Florida Republican and Trump ally Matt Gaetz has been accused of ‘regularly’ paying for sex, having sex with a minor, and purchasing and using drugs while he was a member of Congress.
A damning new report from the House Ethics Committee in the US has revealed a long list of accusations against Mr Gaetz, who was previously President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for Attorney General.
Mr Gaetz denied any wrongdoing throughout the five-year investigation.
The 37-page report alleged that Mr Gaetz, 42, took part in sex parties from 2017 to 2020 while he was serving as a Congressman for Florida.
He allegedly violated multiple state laws related to sexual misconduct while in office, including one instance where he allegedly had sex with a 17-year-old girl, who he paid.
The report reads: ‘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 favours or privileges, and obstruction of Congress.’
Mr Gaetz had tried to stop the release of the ethics report. It’s rare for them to be released if the person it is investigating resigns from their position like Mr Gaetz did shortly after being nominated for Attorney General by Trump.
Yesterday, Mr Gaetz filed a lawsuit in an attempt to block the report’s release, which he dubbed ‘untruthful and defamatory’, adding that it would ‘damage’ his ‘standing’ in his community.
Mr Gaetz’s complaint argues he is no longer under the committee’s jurisdiction since he resigned from Congress.
In addition to soliciting prostitution, the Ethics Committee report foundMr Gaetz ‘accepted gifts, including transportation and lodging in connection with a 2018 trip to the Bahamas, over permissible amounts’.
That same year, investigators say he arranged for his chief of staff to obtain a passport for a woman he was sexually involved with, falsely telling the State Department that she was his constituent.
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