The House Ethics Committee accused Matt Gaetz of regularly paying women for sex, including a 17-year-old girl, and purchasing and using illicit drugs while he was a member of Congress.
The bipartisan panel’s 37-page report detailed explicit accounts of sex-filled parties and vacations involving Gaetz in Florida’s western panhandle, concluding that he violated multiple state laws related to sexual misconduct during his time in office.
The big picture: The report stated that there is substantial evidence of Gaetz violating House Rules and standards of conduct, including prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, impermissible gifts, special favors, privileges, and obstruction of Congress.
- The release of the report followed a nearly five-year investigation into Gaetz, with at least one Republican joining all five Democrats on the panel in a secret vote to publish the findings despite initial opposition from GOP lawmakers.
- Gaetz, who has consistently denied any wrongdoing, filed a lawsuit to block the report’s release, claiming it contains defamatory information that would harm his reputation, arguing that he is no longer under the committee’s jurisdiction since he resigned from Congress.
Driving the news: The Ethics Committee had been investigating claims against Gaetz since 2021, with the urgency increasing when he was nominated as attorney general by President-elect Donald Trump, leading to Gaetz’s resignation from Congress on the same day and Democrats pressuring for the report’s public release even after Gaetz’s departure and withdrawal as Trump’s nominee.
- A House floor vote to force the report’s release this month failed, with nearly all Republicans voting against making the report public despite Gaetz no longer being a member of Congress.
