The House Ethics Committee investigation into Matt Gaetz found that he paid a 17-year-old for sex and consumed illegal drugs while in office, according to a report.
Investigators found that the former Florida congressman—who allegedly paid multiple women for sex—violated several state laws relating to sexual misconduct while in office according to CBS News, which obtained a final draft of the report. The House panel was expected to release the full report this week, but Gaetz sought a restraining order on Monday to prevent its release.
Gaetz, who withdrew from consideration to be President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general amid intense scrutiny of the allegations against him, has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and has not been criminally charged in relation to the claims. The Daily Beast has contacted Gaetz for comment.
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In a tweet last week, he again denied some of the claims, asserting that he “NEVER had sexual contact with someone under 18.” He also complained that the House Ethics report would be published without him having any “opportunity to debate or rebut” its findings.
Gaetz followed up on X Monday, saying that he had merely given money to someone he was “dating” and blasted the committee for not allowing him to try to clear his name in a court.
Gaetz wrote: “Giving funds to someone you are dating—that they didn’t ask for—and that isn’t ‘charged’ for sex is now prostitution?!?
“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.”
He shared a screenshot of what he said was “from one of the alleged ‘prostitutes’ that you won’t see in the report!”
In another screenshot, a conversation he says is between an ethics witness and an attorney apparently shows the woman claiming that she was not a sex worker and simply thought that her 2017 involvement with Gaetz and others was as “friends.”
He also shared a grab of the alleged trafficking “victim,” as he put it, contradicting this characterization.
The probe reportedly did not find sufficient evidence to conclude that Gaetz violated the federal sex trafficking statute because although he allegedly transported women across state lines for the purpose of sex, they were all over the age of 18 at the time.
It drew on testimonies from the women allegedly involved as well as Venmo and PayPal receipts of payments that they claim were for sex.
“From 2017 to 2020, Representative Gaetz made tens of thousands of dollars in payments to women that the Committee determined were likely in connection with sexual activity and/or drug use,” reads the report, which lists over $90,000 in payments to 12 women, according to CBS News.
It was at a 2017 party that Gaetz allegedly twice had sex with the 17-year-old who had just completed her junior year in high school, described as “Victim A.” She told the panel she did not tell Gaetz her age and he didn’t ask, the report added. She also recalled receiving $400 on the evening in question “which she understood to be payment for sex,” the report found, according to CBS News.
Gaetz denied having sex with a minor in a written response to the committee before he took to X to further plead his innocence. He also denied using any illicit drugs, CBS reported, despite investigators finding “substantial evidence” to the contrary.
The committee claimed to have seen texts in which the former congressman made references to drugs as “party favors,” “vitamins,” or “rolls,” and the report also accused him of setting up a bogus email account from his Capitol Hill office “for the purpose of purchasing marijuana.”
Gaetz said of the report’s impending release last week: “My 30’s were an era of working very hard - and playing hard too. It’s embarrassing, though not criminal, that I probably partied, womanized, drank and smoked more than I should have earlier in life. I live a different life now.”
All of the women who testified said the sexual encounters with Gaetz were consensual. One, however, complained that drugs may have “impair[ed their] ability to really know what was going on or fully consent,” the report reads, according to CBS.
“When I look back on certain moments, I feel violated,” another woman allegedly told the panel.
Witnesses described a 2018 Bahamas trip where Gaetz allegedly took ecstasy and had sex with four women. The trip was also described as luxury travel that exceeded permissible limits.
Gaetz also allegedly arranged for his chief of staff to help a woman with whom he’d allegedly engaged in sexual activity to get a passport. He did so after allegedly falsely indicating that she was a constituent of his to the State Department.
A draft of the ethics report was also obtained by CNN, which similarly published details of its findings.
In a filing in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Monday, Gaetz’s lawyers requested a restraining order and temporary injunction against the House Ethics Committee to prevent the release of the report.
The former congressman’s attorneys accused the committee of an “unprecedented overreach that threatens fundamental constitutional rights and established procedural protections.”
The report would “significantly damage [Gaetz’s] standing and reputation in the community” if released, his lawyers argued, adding that the damage would “be immediate, severe and irreversible” in part because media “coverage would be immediate and widespread.”
