The House Ethics Committee report on Matt Gaetz has been leaked, and the findings are reportedly just as vile as we imagined.
Multiple outlets, including CNN and CBS, have obtained the report ahead of its expected release on Monday. The committee’s investigation reportedly found that the former Florida congressman did indeed pay a 17-year-old girl, for sex, and regularly used illicit drugs while in office. In total, Gaetz paid tens of thousands of dollars to multiple women in exchange for sex or drugs since entering the House in 2017.
“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,” investigators wrote.
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 committee Chairman Michael Guest, a Mississippi Republican—was the culmination of a yearslong 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.
Gaetz, for his part, has denied all allegations.
“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. I NEVER had sexual contact with someone under 18,” the former congressman wrote on X after learning that the Ethics Committee voted to release its findings. “Any claim that I have would be destroyed in court – which is why no such claim was ever made in court.”
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