The House Ethics Committee got hold of records showing that former Florida Congressman and Attorney General nominee Matt Gaetz paid more than $10,000 to two women who later testified to the panel and the Justice Department, according to ABC News.
The records include a check and Venmo payments sent between July 2017 and late January 2019. During that period, he’s alleged to have made 27 Venmo payments for a total of $10,224.02 to the witnesses. They were both over the age of 18 at the time. Gaetz won his first election to the House in 2016.
The payments were for between $100 and $700 and were displayed during testimony behind closed doors, according to ABC.
It has been previously reported that investigators with the House panel subpoenaed Venmo to get Gatez’s records and showed them to witnesses to ask if the payments were for drugs or sex. The witnesses testified that some of the payments were from Gaetz and were for sex, according to ABC News.
President-elect Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that Gaetz would be his choice for attorney general. Gaetz resigned from the House shortly after the announcement, days before the committee was set to deliberate on whether to make its report on its investigation into Gaetz public.
The Department of Justice investigated sexual misconduct allegations against Gaetz for years, but it told the former House representative last year that it would not be bringing any charges.
Gaetz has consistently and strongly rejected all allegations of wrongdoing.
Trump transition spokesperson Alex Pfeiffer told ABC News that “The Justice Department received access to roughly every financial transaction Matt Gaetz ever undertook and came to the conclusion that he committed no crime.”
“These leaks are meant to undermine the mandate from the people to reform the Justice Department,” he added.
“These are baseless allegations intended to derail the second Trump administration,” Pfeiffer said this week.
The alleged Venmo payments included descriptions such as “gift,” “cartrages,” “car deductible,” and “refreshments,” while further entries stated “travel” and another cited a flight but also included the words “extra 4 u.”
The alleged flight payment could be linked to a trip in September 2018 to the Bahamas, which was part of the Justice Department’s investigation into the former Congressman, according to ABC News.
Records reveal that in other payments, the wrapped gift emoji or the hug emoji was used. In early 2019, both of the witnesses got payments for “travel” which was around the time that Gaetz is alleged to have arranged for two women to fly to New York for sex and to come with him when he was set to appear on Outnumbered on Fox News.
The Ethics panel also got ahold of a signed check dated October 2018, allegedly from Gaetz. The memo stated “tuition reimbursement” and a witness told the panel that it was Gaetz who gave her the check, a source told ABC News.
Gaetz has rejected claims that he paid for sex, arguing that “someone is trying to recategorize my generosity to ex-girlfriends as something more untoward.”
On Wednesday, the Ethics Committee is set to meet to discuss the report and possibly vote on if they should release it to the public. The investigation ended when Gaetz left his House seat.
