The long-awaited House Ethics Committee report on Matt Gaetz is out, and it finds that the former Florida representative did have sex with an underage girl, among many other offenses.
The committee found “substantial evidence” that Gaetz “regularly paid women for engaging in sexual activity with him,” and that he “engaged in sexual activity with a 17-year-old girl.” The report also mentioned that Gaetz possessed and used cocaine and ecstasy while in office, and even lied to the State Department about the identity of one of his sexual partners so that she could get a passport.
“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 stated. Even still, it found no evidence that Gaetz was involved in sex trafficking, as the women were over 18 when they traveled.
The report also noted that “nearly every woman that the Committee spoke with could not remember the details of at least one or more of the events they attended with Representative Gaetz and attributed that to drug or alcohol consumption.”
At least one woman told the committee that drugs at the events with Gaetz may have “impair[ed their] ability to really know what was going on or fully consent.”
Among other charges, Gaetz was also found to have accepted an illegal gift via a 2018 trip to the Bahamas, lodgings included, which exceeded the amount allowed for members of Congress.
Gaetz has denied all allegations, even going so far as to request a restraining order against the House Ethics Committee.
“Giving funds to someone you are dating - that they didn’t ask for - and that isn’t ‘charged’ for sex is now prostitution?!?” Gaetz wrote on X ahead of the report’s release. “There is a reason they did this to me in a Christmas Eve-Eve report and not in a courtroom of any kind where I could present evidence and challenge witnesses.”
