Gaetz Paid for Sex, Used Drugs While in Congress, Panel Finds
(Bloomberg) -- House investigators found “substantial evidence” former Representative Matt Gaetz paid several women — including a 17-year-old girl — for sex and bought and used illegal drugs while in Congress, according to a bipartisan committee report released Monday.
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Gaetz, who President-elect Donald Trump initially nominated to be his attorney general, had asked a court to prevent the report’s release, but his paperwork was filed incorrectly.
The committee wrote there was ample 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.”
In addition to the sexual misconduct, the committee found evidence that Gaetz used illicit drugs and created a fake email from his Capitol Hill official congressional office “for the purpose of purchasing marijuana.” The report also accuses Gaetz of accepting excessive undisclosed gifts, including a 2018 Bahamas vacation.
Gaetz, a Florida Republican who has repeatedly denied all wrongdoing, in November resigned his congressional seat and bowed out of consideration to be Trump’s attorney general amid opposition to his confirmation from GOP senators. But the details in the report still raise questions about his political future, including a possible run for governor of Florida.
Gaetz’s lawyers did not respond to requests for comment Monday. Gaetz dismissed the allegations in a series of posts on X Monday.
Last week, Gaetz posted that a Justice Department investigation into the same allegations, which didn’t result in charges, exonerated him. He added that the Ethics Committee relied on witnesses that federal prosecutors concluded were not credible. In the report Monday, the panel said it found testimony from witnesses it heard “credible.”
“It’s embarrassing, though not criminal, that I probably partied, womanized, drank and smoked more than I should have earlier in life. I live a different life now,” he wrote.
Gaetz, 42, was always a controversial choice for the top job at Justice, not only because of the lingering ethics questions surrounding him. He also spearheaded efforts in October 2023 to topple then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy over passage of a short-term spending bill to avoid a government shutdown.
That move left the House without a speaker — and unable to pass legislation — for about three weeks as various Republicans failed to win enough votes to secure the job. The GOP caucus ultimately elected the current speaker — Louisiana Representative Mike Johnson — as McCarthy’s replacement.
The bipartisan Ethics Committee had initially voted to keep the report under wraps after Gaetz resigned from office. The decision to release the report shows that at least one Republican joined with Democrats to vote for its publication.
It’s unusual — but not unprecedented — for the committee to put out a report about a former member.
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