https://edition.cnn.com/2024/12/23/poli ... index.html
House Ethics report finds evidence Matt Gaetz paid thousands for sex and drugs including paying a 17-year-old for sex in 2017 Sarah Ferris Jeremy Herb
By Sarah Ferris and Jeremy Herb, CNN
The House Ethics Committee found evidence that former Rep. Matt Gaetz paid tens of thousands of dollars to women for sex or drugs on at least 20 occasions, including paying a 17-year-old girl for sex in 2017, according to the panel’s report on the Florida Republican released Monday.
The committee concluded in its bombshell document that Gaetz violated Florida state laws, including the state’s statutory rape law, as the GOP-led panel chose to take the rare step of releasing a report about a former member who resigned from Congress.
“The Committee determined 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,” panel investigators wrote.
The panel investigated transactions Gaetz personally made, often using PayPal or Venmo, to more than a dozen women during his time in Congress, according to the report. Investigators also focused on a 2018 trip to the Bahamas – which they said “violated the House gift rule” – during which he “engaged in sexual activity” with multiple women, including one who described the trip itself as “the payment” for sex on the trip. On the same trip, he also took ecstasy, one woman on the trip told the committee.
Rep. Matt Gaetz is seen on the second day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum on July 16 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Related live-story
House Ethics report finds evidence Matt Gaetz paid for sex and drugs
Earlier this month, the House Ethics Committee secretly voted to release its report after initially voting against doing so. The vote to put out the report – which was opposed by panel Chairman Michael Guest, a Mississippi Republican – was the culmination of a years-long probe into allegations surrounding Gaetz. He was President-elect Donald Trump’s first pick to be attorney general but dropped out amid opposition from GOP senators and after CNN reported key details of this same ethics report.
And it’s a political jolt that could have reverberations for years to come, as the Capitol Hill panel takes aim at a long-time Trump loyalist and now conservative anchor at One America Network.
Gaetz filed a civil complaint in federal court Monday morning unsuccessfully seeking to halt the release of the report, claiming he was not notified of the panel’s plans to release the report nor was he provided copies of the materials.
“As such, Plaintiff has been afforded no opportunity to respond to any report or investigative conclusions of Defendants,” the complaint reads. “Plaintiff has frequently and vehemently declared his innocence regarding the alleged misconduct, and requested Defendants cease their investigation and provide him appropriate due process rights.”
Gaetz claimed the panel has been “unresponsive” to those demands. Gaetz wrote in the lawsuit that he told the committee in writing in May that allegations of sexual misconduct, illicit drug use, misuse of campaign funds and other actions were all false.
The lawsuit serves as a route for Gaetz to formally claim in writing that the committee’s findings are false and that he believes his privacy has been invaded and the committee is defaming him.
But his unusual ask of a federal court to block congressional action is now essentially moot because the report has been released publicly. District Judge Amit Mehta asked Gaetz to explain by the end of the day why the lawsuit should not be dismissed because the report has been publicly released.
CNN has reached out to Gaetz and his lawyers for comment.
The committee posted the report on its website Monday morning while noting in a statement the “significant and unusual amount” of reporting about the panel’s probe of Gaetz. Without identifying specific stories, the committee stated that some reporting about its probe had been “inaccurate.” The committee condemned any potential unauthorized disclosures but emphasized that committee witnesses are permitted to disclose information about their interactions with its investigators. The panel also released appendices with its evidence, including financial documents and text messages cited in the report.
Gaetz has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and has pointed to the Justice Department declining to bring charges against him in 2023.
In a statement Gaetz released on X last week after CNN reported that the committee had voted to release the report, Gaetz denied having sex with a minor or paying women for sex.
“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,” Gaetz said. “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.”
Although the committee alleged that Gaetz violated state laws, the panel wrote that it did not find Gaetz violated federal sex trafficking laws, writing that “although Representative 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.”
