House ethics panel report accuses Gaetz of ‘regularly’ paying for sex and using drugs

WASHINGTON — The House Ethics Committee said Monday that its lengthy investigation had found that former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., President-elect Donald Trump’s initial choice for attorney general, had regularly paid women for sex, had sex with an underage girl and used illegal drugs.

The report was released weeks after Gaetz withdrew from consideration to be the nation’s chief law enforcement officer and resigned from Congress, and after years in which he had spawned enemies on both sides of the aisle with his bellicose political style.

Gaetz has denied any wrongdoing.

The panel found that from at least 2017 to 2020, Gaetz “regularly paid women for engaging in sexual activity with him.” The report said that in 2017, Gaetz had “engaged in sexual activity with a 17-year-old girl,” who was paid.

From 2017 to 2019, the report said, Gaetz used or possessed illegal drugs, including cocaine and ecstasy “on multiple occasions,” and accepted lavish gifts, including transportation to and lodging in the Bahamas, in excess of permissible amounts.

“Rep. Gaetz has acted in a manner that reflects discreditably upon the House,” the report stated.

The Ethics Committee concluded that Gaetz violated state sexual misconduct laws, including Florida’s statutory rape law, and violated House rules concerning gifts and misuse of his official office.

However, the committee said it did not find conclusive evidence that Gaetz violated federal sex trafficking laws.

“Although Rep. Gaetz did cause the transportation of women across state lines for purposes of commercial sex, the committee did not find evidence that any of those women were under 18 at the time of travel, nor did the committee find sufficient evidence to conclude that the commercial sex acts were induced by force, fraud, or coercion,” the panel wrote.

The Justice Department had conducted its own extensive investigation of the allegations about Gaetz, but disclosed nearly two years ago that it would not bring charges after prosecutors decided that they could not make a strong enough case in court.

But the House panel, under Republican leadership, proceeded with its inquiry, and the release of its report ended a contentious debate over whether its findings should be made public. Gaetz’s resignation from the House meant that the panel no longer had jurisdiction, and the report made clear that the committee’s Republican chair objected to its release.

“While we do not challenge the committee’s findings, we take great exception that the majority deviated from the committee’s well-established standards and voted to release a report on an individual no longer under the committee’s jurisdiction, an action the committee has not taken since 2006,” the chair, Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss., wrote.

Gaetz mounted a last-ditch effort to block the report’s release Monday, filing an emergency motion in U.S. District Court in Washington. But shortly after he did, the court clerk posted a note online telling him he had filed it improperly.

“This case will not proceed any further until all errors are satisfied,” the note read.

When that effort failed, Gaetz began posting on social media, arguing he was being unfairly maligned.

“Giving funds to someone you are dating — that they didn’t ask for — and that isn’t ‘charged’ for sex is now prostitution?!?” he wrote on the social platform X. “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.”

Last week, Gaetz denied some of the central allegations against him, including that he had paid an underage girl for sex and solicited prostitutes, dismissing them as a distortion of youthful indiscretions.

“In my single days, I often sent funds to women I dated — even some I never dated but who asked. I dated several of these women for years. I NEVER had sexual contact with someone under 18,” he wrote, adding: “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.”

Gaetz resigned from Congress on the day last month that Trump tapped him to lead the Justice Department, but the news soon leaked that the secretive House Ethics Committee was poised to release its long-awaited investigation into Gaetz’s conduct. As Senate opposition rose against his selection, Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration for attorney general.

He is now set to join the conservative One America News Network as an anchor in January.

The House panel interviewed more than a dozen witnesses, issued 29 subpoenas and reviewed nearly 14,000 documents. The committee said in June that it was continuing to investigate the allegations that Gaetz may have engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, accepted improper gifts, dispensed special privileges and favors to individuals with whom he had a personal relationship, and sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct.

It said it was closing its inquiry into allegations that Gaetz may have shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused state identification records, converted campaign funds to personal use, and accepted a bribe or improper gratuity.

After Trump made public his plans to choose Gaetz as attorney general, senators in both parties quickly called on the committee to release its findings.

Rep. Glenn Ivey, D-Md., a member of the Ethics Committee, said he believed it was important the report be released so that the public could see the evidence the panel collected and reach its own conclusions.

“It doesn’t reflect favorably on Donald Trump’s vetting process,” Ivey said of the pick of Gaetz for attorney general. “I think it makes it very clear that the Senate should be very careful and concerned when it moves forward with confirmation hearings on the nominees. The Gaetz incident, I think, shows that there was no vetting that took place.”

The report released Monday focuses on events that began in 2017, when, shortly after Gaetz was sworn into office, he became friendly with Joel Greenberg, a county tax collector in Florida.

Greenberg and Gaetz frequently attended parties and other gatherings with young women in attendance, the report stated. Many of those women were initially contacted by Greenberg via the website SeekingArrangement.com, which advertised itself as a “sugar dating” website that primarily connected older men and younger women seeking “mutually beneficial relationships.”

The website was generally understood by many of the women interviewed by the committee to involve, at minimum, an exchange of companionship for money, the report stated.

“Many of the women interviewed by the committee were clear that there was a general expectation of sex,” the report stated, adding that one woman who testified to the committee and was paid more than $5,000 by Gaetz said that sex was involved “99% of the time.”

The committee interviewed several of the women involved with Gaetz, all of whom described the encounters as consensual but in some cases described considerable drug and alcohol use.

“The women also discussed instances where Rep. Gaetz would try to convince them to have sex with him or Mr. Greenberg,” the report said.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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