other standards of conduct that prohibit prostitution, statutory rape, use of illegal drugs, illegal gifts, special favors or privileges, and obstruction of Congress,’ according to the report. CBS and CNN, which say they have received a final draft of the investigative report.
Ahead of the report’s release, Gaetz denied any wrongdoing and criticized the committee’s actions.
“Giving money to someone you’re dating — who didn’t ask for it — and who wasn’t ‘paid’ for sex, is now prostitution?!?” he posted on X, the website formerly known as Twitter. “There’s a reason they did this to me in the Christmas Eve report and not in any courtroom where I could give evidence and challenge witnesses.”
Lawmakers are painting a damning portrait of Gaetz’s behavior, using dozens of pages of evidence, including text messages and financial information, travel receipts, checks and online payments, to document a lifestyle fueled by parties and drugs. The commission said it gathered evidence after issuing 29 subpoenas for documents and testimony and contacting more than two dozen witnesses.
In addition to soliciting prostitution, the Ethics Commission’s report states that Gaetz “received gifts, including transportation and lodging in connection with a trip to the Bahamas in 2018, in amounts greater than permitted.”
That same year, investigators say Gaetz arranged for his chief of staff to obtain a passport for a woman he had a sexual relationship with, falsely telling the State Department that she was his constituent.
The texts show Gaetz inviting women to events, the panel says
In some of the messages, Gaetz appears to invite various women to events, outings or parties, and arranges for air travel and lodging. At one point she asks a woman if she has a “cute black dress” to wear. There are also discussions about shipping goods.
One of the exhibits is a text exchange that appears to be between two women concerned about their cash flow and payments. In the second, a person asks Gaetz for help paying for education costs.
Former US Congressman Matt Gaetz has withdrawn his name from consideration for President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general, saying his confirmation is becoming a distraction.
In a last-ditch effort to stop the release of the report, Gaetz filed a lawsuit Monday asking the court to intervene, citing what he called “untrue and defamatory information” that would “significantly harm” his “statue and reputation in the community.” ” Gaetz’s complaint claims he is no longer under the committee’s jurisdiction since he resigned from Congress.
“The committee’s position that it is still allowed to publish potentially defamatory findings about a private citizen over whom it claims it has no jurisdiction represents an unprecedented expansion of congressional power that threatens fundamental constitutional rights and established procedural protections,” Gaetz’s lawyers wrote in their request for a temporary stay of the order.
Investigated claims from 2021
The often secretive, bipartisan panel has been investigating the allegations against Gaetz since 2021. But his job took on more urgency last month when Trump selected him shortly after Election Day as his first choice for the nation’s top law enforcement officer. Gaetz submitted his resignation to Congress the same day, putting him outside the jurisdiction of the Ethics Committee.
But Democrats pressed for the report to be released even after Gaetz was no longer a member and stepped down as Trump’s pick to lead the Justice Department. A vote in the House of Representatives this month to force the release of the report failed; all but one Republican voted against it.
The report concludes a nearly five-year investigation into Gaetz. The announcement came after at least one Republican joined all five Democrats on the panel earlier this month in a secret vote to release the report on their former colleague despite initial opposition from GOP lawmakers, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, to releasing the findings on the former congressman.
Earlier, CNN, which said it had obtained a copy of the report before its release, said the panel was investigating transactions Gaetz made personally, often using PayPal or Venmo, with more than a dozen women during his time in Congress.
The report found that Gaetz paid more than $90,000 to 12 different women, payments that the Ethics Commission determined were likely related to sexual activity and drug use, CBS reported. who also said she had received a copy of the report before publication.
He had sex twice with a 17-year-old girl, the panel heard
The ethics panel received testimony that Gaetz had sex twice with a 17-year-old girl, described in the report as “Victim A,” at a party in 2017, CBS reported.
“Victim A recalled receiving $400 in cash from Deputy Gaetz that evening, which she took to be payment for sex,” the CBS report quoted. “Victim A said she did not inform Deputy Gaetz that she was under the age of 18 at the time, nor did he ask about her age.”
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The ethics commission said there was insufficient evidence that the three-term congressman violated federal sex-trafficking statutes, CBS reported.
All the women who testified said the sexual relations with Gaetz were voluntary, according to CBS.
However, one woman told the committee that drug use at parties and events they attended may have “reduced (reduced) their ability to really know what was going on or to fully consent.”
Another woman told the board, “When I look back at certain moments, I feel hurt.”
The report found that Gaetz violated house rules and other standards of conduct that prohibit prostitution, statutory rape and drug use, CBS reported.
It also found “substantial evidence” that Gaetz was involved in the use of illegal drugs, CBS reported. It accused him of accepting gifts in the form of luxury travel that exceed permissible limits with a trip to the Bahamas in 2018, CBS added.
