The House Ethics Committee report on former Rep. Matt Gaetz offers some hints as to why the Justice Department decided not to prosecute the former Florida congressman after an extensive federal investigation into whether he engaged in sex trafficking.
The decision likely stemmed from concerns about the strength of the evidence and the department’s history of narrowly enforcing sex trafficking laws, former prosecutors said Monday.
Modern federal sex trafficking law is limited to cases involving coercion, fraud, or interstate or international movement of minors for sex. Despite damning evidence of widespread violations of law and House rules by Gaetz, the Ethics Committee report found no such factors.
An older statute, known as the Mann Act, extends more broadly, but the Justice Department has discretion to limit its application to particularly egregious cases of human trafficking.
The most egregious accusation Gaetz faces is having sex with a 17-year-old. But the Ethics Commission report does not say he transported or arranged for the alleged victim across state lines — an important point because some connection to interstate commerce is required for it to become a federal sex trafficking crime. The report also says the then-17-year-old told investigators that she had not told Gaetz her age at the time, and that he had not asked.
The report bluntly accuses Gaetz of violating Florida’s statutory rape law. But it concluded that a state prosecution is impossible at this point because he allegedly had sex with the 17-year-old in 2017, and the state’s statute of limitations has expired.
The report also found “substantial evidence” that Gaetz committed other illegal conduct, including hiring prostitutes and using illegal drugs. Some of that conduct involved interstate commerce – but federal prosecutors likely believed it did not rise to the level of what is typically prosecuted under the relevant federal statutes.
The Mann Act has traditionally been reserved “for situations involving serious forms of human trafficking and exploitation of victims,” said Margaret Gandy, a former federal prosecutor.
Because Gaetz’s alleged interstate and international conduct involved women over 18 and did not involve force or coercion, DOJ may not have deemed it an appropriate Mann Act case to charge, Gandy said.
“If it’s exploitative and abusive, if there’s obvious physical violence, coercion, coercion and all those things, that makes it easy,” Gandy said. “There is sometimes more of a gray area around more transactional sex with consenting adults that warrants that extra pause and consideration.”
Another former federal prosecutor, Robert Bittman, agreed that the department rarely files sex trafficking charges in cases involving consensual sex between adults, even when the money changes hands.
“It’s a crime, it’s a statute that they can prosecute — but it’s not a high priority,” he said. “It’s not something that is often prosecuted, and really would only be prosecuted if there are significant other aggravating factors.”
Federal prosecutors have also historically hesitated to bring cases involving quid pro quo sex involving anything other than explicit payment.
The Justice Department completed its investigation into Gaetz last year. A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment.
However, a law enforcement official said all DOJ decisions about Gaetz were made by career prosecutors. The official, who was granted anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, added that this has been standard practice for the Public Integrity Section, which handles sensitive investigations into political figures.
An attorney for Gaetz did not respond to a request for comment, and Gaetz sent reporters seeking comment on his social media posts.
“There is a reason why they did this to me in a report on Christmas Eve and not in a courtroom of any kind where I could present evidence and challenge witnesses,” Gaetz wrote on in the report were true. inaccurate. He has repeatedly denied having sex with anyone under the age of 18 and said the money he transferred to women was intended to compensate girlfriends or ex-girlfriends for their travels.
Chris Dorworth, the former Florida state representative in whose home Gaetz allegedly had sex with the 17-year-old, denounced the report, saying its release was an act of retaliation against Gaetz for helping to topple former Speaker Kevin McCarthy to bring.
“This is clearly a bull’s-eye for Congress. It is painfully obvious that these women are lying,” Dorworth wrote on X. “This is a shakedown that caught fire because Matt kicked Kevin McCarthy out of his job. This DID NOT HAPPEN. Everything they said about my presence and the fact that I witnessed it is a lie.”
Last month, Donald Trump announced his intention to appoint Gaetz as attorney general — a post that would have put him in charge of federal prosecutors and FBI agents investigating him. Gaetz immediately resigned his seat in the House of Representatives, but eight days after Trump’s announcement, Gaetz threw in the towel on his AG bid after it became clear he did not have the votes to be confirmed.
Some former DOJ officials warned that the FBI’s decision not to pursue a criminal case does not amount to the “release” that Gaetz has repeatedly claimed.
“In general, the Justice Department’s decision not to charge an individual does not mean that he or she did not commit wrongdoing,” said former DOJ spokesman Anthony Coley. “Criminal prosecution is a high bar that depends on a variety of factors – evidence, witnesses, etc. In short, no charges do not mean full exoneration.”
The Mann Act, originally passed in 1910 and formally called the White-Slave Traffic Act, made it a crime to cross state lines “for the purpose of prostitution or licentiousness, or for any other immoral purpose.” The phrase about immoral activities has been used by some prosecutors to attack interracial couples as well as LGBTQ people.
Because of these concerns, Congress amended the law in 1986 to remove the reference to immorality while maintaining its application to prostitution and adding “any sexual activity for which a person may be charged with a criminal offense.”
Among the possible criminal violations discussed in the committee’s report is the possibility that Gaetz lied on financial disclosure reports by failing to disclose various gifts he received in the form of free travel or entertainment. Those reports are readily available, so prosecutors likely had them when they decided not to charge Gaetz last year.
The committee also suggested that Gaetz may have violated the law prohibiting obstruction of congressional proceedings through his “efforts to mislead and deter the panel’s investigators.”
The panel noted that it had subpoenaed Gaetz for his testimony and that he refused to appear without providing “a legal basis,” although he did provide some documents. The committee indicated that Gaetz told them he expected no effort would be made to enforce the subpoena against him, which turned out to be correct. Instead, the panel responded that it would make findings in the case without his testimony.
It is unclear whether the committee plans to seek permission to send its data to federal prosecutors to review possible charges. However, there is precedent for the Justice Department to bring charges against recalcitrant witnesses. Prosecutors have charged Trump ally Roger Stone with obstruction and lying after lawmakers turned over the transcript of his appearance to prosecutors.