Women told committee they were paid for sex
The report documents the evidence the committee gathered of Gaetz’s numerous interactions with women who say they were paid for sex by Gaetz and his friend, Joel Greenberg, a former Seminole County tax collector who is serving an 11-year prison sentence and cooperated with federal investigators.
The committee wrote that it spoke to more than a half dozen witnesses who attended parties, trips and events with Gaetz between 2017 through 2020. “Nearly every young woman that the Committee interviewed confirmed that she was paid for sex by, or on behalf of, Representative Gaetz,” the panel wrote.
One of the sexual encounters involved a 17-year-old girl, the committee said. The woman told the committee she had sex with Gaetz twice at a July 2017 party when she was 17. CNN first reported on the second sexual encounter last month.
“The Committee received testimony that Victim A and Representative Gaetz had sex twice during the party, including at least once in the presence of other party attendees,” the committee wrote. “Victim A recalled receiving $400 in cash from Representative Gaetz that evening, which she understood to be payment for sex. At the time, she had just completed her junior year of high school.”
The then-17-year-old did not tell Gaetz she was a minor at the time, and he did not ask her age, the committee found. The committee did not receive any evidence Gaetz was aware of her age. The woman told congressional investigators she was under the influence of ecstasy at the party and that she recalled seeing Gaetz use cocaine at the party.
Gaetz has denied having sex with a minor. “I NEVER had sexual contact with someone under 18,” the Florida Republican wrote on X last week. “Any claim that I have would be destroyed in court - which is why no such claim was ever made in court.”
Committee cites online payments and text messages in report
The committee found that the sexual encounters were often organized by Greenberg through a website, SeekingArrangement.com. “Mr. Greenberg told the Committee that Representative Gaetz was aware that the women they had sex with and paid had met Mr. Greenberg through the ‘sugar dating’ website,” the panel wrote.
Congressional investigators found that Gaetz made payment to women using multiple platforms, including PayPal, Venmo and CashApp. The committee listed payments Gaetz made to 12 women, including to his former girlfriend, as well as Greenberg.
Joel Greenberg gives an interview in Lake Mary, Florida in 2019. Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
The committee wrote that Gaetz did not appear to negotiate specific payment amounts for sex with the women he paid. “Many of the women interviewed by the Committee were clear that there was a general expectation of sex,” investigators wrote.
“One woman who was paid more than $5,000 by Representative Gaetz between 2018 and 2019 told the Committee that ‘99 percent of the time that (Representative Gaetz and I) were hanging out, there was sex involved,’” the panel said.
Gaetz’ then-girlfriend “appeared to act as an intermediary” between Gaetz and women he paid for sex, the committee found, citing text messages it obtained. The committee said it found evidence that “Representative Gaetz’s then-girlfriend sometimes participated with him in sexual encounters with other women who were active on the website or otherwise involved in sex-for-money arrangements.”
The committee bolstered its findings by citing those text messages, including when Gaetz’s then-girlfriend wrote to women that “the guys (Representative Gaetz and Mr. Greenberg) ‘wanted me to share that they are a little limited in their cash flow this weekend … (M)att was like(,) if it can be more of a customer appreciation week… .”
In another text message exchange cited by the committee, Greenberg exchanged messages with a woman in September 2018, writing, “If you have a friend that is down, perhaps all four of us can meet up later.”
The woman responded she did have a friend who could meet up, adding, “I usually do $400 per meet.”
Greenberg responded by sending a photo of Gaetz holding out a phone and taking a selfie. “Oooh my friend thinks he’s really cute!” the woman responded.
“Well, he’s down here only for the day, we work hard and play hard,” Greenberg wrote. “Have you ever tried molly.”
The panel wrote that several women told the committee they would not voluntarily participate in the investigation, and some were “clear at first contact that they feared retaliation or were unwilling to voluntarily relive their interactions with Representative Gaetz.”
“While all the women that the Committee interviewed stated their sexual activity with Representative Gaetz was consensual, at least one woman felt that the use of drugs at the parties and events they attended may have ‘impair(ed their) ability to really know what was going on or fully consent,’” the panel wrote. “One woman said, ‘I think about it all the time … . I still see him when I turn on the tv and there’s nothing anyone can do. It’s frustrating to know I lived a reality that he denies.’”
