Ex-Rep. Matt Gaetz allegedly paid for intercourse with a 17-year-old woman and acquired and used unlawful medication throughout greater than 20 events with feminine escorts, a draft congressional report reportedly stated Monday.
He additionally purchased and used unlawful medication together with ecstasy at events with the ladies in Florida and on trip jaunts, the report stated.
“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 favors or privileges, and obstruction of Congress,” the 37-page report stated.
The ultimate report, which says Gaetz possible broke quite a few state legal guidelines, is predicted to be launched within the coming days after the Home Ethics Committee voted to publicly launch it in a reversal of its common coverage.
Gaetz sued the committee in federal courtroom on Monday, searching for to dam launch of the ultimate report.
“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,” Gaetz tweeted.
Alex Wong/Getty Photographs
Rep. Matt Gaetz speaks on stage on the Republican Nationwide Conference in Milwaukee in July. (Photograph by Alex Wong/Getty Photographs)
Gaetz, 42, an outspoken conservative Republican, has denied breaking any legal guidelines and says he’s being smeared by political enemies, though he admits partying too exhausting in his youthful years. He has threatened to sue to dam launch of the report.
Federal prosecutors investigated Gaetz for violating intercourse trafficking legal guidelines in relation to a lot of the identical conduct however declined to cost him.
The report particulars almost $100,000 in funds from Gaetz to a dozen girls for both intercourse or medication throughout about 20 encounters, all of which occurred after he was elected to characterize a deep-red congressional district within the Florida Panhandle in 2016.
“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,” famous the report, which lists funds totaling greater than $90,000 to 12 totally different girls.
The entire encounters have been consensual, though one of many girls instructed the committee the escorts have been too impaired to consent to intercourse at instances.
“When I look back on certain moments, I feel violated,” one lady instructed the panel, the report stated.
A Florida lady instructed the committee she was simply 17 and had lately completed her junior yr in highschool when Gaetz had intercourse along with her twice at a 2017 home celebration. He paid her $400 money after the encounters, the report stated.
The lady stated she didn’t inform Gaetz she was underage and he didn’t ask. He has emphatically denied ever having intercourse with any underage woman.
One the report’s most lurid findings surrounded allegations of a drug-fueled 2018 jaunt to the Bahamas, bankrolled by marijuana lobbyists, throughout which witnesses stated Geetz took ecstasy and had intercourse with at the very least 4 paid escorts. The journey skirted guidelines limiting items to lawmakers, the report stated.
Gaetz received reelection in November to what would have been a fourth time period in Congress. However he resigned on the day Trump nominated him for legal professional common in an obvious ploy to forestall launch of the damning report.
His bid to grow to be the nation’s high regulation enforcement officer imploded inside a matter of days.
The Republican-led panel initially voted in opposition to releasing the report as a result of Gaetz was not in Congress. However it made a shocking U-turn at a closed-door assembly and voted to launch the ultimate model.
Initially Printed: December 23, 2024 at 9:34 AM EST
