Legislative committee accuses Gaetz of “regularly” paying for sex, including to a minor

The U.S. House Ethics Committee on Monday accused former congressman Matt Gaetz of “regularly” paying women, including a 17-year-old girl, for sex and of purchasing and using illicit drugs while the Florida Republican was a member. congressional.

The often secret bipartisan panel has investigated allegations against Gaetz since 2021. However, its work became more urgent last month when President-elect Donald Trump nominated him as attorney general. Gaetz resigned from Congress that same day, leaving him outside the jurisdiction of the Ethics Committee.

The bipartisan panel’s 37-page report includes explicit details of sex parties and vacations that Gaetz, now 42, participated in while representing the northwestern region of Florida known as the Panhandle.

It further determined that Gaetz violated multiple state laws against sexual misconduct while in office.

“The Committee determined that there is substantial evidence that Representative Gaetz violated House Rules and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, impermissible gifts, special favors or privileges, and obstruction of Congress,” the report states.

The report ends a nearly five-year investigation into Gaetz. Its release comes after at least one Republican joined the panel’s five Democrats earlier this month in a secret ballot to release the report on his former colleague despite initial opposition from GOP lawmakers, including the president. the lower house, Mike Johnson.

Although there have been cases where an ethics report is released after a lawmaker resigns, it is extremely unusual. Gaetz has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, saying last week that he would have “no opportunity to debate or refute” the findings as he has resigned his seat.

On Monday, Gaetz sued to block the report’s release, saying it contains “false and defamatory information” that would “significantly harm” his “standing and reputation in the community.” He argues that he is no longer under the committee’s jurisdiction since he resigned from Congress.

“The Committee’s position that it can nevertheless publish potentially defamatory findings about a private citizen over whom it claims no jurisdiction represents an unprecedented expansion of Congressional power that threatens fundamental constitutional rights and established procedural protections,” the committees wrote. Gaetz’s attorneys in his request for a temporary restraining order.

But Democrats pushed to make the report public even after Gaetz resigned his seat and then abandoned his bid for attorney general. A vote on the House floor this month to force the report’s release failed; all but one Republican voted against it.

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