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Lawmakers have accused Matt Gaetz, Donald Trump's former nominee for U.S. attorney general, of having sex with an underage girl, paying women for sex and using illegal drugs, in a controversial report published Monday.
The House Ethics Committee found “substantial evidence” that the former Republican lawmaker not only violated 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 standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, rape, illegal drug use, impermissible gifts, special favors or privileges, and obstruction of Congress.” The committee concluded.
Gaetz, a fierce ally of Trump and considered a potential candidate for Florida governor and Senate, denied any wrongdoing. Published on X He was not charged after a previous sexual misconduct investigation conducted by the Department of Justice.
Last week books: “I wasn't accused of anything: I was completely acquitted. Not even a campaign finance violation. And the people investigating me hated me. . . . I never had any sexual contact with anyone under 18.
“It's embarrassing, though not criminal, that I might have been partying, transitioning, drinking and smoking too much earlier in my life. I'm living a different life now.”
President-elect Trump chose the controversial 42-year-old for the position of attorney general in mid-November despite his limited legal experience, shocking Washington.
Only days later Gates He withdrew his name from consideration, saying his selection had “unfairly become a distraction from the critical work of the Trump/Vance transition,” referring to the president-elect's choice for running mate, J.D. Vance.
Trump later chose former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to replace Gaetz.
The committee alleged in its report that between 2017 and 2020, Gaetz made payments to women worth tens of thousands of dollars “likely related to sexual activity and/or drug use.”
In one case, Gaetz in 2017 allegedly paid a 17-year-old girl for sex at a party, according to her understanding of the cash transaction. The commission wrote that she had just finished her junior year of high school and was under the influence of an orgasm during her sexual encounters with Gaetz. She added that there is no evidence that the former representative was aware that she was a minor.
A year later, Gaetz allegedly joined a trip to the Bahamas with two other men and six women — a gift “in excess of the permitted amounts,” the report said.
The former congressman allegedly engaged in sexual activity with at least four of the women. While none of them received payments for the trip, one woman told the committee that “the trip itself was more than just the payments.”
All of the women interviewed by the committee said that their sexual encounters with Gaetz were consensual. But one said drug use may have “impaired their ability to know or fully consent to what's really going on,” while another said: “When I look back on certain moments, I feel violated.”
The report claimed that witnesses also saw Gaetz consuming marijuana, cocaine and ecstasy.
In 2018, the former actor allegedly arranged for his chief of staff to help a woman he had sex with obtain a passport, falsely declaring to the Foreign Office that she was a member of Parliament. The Chief of Staff has been contacted for comment.
Some Trump allies have rallied behind the former congressman in the wake of the report. “Matt Gaetz must return to Congress as a victorious champion on the shoulders of the people,” Steve Bannon, the president-elect’s former strategist, wrote on X.