Report alleges Gaetz ‘used or possessed illegal drugs’ on multiple occasions
Committee investigators concluded that between 2017 to 2019, Gaetz “used or possessed illegal drugs, including cocaine and ecstasy, on multiple occasions.”
“There is substantial evidence that Representative Gaetz used cocaine, ecstasy, and marijuana. At least two women saw Representative Gaetz using cocaine and ecstasy at different events,” the committee wrote. “Additionally, nearly every witness interviewed observed Representative Gaetz using marijuana.”
The committee wrote that Gaetz appeared to set up a “pseudonymous e-mail account from his House office in the Capitol complex for the purpose of purchasing marijuana.”
Gaetz denied using illicit drugs in his correspondence with the panel, the committee said.
The committee investigation also focused on other violations of House rules. That included a September 2018 trip to the Bahamas where the committee found that Gaetz accepted gifts of transportation and lodging in excess of permissible amounts.
Gaetz traveled to the Bahamas with two other men and six women. He flew to the Bahamas on a commercial airline but returned on a private plane, the committee found.
“The attendees stated that this was a social trip — they sunbathed, chartered a boat, and went to dinners and to a casino as a group. Representative Gaetz engaged in sexual activity with at least four of the women on the trip,” the committee wrote.
The Justice Department had investigated whether the Bahamas trip was part of an effort to illegally influence Gaetz in the area of medical marijuana, CNN previously reported.
The Ethics Committee probe also found that Gaetz helped a woman he met through Greenberg and had sex with to obtain a new passport. Committee investigators wrote that Gaetz connected the woman with his chief of staff, and Gaetz’s top aide helped the woman get a passport appointment at a Miami passport office, saying she was his constituent even though she lived outside Gaetz’s district.
Committee resumed investigation following closure of federal case
The committee’s investigation into Gaetz began in 2021 but was put on hold work while a separate, yearslong federal sex-trafficking investigation into the former congressman was underway. The federal investigation closed in February 2023 without any charges being filed against Gaetz.
Once the federal case closed, the Ethics Committee resumed its work.
When Gaetz resigned from Congress last month during his failed bid to become Trump’s attorney general, the committee initially voted not to make public its final report on the former congressman. Weeks later, after the drafting of the report was officially complete, the panel reversed its decision.
Gaetz was Trump’s first pick to lead the Justice Department, but the ephemeral campaign to convince senators the MAGA firebrand should helm the department ended in late November after it became clear Gaetz did not have the votes to get confirmed.
In a dissenting statement included in the report, Guest, the committee chair and a Mississippi Republican, wrote that he and a minority of other members on the panel opposed the release of the report because Gaetz was no longer a member of Congress.
“The decision to publish a report after his resignation breaks from the Committee’s long-standing practice, opens the Committee to undue criticism, and will be viewed by some as an attempt to weaponize the Committee’s process,” Guest said.
Gaetz is now set to join the right-wing One America News Network as an anchor in January.
House Speaker Mike Johnson had said he did not think the report should be released because Gaetz was no longer a member of Congress, while some lawmakers believed his resignation was an attempt to bury the investigation. It is rare for an ethics report to be released after a member has left Congress, though it has happened on a couple of occasions in the past.
The committee noted that Gaetz did not answer most of their questions even as he corresponded with the panel over the course of its probe.
“In addition to alleging that the Committee’s process was being ‘weaponized’ against him, Representative Gaetz repeatedly alleged that the Committee Members and staff were leaking information to the press, that the Committee’s non-partisan staff were actually acting as Democrats, or that the Committee was working on behalf of former-Speaker Kevin McCarthy,” the committee wrote.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
CNN’s Holmes Lybrand, Paula Reid, Casey Gannon, Annie Grayer, Hannah Rabinowitz and Katelyn Polantz contributed to this report.
