WASHINGTON — The Home Ethics Committee on Monday accused Matt Gaetz of “frequently” paying for intercourse, together with as soon as with a 17-year-old woman, and buying and utilizing illicit medicine as a member of Congress, as lawmakers launched the conclusions of a virtually four-year investigation that helped sink his nomination for legal professional common.
The 37-page report by the bipartisan panel contains specific particulars of sex-filled events and holidays that Gaetz, now 42, took half in from 2017 to 2020 whereas the Republican represented Florida’s western Panhandle.
Congressional investigators concluded that Gaetz violated a number of state legal guidelines associated to sexual misconduct whereas in workplace, although not federal intercourse trafficking legal guidelines. Additionally they discovered that Gaetz “knowingly and willfully sought to impede and hinder” the committee’s work.
“The Committee decided there may be substantial proof that Consultant Gaetz violated Home Guidelines and different requirements of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, impermissible items, particular favors or privileges, and obstruction of Congress,” the report mentioned.
Earlier than the report got here out, Gaetz denied any wrongdoing and criticized the committee’s course of.
“Giving funds to somebody you’re relationship — that they didn’t ask for — and that isn’t ‘charged’ for intercourse is now prostitution?!?” he posted on X, the web site previously generally known as Twitter. “There’s a motive they did this to me in a Christmas Eve-Eve report and never in a courtroom of any form the place I may current proof and problem witnesses.”
Gaetz, first elected in 2017, spent the vast majority of his time in Washington enmeshed in scandals that finally derailed his choice by President-elect Donald Trump to steer the Justice Division. Gaetz abruptly resigned from Congress final month. His political future is unsure, though Gaetz has indicated curiosity in working for the open Senate seat in Florida.
Committee has the receipts
The committee painted a damning portrait of Gaetz’s conduct, utilizing dozens of pages of displays, together with textual content messages, monetary data, journey receipts, checks and on-line funds, to doc a celebration and drug-fueled way of life. The committee mentioned it compiled the proof after issuing 29 subpoenas for paperwork and testimony and contacting greater than two dozen witnesses.
Along with soliciting prostitution, the report mentioned Gaetz “accepted items, together with transportation and lodging in reference to a 2018 journey to the Bahamas, in extra of permissible quantities.”
That very same yr, investigators mentioned, Gaetz organized for a staffer to acquire a passport for a lady with whom he was sexually concerned, falsely telling the State Division she was his constituent.
In among the textual content exchanges made public, he gave the impression to be inviting numerous ladies to occasions, getaways or events, and arranging airplane journey and lodging. At one level he requested one girl if she had a “cute black gown” to put on. There have been additionally discussions of transport items.
One of many displays was a textual content change that gave the impression to be between two of the ladies involved about their money circulation and funds. In one other, an individual requested Gaetz for assist to pay an academic expense.
Concerning the 17-year-old woman, the report mentioned there was no proof Gaetz knew she was a minor when he had intercourse together with her. The lady instructed the committee she didn’t inform Gaetz she was underneath 18 on the time and that he discovered she was a minor greater than a month after the celebration.
However Gaetz stayed in contact together with her after that and met up together with her for “industrial intercourse” once more lower than six months after she turned 18, in accordance with the committee. Florida regulation says it’s a felony for an individual 24 or older to have intercourse with a minor. The regulation doesn’t enable a declare of ignorance or misrepresentation of a minor’s age as a protection.
Joel Leppard, who represents two ladies who instructed the committee that Gaetz paid them for intercourse, mentioned the findings “vindicate” the accounts of his purchasers and “reveal their credibility.”
“We respect the Committee’s dedication to transparency in releasing this complete report so the reality could be identified,” Leppard mentioned in an announcement.
Many in GOP opposed releasing report
Not less than one Republican joined all 5 Democrats on the committee earlier this month in voting to launch the report regardless of preliminary opposition from GOP lawmakers, together with Home Speaker Mike Johnson, to publishing findings a few former member of Congress.
Whereas ethics stories have beforehand been launched after a member’s resignation, this can be very uncommon.
On behalf of the Republicans who voted in opposition to making the report public, the committee chairman, Rep. Michael Visitor of Mississippi, wrote that whereas the members didn’t problem the findings, “we take nice exception that almost all deviated from the Committee’s well-established requirements,” to drop any investigation when an individual will not be longer a member of the chamber.
Visitor added that releasing this report units a precedent that “is a harmful departure with doubtlessly catastrophic penalties.”
However Maryland Rep. Glenn Ivey, a Democratic member of the committee, mentioned that for transparency, it was essential for the general public and Congress as an establishment to learn the findings.
“I believe that’s necessary for my colleagues right here within the Home to understand how the committee critiques sure acts,” he instructed The Related Press. “A few of these have been clearly conduct that crossed the road, however a few of them weren’t.”
Mounting a last-ditch effort to halt the publication of the report, Gaetz filed a lawsuit Monday asking a federal court docket to intervene. He cited what he known as “untruthful and defamatory info” that might “considerably harm” his “standing and status in the neighborhood.” Gaetz’s criticism argued that he was now not underneath the committee’s jurisdiction as a result of he had resigned from Congress.
The usually secretive, bipartisan committee has investigated claims in opposition to Gaetz since 2021. However its work grew to become extra pressing final month when Trump picked him shortly after the Nov. 5 election Day to be the nation’s prime regulation enforcement officer. Gaetz resigned from Congress that very same day, placing him exterior the purview of the committee’s jurisdiction.
However Democrats had pressed to make the report public even after Gaetz was now not within the Home and had withdrawn from consideration for Trump’s Cupboard. A vote on the Home ground this month to power the report’s launch failed; all however one Republican voted in opposition to it.
No federal fees
The committee detailed its start-and-stop investigation over the previous a number of years, which was halted for a time because the Justice Division carried out its personal inquiry of Gaetz. Federal prosecutors by no means introduced a case in opposition to him.
Lawmakers mentioned they requested the Justice Division for details about its investigation, however the company refused at hand over info, saying it doesn’t disclose details about investigations that don’t lead to fees.
The committee then subpoenaed the division for data. After a back-and-forth between division officers and the committee, the division solely handed over “publicly reported details about the testimony of a deceased particular person,” in accordance with the committee’s report.
The report mentioned Gaetz was “uncooperative” all through the committee’s investigation. He offered “minimal documentation” in response to the committee’s requests, it mentioned. “He additionally didn’t conform to a voluntary interview.”
Contributing: Related Press author Alanna Durkin Richer
