WASHINGTON (AP) – The House Ethics Committee said Monday that Matt Gaetz “regularly” paid for sexual acts, including sex with a 17-year-old girl, and that he purchased and used illegal drugs while serving as a lawmaker. denounced. After nearly four years of investigation, his nomination for attorney general has been scuttled.
The 37-page report by the bipartisan committee includes explicit details of sex-filled parties and vacations that Gates, now 42, attended from 2017 to 2020 as general manager of West Florida. There is.
Congressional investigators concluded that Gates violated several state laws related to sexual misconduct while in office, although not federal sex trafficking laws. It also found that Gates “knowingly and knowingly attempted to obstruct and impede the work of the committee.”
“The committee finds that there is substantial evidence that Congressman Gaetz violated House rules and other standards of conduct that prohibit prostitution, statutory rape, illegal drug use, impermissible gifts, special favors and privileges, and obstruction of Congress. ,” the report states.
Ahead of the report’s release, Gaetz denied any wrongdoing and criticized the committee’s process.
“Is it now prostitution to offer unsolicited money to someone you’re dating, and who isn’t ‘charged’ for sex?” Posted on site X. “There’s a reason why they did this to me, not in a court of law where I could present evidence and challenge witnesses, but in the press on Christmas Eve and Eve. there is.”
Gaetz, a Republican who was first elected in 2017, spent much of his time in Washington embroiled in a scandal that ultimately derailed President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination for attorney general. Although his political future is uncertain, Gaetz has expressed interest in running for Florida’s open Senate seat.
Lawmakers used dozens of pages of exhibits, including text messages, financial records, travel receipts, checks and online payments, to document his partying and drug-fueled lifestyle and paint a damning portrait of Gaetz’s conduct. I’m drawing. The commission said it had compiled evidence after issuing 29 subpoenas for documents and testimony and contacting more than 20 witnesses.
In addition to soliciting prostitution, the Ethics Committee report said Gates “received gifts in excess of allowable amounts, including travel and lodging expenses, in connection with a 2018 trip to the Bahamas.” are.
That same year, Gaetz told the State Department that he arranged for his chief of staff to obtain a passport for a woman with whom he had a sexual relationship, falsely claiming that she was his voter, investigators said.
In some of the text message exchanges, Gates appears to invite various women to events, trips and parties, and arranges for their air travel and lodging. At one point, he asked a woman if she had a “cute black dress” to wear. We are also in discussions regarding shipping the product.
One of the exhibits is a text exchange that appears to have taken place between two women worried about cash flow and payments. In another case, a person asks Gates for help with education costs.
Regarding the 17-year-old girl, the report said there was no evidence that Gates knew she was a minor when he had sex with her, the committee said. The woman told the committee that she did not tell Gaetz that she was under 18 at the time and that Gaetz did not know how old she was.
Instead, the committee said Gates only learned she was underage more than a month after the party. However, the commission said he continued to communicate with her and met her again for “commercial sex” less than six months after she turned 18.
However, Florida law makes it a felony for a person over the age of 24 to have sex with a minor, and does not allow defenses such as claiming ignorance or lying about the minor’s age.
Joel Leppard, who represents two women who testified to the committee that Gates paid them for sex, said the findings “justified” his clients’ testimony and “challenged their credibility.” It proves that.”
“I appreciate the commission’s commitment to transparency in releasing this comprehensive report to help us know the truth,” Leppard said in a statement.
At least one Republican lawmaker joined all five Democrats on the Ethics Committee earlier this month, even though Republicans, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, initially opposed the release of the findings on the former lawmaker. He voted in favor of releasing a report on his former colleague.
There have been cases in the past where ethics reports have been released after members resigned, but this is extremely unusual.
Rep. Michael Guest (Mississippi), chairman of the Ethics Committee, said on behalf of the Republicans who voted against releasing the report that while the committee members do not dispute the report’s findings, “a majority We take great exception to any deviation from the Society’s established standards.” ” means that any investigation will cease if a person is no longer a member of the chamber.
“We believe that operating beyond the jurisdiction established by House rules and committee standards, especially when making public disclosures, is a dangerous deviation with potentially devastating consequences.” wrote Mr. Guest.
Gates launched a last-ditch effort to block publication of the report, citing what he called “untrue and defamatory information” on Monday that would “severely damage his standing and reputation in the community.” , filed a lawsuit seeking court intervention. ” Gates’ complaint alleges that he is no longer under the committee’s jurisdiction because he has resigned from Congress.
“The commission’s position that it may publish potentially defamatory findings about private citizens it claims it lacks jurisdiction threatens fundamental constitutional rights and established procedural protections. “This represents an unprecedented expansion of Congressional power,” Gaetz’s lawyers wrote in their motion for a temporary restraining order. order.
The often secretive bipartisan commission has been investigating the allegations against Gaetz since 2021. But that work took on added urgency last month when President Trump selected him as his first choice for the nation’s top law enforcement official shortly after Election Day. Gaetz resigned from Congress on the same day and is no longer under the jurisdiction of the Ethics Committee.
But Democrats pressed for the report to be released even after Gaetz dropped out of Congress and declined President Trump’s nomination to lead the Justice Department. A vote in the full House of Commons this month to force the report’s publication failed. All but one Republican voted no.
The committee detailed the opening and closing of the investigation over the past several years, which had been suspended as the Justice Department conducted its own investigation into Gaetz. Federal prosecutors did not indict him.
Lawmakers asked the Justice Department for information about the investigation, but the agency said it refused to provide information, saying it does not disclose information about investigations that do not result in an indictment.
The committee subsequently issued a subpoena to the Department of Justice for records, but after correspondence between Justice Department officials and the committee, the department said it had “not made public statements regarding the testimony of deceased individuals,” according to the report. He submitted only “information that was previously reported.”
“To date, the Department of Justice has not provided the committee with any meaningful evidence or information, nor has it cited a legal basis for its response,” the committee said.
In releasing its report, the committee added that Gaetz had also been “uncooperative” throughout the investigation. He said he provided “minimal documentation” in response to the committee’s request. “He did not consent to any interviews.”
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