The House Ethics Committee finally released its report about allegations against Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida on Monday after Donald Trump’s failed effort to nominate the former congressman as U.S. Attorney General. And while Gaetz has denied allegations that he had sex with a minor, it’s a pretty shocking read all around.
From at least 2017 to 2020, Gaetz allegedly paid thousands of dollars for sex with women, as well as a 17-year-old girl. The report also alleges that Gaetz took illegal drugs like cocaine and ecstasy, and accepted a gift trip to the Bahamas that broke congressional rules. Gaetz also helped one of the women he was having sex with to get an expedited passport, falsely telling the State Department that she was one of his constituents, according to the report.
Gaetz also allegedly obstructed Congress as the investigation into his behavior was conducted and refused to cooperate as the committee sought to establish whether the congressman had broken ethics rules. It’s unclear whether Gaetz will face state charges over any of the allegations, though the committee no longer has jurisdiction over Gaetz since he resigned his seat, despite winning reelection in November.
The congressional report found that based on its investigation, “there was substantial evidence that Representative Gaetz violated House Rules, state and federal laws, and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, acceptance of impermissible gifts, the provision of special favors and privileges, and obstruction of Congress.”
The report also includes screenshots of text messages from Joel Greenberg, a friend of Gaetz who’s currently serving 11 years in prison for sex trafficking of a minor. Greenberg pleaded guilty to several charges in 2022 but denied having sex with any underage girls.
The report has a breakdown of how much Gaetz allegedly paid various women from 2017 to 2020, totaling over $60,000, including a former girlfriend who was allegedly involved in some of the activities with sex workers, though the report notes “some of the payments may have been of a legitimate nature.”
Gaetz did not hand over text messages to the committee, but the report includes some messages from him, presumably obtained through the sex workers he was paying. The texts sometimes refer to “party favors” which the report claims are references to illegal drugs.
The committee also details in the report how Gaetz was allegedly introduced to women by Greenberg who found them on the website SeekingArrangement.com, an online dating site now known as just Seeking.com, which specializes in “sugar dating” relationships where a younger woman typically engages with an older man under some kind of steady financial arrangement.
Gaetz took to social media after the release of the report to defend himself against the charges in the report.
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… pic.twitter.com/HzWODpBBB9
— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) December 23, 2024
Many Republicans objected to the release of the report, including the chairman of the ethics committee Rep. Michael Guest of Mississippi. Guest wrote for the dissenting members of the committee, insisting they no longer had jurisdiction to release the findings since Gaetz had resigned, an argument that doesn’t make any sense whatsoever.
“We believe that operating outside the jurisdictional bounds set forth by House Rules and Committee standards, especially when making public disclosures, is a dangerous departure with potentially catastrophic consequences,” wrote Guest.
It’s not clear what could be “dangerous” about releasing a congressional report unless it contained something inaccurate, which Guest doesn’t allege. Congress releases reports about people who’ve never worked as congressmen all the time. The committee simply doesn’t have jurisdiction to punish him anymore. The state and federal authorities, however, do have jurisdiction if they wish to charge him with any of the offenses outlined in the report.
There are hundreds of pages included in the appendices, with everything from airline boarding passes and travel itineraries to questionnaires submitted to the committee and text messages between Gaetz and the women he allegedly paid for sex. And some on social media took the opportunity to joke about some of the details in there, including the fact that at least one of the women was flying Spirit Airlines.
Not enough talk about how Matt Gaetz was making them fly Spirit Airlines pic.twitter.com/nqstSfZoTu
— Monica Venzke (@monicavenzke) December 23, 2024
Whatever the topic, the internet is going to roast you.