According to reports, former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R) of Florida has been found by a House of Representatives Ethics Committee investigation to have paid a 17-year-old for sex and used illegal drugs while in office.
Gaetz, the sex-scandal-plagued Republican who recently resigned from President-elect Donald Trump’s position as attorney general, violated several state laws regarding sexual misconduct during his time in office, according to CBS News, which obtained a final version of the report.
CNN also reported details of the panel’s findings.
Investigators reportedly found “substantial evidence” that Gaetz violated House rules and other standards of conduct “prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illegal drug use, impermissible gifts, special favors or privileges, and obstruction of Congress.”
According to the reports, the panel noted more than $90,000 in payments to 12 women — including a 17-year-old — that the committee “determined were likely related to sexual activity and/or drug use.”
The panel wrote that it did not believe that Gaetz had violated federal sex trafficking laws, writing that “although Representative Gaetz arranged for women to be transported across state lines for the purpose of commercial sex, the committee found no evidence that a of these women were younger than 18 years old. at the time of the trip, nor did the committee find sufficient evidence to conclude that the commercial sex acts were caused by force, fraud or coercion.”
Details of the report come days after media stories emerged that the committee held a secret ballot to change course and make public its report on allegations of sex trafficking, illegal drug use and other misconduct by Gaetz, who denies all allegations . Earlier this month, a vote in the full House on whether to make the report public failed, largely along party lines.
Trump’s choice of Gaetz turned the Republican’s career as he knew it upside down. When he accepted the nomination last month, he resigned his seat in the House of Representatives, to which he had just won re-election, saying it would allow Florida to appoint his replacement in time for the next Congress. Notably, giving up his seat also meant that the House of Representatives committee could no longer continue its ethics investigation into him.
But his plans began to fall apart almost immediately when Republicans began to openly question his suitability to lead the Justice Department. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) gave perhaps the bluntest answer when HuffPost asked about his initial reaction to the Gaetz nomination: “Are you shittin’ me?”
Just over a week after Trump announced him as his pick for attorney general, as it became clear that senators were increasingly unlikely to confirm someone dogged by so many accusations, Gaetz withdrew his acceptance of the nomination. His upcoming confirmation process, he claimed, was “unfairly becoming a distraction from the work of the Trump transition team.
The next day, Gaetz said he would not return to Congress.
By then, reports had emerged that the House committee’s investigation had concluded and that it would be days before a vote on whether to issue a report on the findings when he dropped out. Top members of the Senate quickly called on the committee to release the results of its investigation.
Then-Rep. Matt Gaetz speaks at the Republican National Convention in July. Leon Neal via Getty Images
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told reporters Thursday that the committee should “absolutely” release its report, adding that he “didn’t want there to be any restriction on the what the Senate might consider” when weighing Gaetz’s nomination.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the Senate majority whip, said the circumstances surrounding Gaetz’s resignation raise suspicion.
“The sequence and timing of Mr. Gaetz’s resignation from the House of Representatives raises serious questions about the contents of the House Ethics Committee report,” he told reporters. “We cannot allow this valuable information from a bipartisan investigation to remain hidden from the American people.”
Public scrutiny of Gaetz’s possible criminal activities first arose after the Justice Department opened an investigation into him in 2020 for allegedly sex trafficking a 17-year-old girl in 2017 and soliciting women to recruit others for sex. Gaetz denied all allegations. The Justice Department ultimately decided not to file charges against the congressman.
But a concurrent House investigation remained ongoing. That investigation examined the possibility that he “engaged in sexual misconduct and/or illegal drug use, shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused his identification information, converted campaign funds for personal use and/or accepted bribes. , inappropriate gratuity or impermissible gift,” according to the commission’s 2021 announcement.
Amid the Gaetz fallout, Trump nominated Pam Bondi, a longtime ally who represented him during one of his impeachment trials, as his new pick for attorney general.
This is a development story. Check back later for updates.
