By FARNOUSH AMIRI, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Ethics Committee on Monday accused Matt Gaetz of “regularly” paying women, including a 17-year-old girl, for sex and buying and using illegal drugs, while the Florida Republican was a member of the House Congress.
The bipartisan panel’s 37-page report includes explicit details of sex-filled parties and vacations that Gaetz, now 42, attended while representing Florida’s western panhandle. The findings conclude that he violated multiple state laws regarding sexual misconduct while in office.
“The committee determined that there is substantial evidence that Representative Gaetz violated the House rules and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illegal drug use, impermissible gifts, special favors or privileges, and obstruction of Congress,” the report said.
The report brings an end to an almost five-year investigation into Gaetz. The release comes after at least one Republican joined all five Democrats on the panel in a secret ballot earlier this month to release the report on their former colleague, despite initial opposition from Republican lawmakers, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, to it publishing findings about a former member. of Congress.
Although ethics reports have previously been released following a member’s resignation, this is extremely rare. Gaetz has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and said last week that as a former member of the House of Representatives he would have “no opportunity to debate or refute the findings.”
On Monday, Gaetz has filed a lawsuit in an attempt to block the release of the report, which he said contained “untruthful and defamatory information” that would significantly harm his “standing and reputation in the community.” Gaetz’s complaint states that he is no longer under the committee’s jurisdiction since resigning from Congress.
“The Committee’s position that it may nevertheless publish potentially defamatory findings about a private citizen over which it does not claim jurisdiction represents an unprecedented expansion of Congress’s power that threatens fundamental constitutional rights and provides well-established procedural protections,” Gaetz’s attorneys wrote in their request for a temporary curtailment. order.
The often secretive, bipartisan panel has been investigating claims against Gaetz since 2021. However, his work became more urgent last month when President-elect Donald Trump chose Gaetz as his nominee for attorney general. Gaetz resigned from Congress that same day, leaving him outside the ethics committee’s jurisdiction.
But Democrats had insisted on making the report public even after Gaetz was no longer a member and had done so withdrawn as Trump’s choice direct the Ministry of Justice. A vote in the House of Representatives this month to force the report’s release failed; all but one Republican voted against it.
Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro and Alanna Durkin Richer contributed to this report.
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