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U.S. Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL) listens to testimony during a U.S. House Judiciary Committee hearing titled “Undue Influence: Higher Court Operation and Politicking at SCOTUS,” examining the allegations that former anti-abortion leader Rev. Robert Schenck had an early word. of the outcome of a major US Supreme Court case in 2014 involving contraceptives written by conservative Justice Samuel Alito, on Capitol Hill in Washington, United States, December 8, 2022.
Evelyn Hockstein Reuters
U House Ethics Committee On Monday, he revealed that he found “substantial evidence” that former Rep. Republican Matt Gaetz had sex with a 17-year-old girl in 2017, and that he “regularly” paid women for sex while he was in Congress.
The panel, in a final report in its years-long investigation into Gaetz, it also found that he used illegal drugs, including cocaine and ecstasy, on several occasions between 2017 and 2019.
Gaetz also accepted gifts, including a 2018 trip to the Bahamas, “in excess of allowable amounts,” the bipartisan committee concluded.
“Representative Gaetz acted in a manner that reflects discreditably on the House,” the report said.
The committee said it found “substantial evidence that Representative Gaetz violated the Rules of the House, state and federal laws, and other standards of conduct that prohibit prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, the ‘acceptance of inadmissible gifts, the provision of favors and special privileges, and the obstruction of Congress’.
But it did not find sufficient evidence that Gaetz violated a federal sex-trafficking law, even though he “caused the transportation of women across state lines for purposes of commercial sex.” The panel said it found no evidence that the women were under 18 when the trip took place, and could not conclude that “the commercial sexual acts were induced by force, fraud or coercion.”
Gaetz has denied wrongdoing.
An attorney for Gaetz did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on the report. When the report was released, Gaetz in a series of X posts denied that he had participated in prostitution or sex trafficking.
“There is a reason they did this to me in a Christmas Eve report and not in a courtroom of any kind where I could present evidence and challenge witnesses,” Gaetz wrote in a post.
Hours before the long-awaited report, Gaetz asked a federal judge to issue a temporary restraining order which will prevent his release.
Trump’s first AG pick
The ethics panel’s report, the final product of an investigation that began in 2021, was at the center of a recent storm of controversy surrounding the former Florida lawmaker.
Gaetz, 42, resigned from Congress in mid-November, shortly after being elected president. Donald Trump he chose him to be the attorney general of the United States. Trump’s selection to lead the Justice Department immediately drew an outcry from critics, who were quick to point out that Gaetz, if confirmed, would be in charge of the agency that had previously investigated him over trafficking allegations sexual
U Department of Justice completed this investigation without filing criminal charges. But the Ethics Committee, which had paused its efforts while the DOJ’s version played out, reauthorized its investigation in May 2023.
When Gaetz left Congress, Republicans, including ethics chairman Michael Guest, R-Miss., said he was no longer in the committee’s jurisdiction, casting doubt on whether his report would be released.
The news items reported at the time Gaetz’s departure came just two days before the Ethics panel was set to vote to release the report. The panel, which is evenly split between Democrats and Republicans, impasto on whether to share the report despite Gaetz no longer being a congressman.
But in a secret ballot on December 10, the committee decided that the report should come out.
Gaetz withdrew his bid for attorney general after just eight days as Trump’s pick, saying it was “unfairly becoming a distraction” for the Republican president-elect’s transition efforts.
This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.
