Trump ally Matt Gaetz paid for sex and drugs while in office, ethics report finds

23 December 2024, 21:48

The House Ethics Committee in the US has accused Florida Republican Matt Gaetz of "regularly" paying for sex, including with a 17-year-old girl, and purchasing and using illicit drugs all while he was a member of Congress.

Mr Gaetz has denied all wrongdoing.

The 37-page report by the bipartisan panel includes explicit details of sex-filled parties and holidays that Mr Gaetz, now 42, allegedly took part in from 2017 to 2020 while representing Florida's western panhandle.

The findings conclude that he violated multiple state laws related to sexual misconduct while in office.

"The committee determined there is substantial evidence that representative Gaetz violated House rules and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, impermissible gifts, special favours or privileges, and obstruction of Congress," the report states.

The report brings to a close a nearly four-year investigation into Mr Gaetz, who spent the majority of his time in Washington enmeshed in scandals, which ultimately derailed his nomination by President-elect Donald Trump as attorney general.

His political future is uncertain, although Mr Gaetz indicated recently that he would be interested in running for the open Senate seat in Florida.

The long-anticipated release of the report comes after at least one Republican joined all five Democrats on the panel earlier this month in a secret vote to release the report about their former colleague despite initial opposition from Republican politicians, including House speaker Mike Johnson, to publishing findings about a former member of Congress.

While ethics reports have previously been released after a member's resignation, it is extremely rare.

Mr Gaetz objected to its release, saying last week that he would have "no opportunity to debate or rebut" the findings as a former member of the House.

On Monday, Mr Gaetz filed a lawsuit seeking to block the release of the report, which he says contains "untruthful and defamatory information" that would "significantly damage" his "standing and reputation in the community."

Mr Gaetz's complaint argues he is no longer under the committee's jurisdiction since he resigned from Congress.

"The committee's position that it may nonetheless publish potentially defamatory findings about a private citizen over whom it claims no jurisdiction represents an unprecedented expansion of Congressional power that threatens fundamental constitutional rights and established procedural protections," Mr Gaetz's lawyers wrote in their request for a temporary restraining order.

In addition to soliciting prostitution, the Ethics Committee report states that Mr Gaetz "accepted gifts, including transportation and lodging in connection with a 2018 trip to the Bahamas, in excess of permissible amounts".

That same year, investigators say he arranged for his chief of staff to obtain a passport for a woman he was sexually involved with, falsely telling the State Department that she was his constituent.

One of the final pieces of "substantial evidence" the committee gathered determined that Mr Gaetz "knowingly and willfully sought to impede and obstruct" the report.

The report contains dozens of pages of exhibits, including text messages and financial records, travel receipts and online payments among various people involved.

In some of the text exchanges, Mr Gaetz appears to be inviting various women to events, getaways or parties, and arranging air travel and lodging. At one point he asks one woman if she has a "cute black dress" to wear. There are also discussions of shipping goods.

One of the exhibits is a text exchange that appears to be between two of the women concerned about their cash flow and payments. In another, a person asks Mr Gaetz for help to pay an educational expense.

The often secretive, bipartisan panel has investigated claims against Mr Gaetz since 2021.

However, its work became more urgent last month when Mr Trump picked him shortly after election day as his first choice to be the nation's top law enforcement officer.

Mr Gaetz resigned from Congress that same day, putting him outside the purview of the Ethics Committee's jurisdiction.

But Democrats had pressed to make the report public even after Mr Gaetz was no longer a member and had withdrawn as Mr Trump's choice to lead the Justice Department.

A vote on the House floor this month to force the report's release failed; all but one Republican voted against it.