ReutersFormer Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz spent tens of hundreds of {dollars} on intercourse and medicines whereas serving as a US congressman, based on a long-awaited report from the Home of Representatives ethics committee.
It follows a years-long investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct and illicit drug use by Gaetz, who President-elect Donald Trump wished to function the nation’s high lawman.
The committee additionally discovered proof that Gaetz, 42, acquired presents in extra of permissible quantities in connection to a 2018 journey to the Bahamas.
The previous lawmaker has repeatedly denied wrongdoing, saying he’s the sufferer of a smear marketing campaign. Amid the controversy, he withdrew from consideration to function US lawyer normal.
The congressional ethics report discovered that “there’s substantial proof that Consultant Gaetz violated Home guidelines and different requirements of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, impermissible presents, particular favours or privileges, and obstruction of Congress.”
From 2017 to 2020, Gaetz made funds totalling greater than $90,000 (£72,000) to 12 totally different ladies “that the Committee decided have been seemingly in reference to sexual exercise and/or drug use”, the report discovered.
Moreover, the report incorporates testimony that Gaetz paid for intercourse with a 17-year-old at a celebration in 2017, giving her $400 “which she understood to be cost for intercourse”. Gaetz has denied having intercourse with a minor.
The Division of Justice additionally investigated an allegation that he had intercourse with a minor however in the end didn’t file any prison expenses towards him.
In a last-minute court docket submitting on Monday, Gaetz sought a short lived restraining order to stop the report’s launch. He accused the ethics committee of making an attempt to train its jurisdiction over a personal citizen.
The committee’s 42-page report accuses Gaetz of being “uncooperative” all through its evaluate, and that he would often “deflect, deter, or mislead” the panel “as a way to forestall his actions from being uncovered”.
Regardless of a subpoena, he by no means appeared earlier than the committee to testify.
Gaetz represented Florida’s first congressional district within the US Home of Representatives, having come to energy in the identical election in 2016 that propelled his ally Trump to the White Home the primary time.
Gaetz obtained married in 2021 to his present spouse, Ginger, who has supported the previous Florida congressman as he is confronted the allegations.
She posted a photograph on X of her husband with the caption “unemployment has by no means seemed so good” after he withdrew his title to function lawyer normal after resigning from Congress.
Gaetz was believed to be past the attain of the committee when he resigned from Congress final month, following his nomination by Trump to function US lawyer normal – America’s high legislation enforcement official who heads the Division of Justice.
Trump picked Gaetz partially as a result of he’s an ultra-loyalist who had additionally pledged to tackle the “weaponised” authorized system that supporters consider focused Trump.
He has been one among Trump’s most strident defenders on Capitol Hill. However many Republicans in Congress, together with these tasked with voting on such nominations, have been aghast on the selection and efficiently challenged it.
Gaetz dropped out simply eight days after being nominated by Trump amid a groundswell of controversy. Trump then tapped former Florida lawyer normal Pam Bondi as his nominee for lawyer normal.
Trump has not but commented on the report’s findings.
Whereas it’s uncommon for the committee to launch its findings after a lawmaker leaves public workplace, the report famous {that a} “majority” of members discovered it was within the public-interest to take action on this occasion.
An intense debate had erupted over whether or not or not the report must be launched, notably after Gaetz withdrew his title from consideration for the highest justice division position.
He mentioned that he hoped to keep away from a “needlessly protracted Washington scuffle”.
Gaetz’s slated position as lawyer normal was a type of that required the affirmation of US senators, and it didn’t appear that he had the required assist.
The secretive ethics committee had investigated Gaetz on and off since 2021 – not solely on the claims about intercourse and medicines, but additionally on allegations he accepted bribes and misused marketing campaign funds. In all instances, he strongly denied any wrongdoing.
Home Republicans beforehand blocked Democratic efforts to unveil the outcomes of the report, however two of them later voted to take action, based on CBS.
On Monday, Gaetz posted on that X that the committee selected to launch the report near Christmas “and never in a courtroom of any sort the place I may current proof and problem witnesses”.
Final week, he posted that the ethics committee planed to “put up a report on-line that I’ve no alternative to debate or rebut as a former member of the physique.”
He acknowledged in a earlier put up on X that his 30s was an period of “working very exhausting – and taking part in exhausting too”.
“It is embarrassing, although not prison, that I in all probability partied, womanized, drank and smoked greater than I ought to have earlier in life,” he wrote. “I stay a special life now.”
A number of Home Democrats criticised their former colleague and Trump for having chosen him as an ally.
Rep Glenn Ivey, one of many 5 Democrats on the ethics committee, mentioned the allegations towards Gaetz present there is a sample by Trump of not “placing individuals in these positions who’re actually as much as doing the job”.
“President-elect Trump ought to have thought twice earlier than he nominated Matt Gaetz and a number of the different nominations he is made, I feel would bear reconsideration as effectively,” he informed CBS Information, the BBC’s US accomplice.
Since leaving Congress, Gaetz has signed a deal to turn out to be an anchor on One America Information Community (OAN). He’ll be part of the conservative information community in January.
He has additionally began promoting personalised video messages on the video platform Cameo.
