The House Ethics Committee found “substantial evidence” that former Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz solicited prostitutes, used illicit drugs like cocaine and ecstasy and may have violated Florida’s statutory rape law while he was a member of Congress, according to a long-awaited report released Monday.
The committee interviewed a witness who said she had sex with Gaetz twice at a party in Florida while she was still 17, and multiple witnesses corroborated the account, according to the report.
“The Committee concluded there was substantial evidence that Representative Gaetz violated House Rules, state and federal laws, and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, acceptance of impermissible gifts, the provision of special favors and privileges, and obstruction of Congress,” the report states.
Gaetz, who resigned from Congress last month and from consideration as President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for U.S. attorney general, has repeatedly denied the allegations.
Earlier Monday, the former congressman filed a lawsuit as a last-ditch effort to block the release of the report, which had already been leaked to several outlets, including CNN and ABC News.
“This action challenges the Committee’s unconstitutional and ultra vires attempt to exercise jurisdiction over a private citizen through the threatened release of an investigative report containing potentially defamatory allegations,” the filing stated.
Gaetz has long battled allegations of misconduct, including that he had sex with a minor and used illicit drugs. ABC News reported in November that he paid more than $10,000 to two women who were later witnesses in both Justice Department and House probes into his alleged sexual misconduct. Gaetz has not been charged with any crimes, a point he made in a lengthy social media post Wednesday after learning the report would be made public.
The House Ethics Committee, like the Justice Department, did not find sufficient evidence that Gaetz violated federal sex trafficking laws. Committee investigators, though, did find evidence that Gaetz regularly paid for sex while a member in the House.
“In my single days, I often sent funds to women I dated — even some I never dated but who asked,” Gaetz wrote on social media Wednesday. “I dated several of these women for years. I NEVER had sexual contact with someone under 18. Any claim that I have would be destroyed in court — which is why no such claim was ever made in court.
“My 30’s were an era of working very hard — and playing hard too,” said Gaetz, who is now 42.
At least two individuals testified before Ethics Committee investigators that they had witnessed Gaetz using cocaine and ecstasy. According to the report, Gaetz also set up a “pseudonymous e-mail account from his House office in the Capitol complex for the purpose of purchasing marijuana.”
In addition, the Ethics panel found that he made “tens of thousands of dollars in payments to women that the Committee determined were likely in connection with sexual activity and/or drug use.” Per the report, Gaetz would occasionally pay women using “another person’s PayPal account or through an account tied to a pseudonymous e-mail.”
The committee interviewed more than half a dozen “witnesses who attended parties, events, and trips with Representative Gaetz from 2017-2020. Nearly every young woman that the Committee interviewed confirmed that she was paid for sex by, or on behalf of, Representative Gaetz,” the report states, although some of those relationships were described as “a date-for-hire arrangement that may not necessarily implicate state prostitution laws.”
Gaetz, according to the report, declined to answer the committee’s questions about the payments he made to the women.
One of those payments, in the amount of $400 in cash, was allegedly made to the 17-year-old, identified in the report as Victim A, with whom Gaetz is alleged to have had sex at a July 15, 2017, party at a Florida lobbyist’s home, according to the report. The report states that Victim A “did not inform Representative Gaetz that she was under 18 at the time, nor did he ask her age,” but it also notes that a person charged with statory rape in Florida “may not claim ignorance or misrepresentation of the minor’s age as a defense.”
Under Florida law, it is a felony for a person 24 years of age or older to engage in sexual activity with a 16- or 17-year-old.
The victim told the committee that she had sex with Gaetz twice during the party, including at least once in the presence of other attendees. “At the time, she had just completed her junior year of high school,” the report states.
Under scrutiny
It has been a whirlwind nearly two months for Gaetz and the normally secretive Ethics panel, which is made up of five Republicans and five Democrats.
Shortly after winning a fifth term representing Florida’s 1st District last month, Gaetz announced his resignation from Congress on Nov. 13, the same day Trump announced him as his choice for attorney general. News of Gaetz’s potential promotion sparked outrage from Democrats and some Republicans, along with demands that the Ethics report be made public, or at least shared with senators who would be tasked with confirming the Florida Republican.
Amid the uproar, Gaetz pulled his name from consideration on Nov. 21, seemingly imperiling the release of the report. The Ethics Committee does not have jurisdiction over former members, and cases end when a member leaves office. The committee has in some cases, however, released reports after a member has resigned.
Gaetz, who on Sunday teased a potential Senate run from Florida in 2026, is expected to join the One America News network next month as an anchor.
On Dec. 5, the committee met for a second time on the Gaetz report and issued a statement saying members were “continuing to discuss the matter.” The same day, two separate attempts by Democrats to force the committee to release the report were rejected on the House floor.
According to the Ethics report, the committee voted to release the report at a subsequent meeting on Dec. 10. Assuming all five Democrats backed the release of the report, at least one Republican would have also had to vote in favor of making the document public, though the exact breakdown remains unclear.
House Ethics Chairman Michael Guest, a Mississippi Republican, was among the committee members who objected to the release of the report.
“While we do not challenge the Committee’s findings, we take great exception that the majority deviated from the Committee’s well-established standards and voted to release a report on an individual no longer under the Committee’s jurisdiction, an action the Committee has not taken since 2006,” Guest said in a dissenting view attached to the report.
Democrats, including Illinois Rep. Sean Casten, who introduced one of the measures that would have forced the release of the report, cheered the news.
“The release of the Gaetz Report is welcome news for all who care about integrity, accountability, and transparency in the U.S. House of Representatives,” Casten said in a statement Monday.
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