U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) takes testimony during a U.S. House Judiciary Committee hearing titled “Undue Influence: The Operations of the High Court and the Politics of the Supreme Court,” investigating the investigation of former anti-abortion leader Robert Pastor Schenck was informed in advance of the outcome of a major 2014 U.S. Supreme Court case involving contraceptives written by conservative Justice Samuel Alito on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., December 8, 2022.
Evelyn Hochstein | Reuters
this house ethics committee revealed on Monday that it found “substantial evidence” that former Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz had sex with a 17-year-old girl in 2017 and that he “routinely” made payments to women during his time in Congress Sex expenses.
This panel is in a final report During the years-long investigation into Gates, it was also discovered that he used illegal drugs, including cocaine and ecstasy, on multiple occasions between 2017 and 2019.
The bipartisan committee concluded that Gates also accepted gifts “in excess of the allowable amount,” including a 2018 trip to the Bahamas.
“Representative Gates has acted in a manner that disgracefully brings disgrace to the House of Representatives,” the report said.
The committee said it found “substantial evidence that Representative Gaetz violated House rules, state and federal laws, and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illegal drug use, accepting impermissible gifts, providing special favors and privileges, and obstruction of justice.” ”. Congress”.
But it found insufficient evidence that Gaetz violated federal sex trafficking laws.
Gates’ attorney did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on the report.
Hours before the long-awaited report is released, Gates asked a federal judge to release a temporary restraining order This will prevent its release.
The ethics panel’s report, the culmination of an investigation that began in 2021, was the focus of the latest intense controversy surrounding the former Florida congressman.
Gaetz, 42, resigned from Congress in mid-November shortly after President-elect Donald Trump appointed him as U.S. attorney general. Trump’s choice to lead the Justice Department prompted an immediate outcry from critics, who were quick to point out that if confirmed, Gaetz would be in charge of the agency that previously investigated him over sex trafficking allegations.
The Justice Department closed its investigation without filing criminal charges. But the ethics committee paused its own efforts amid the Justice Department’s release and reauthorized its investigation in May 2023.
When Gaetz left Congress, Republicans including Ethics Committee Chairman Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss., said he no longer fell under the committee’s jurisdiction, raising questions about whether the committee’s report would ever be made public release.
news media report Gaetz’s departure comes just two days after the ethics committee voted to release its report. The panel, evenly split between Democrats and Republicans, was deadlocked over whether to share the report, even though Gaetz is no longer in Congress.
But in a secret vote in early December, the committee decided the report should be released.
Gaetz withdrew his candidacy for attorney general just eight days after being selected by Trump, saying he was “unfairly distracting from the Republican president-elect’s transition efforts.” He denies all wrongdoing.
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