A report that Democrats insisted be released on former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who resigned from Congress when President-elect Donald Trump nominated him to be attorney general, but actually was re-elected, tries to tarnish the flamboyant former and potentially future member of Congress.
But the allegations, investigative reporter Mollie Hemingway confirmed, come from a woman who already is in prison for making similar, and false, claims about another person.
INSANE: House Report On Matt Gaetz Relies On Witnesses Even The Corrupt DOJ Found Completely Lacked Any Credibility Whatsoever https://t.co/KEYb2yBgVU
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) December 23, 2024
Sometimes I feel like I was the only reporter to look into the details of the Gaetz allegations. That’s how I learned the accuser is in prison for making the same false sex-with-minors accusation against someone else. https://t.co/0oqOfDlBQb
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) December 23, 2024
The report from the House Ethics Committee claims Gaetz was involved with multiple women over recent years, and even gave some of them money.
However, Joe Biden’s “corrupt” Department of Justice reviewed the evidence and found there was no substance on which to charge Gaetz with anything.
A majority of Republicans on the committee dissented from releasing the report, stating, “Representative Gaetz resigned from Congress, withdrew from consideration to serve in the next administration, and declared that he would not seek to be seated in the 119th Congress. The decision to publish a report after his resignation breaks from the Committee’s long-standing practice, opens the Committee to undue criticism, and will be viewed by some as an attempt to weaponize the Committee’s process.”
They wrote, “We believe that operating outside the jurisdictional bounds set forth by House Rules and Committee standards, especially when making public disclosures, is a dangerous departure with potentially catastrophic consequences.”
The report alleges Gaetz paid women for sexual favors or illicit drugs, including a 17-year-old girl.
Only two Republicans on the panel sided with Democrats to release the report.
Gaetz has rejected the report’s claims. And he pointed out, “The Biden/Garland DOJ spent years reviewing allegations that I committed various crimes. I was charged with nothing: FULLY EXONERATED. Not even a campaign finance violation. And the people investigating me hated me.”
Hemingway reported that the witness used by the committee as the basis for the report was found by the “corrupt DOJ” to be lacking “any credibility whatsoever.”
She added, “Sometimes I feel like I was the only reporter to look into the details of the Gaetz allegations. That’s how I learned the accuser is in prison for making the same false sex-with-minors accusation against someone else.”
A commentary at Twitchy said, “Whether or not you like a person should not impact or influence their innocence or guilt. Even if you dislike Gaetz, the fact they released this report the day before Christmas Eve, a report Biden’s own corrupt DOJ obviously considered a nothing-burger, tells us all this was sneaky, dirty, and likely all-too-personal. To Hemingway’s point, it’s INSANE that they’d take seriously any sort of testimony from a witness who is currently in prison for making the same false sex-with-minors accusations against someone else. While we’re certainly not experts, this definitely sounds like a red flag.”
