A key Trump ally paid thousands of dollars for drugs and sex, including with a seventeen-year-old girl, a US congressional report has alleged.
Former Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz, who denies wrongdoing, resigned from the House of Representatives last month after he was selected by President-elect Donald Trump to be attorney general. He later stood down from consideration from that position after opposition in the Senate.
The US House Ethics Committee report, which was published on Monday, found that Gaetz, who denied wrongdoing, paid more than $90,000 to 12 different women, which it said were likely for sex and drugs.
CNN and CBS reported that his actions violated Florida state laws.
The Ethics panel received testimony that Gaetz had sex twice with a 17-year-old girl, described in the report as "Victim A," at a party in 2017.
"Victim A recalled receiving $400 in cash from Representative Gaetz that evening, which she understood to be payment for sex," the report states.
"Victim A said that she did not inform Representative Gaetz that she was under 18 at the time, nor did he ask her age."
Gaetz was the subject of a three-year FBI investigation into allegations of sex trafficking that produced no criminal charges.
"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 favors or privileges, and obstruction of Congress," the report stated in its conclusion.
While Gaetz was found to have been involved in transporting women across state lines for the purposes of commercial sex, the panel said it did not find evidence that any of the women were under 18 at the time of travel.
"Nor did the committee find sufficient evidence to conclude that the commercial sex acts were induced by force, fraud, or coercion," the report said.
The panel said there was not sufficient evidence that the three-term congressman violated the federal sex trafficking statute, CBS reported.
All of the women who testified told the panel the sexual encounters with Gaetz were consensual, CBS reported.
However, one woman told the committee that the use of drugs at the parties and events they attended may have "impair[ed their] ability to really know what was going on or fully consent."
Another woman told the committee: "When I look back on certain moments, I feel violated."
The panel's report found that Gaetz violated House rules and other standards of conduct banning prostitution, statutory rape and drug use, CBS said.
It also found "substantial evidence" Gaetz engaged in illicit drug use, and also accused him of accepting gifts of luxury travel in excess of permissible limits with a 2018 trip to The Bahamas.
In an bid to prevent the report's release, Gaetz filed a lawsuit against the Ethics panel saying damage to his reputation and professional standing would be "severe and irreversible."
He argued in his lawsuit filed on Monday in federal court in Washington, DC, that the panel had violated his constitutional rights to due process under the law "through the threatened release of an investigative report containing potentially defamatory allegations."
The suit asked the court to "issue a temporary restraining order” from publishing it.
Gaetz denied in a written submission to the panel that he had sex with anyone under the age of 18, but did not address the specific allegations related to "Victim A," according to the report.
Reuters was not immediately able to reach Gaetz for comment.
His lawyers said the report would contain "untruthful and defamatory information" about Gaetz.
