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Matt Gaetz, Donald Trump’s former pick for US attorney general, was accused by lawmakers of having sex with an underage girl, paying women for sex and using illegal drugs in an explosive report released Monday.
The House ethics committee found “substantial evidence” that the former Republican lawmaker had violated not only congressional rules, but also state and federal laws.
“The committee determined that there is substantial evidence that Representative Gaetz violated the House Rules and other rules of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, impermissible gifts, special favors or privileges, and obstruction of Congress.” the panel concluded.
Gaetz, a fierce Trump ally who has been considered a potential Florida gubernatorial and Senate candidate, has denied wrongdoing and published in X who was not charged after an earlier investigation into sexual misconduct by the Justice Department.
Last week he wrote: “They didn’t accuse me of anything: TOTALLY EXONERATED. Not even a campaign finance violation. And the people who investigated me hated me. . . I NEVER had sexual contact with anyone under 18 years old.
“It is embarrassing, although not criminal, that I probably partied, womanized, drank and smoked more than I should have done before in my life. “Now I live a different life.”
The controversial 42-year-old was chosen by President-elect Trump to be his attorney general in mid-November despite having limited legal experience, sending shockwaves through Washington.
Just a few days later gaetz withdrew his name from consideration, saying his selection was “unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance transition,” referring to the president-elect’s pick for vice president, JD Vance.
Trump subsequently chose former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to replace Gaetz.
In its report, the committee alleged that between 2017 and 2020, Gaetz made payments to women worth tens of thousands of dollars that were “likely related to sexual activity and/or drug use.”
In one case, in 2017 Gaetz allegedly paid a 17-year-old girl for sex at a party, based on his understanding of the cash transaction. The committee wrote that she had just finished her junior year of high school and was under the influence of ecstasy during her sexual encounters with Gaetz. There was no evidence that the former legislator knew she was a minor, he added.
A year later, Gaetz allegedly joined a trip to the Bahamas with two other men and six women, a gift that “exceeded allowable amounts,” according to the report.
The former congressman allegedly had sexual relations with at least four of the women. While neither received payments specifically for the excursion, one woman told the committee that “the trip itself was more important than the payment.”
All of the women interviewed by the committee said their sexual encounters with Gaetz were consensual. But one said drug use may have “impaired his ability to really know what was going on or give full consent”, while another said: “When I look back at certain moments, I feel violated.”
The report alleges that witnesses also saw Gaetz use marijuana, cocaine and ecstasy.
In 2018, the former representative allegedly arranged for his chief of staff to help a woman he had sex with acquire a passport, falsely representing to the State Department that she was a constituent. The chief of staff has been contacted for comment.
Some Trump allies supported the former congressman in the wake of the report. “Matt Gaetz must return to Congress as a conquering hero on the shoulders of the people,” President-elect Steve Bannon’s former strategist wrote in X.
