House Ethics Committee Finds Substantial Evidence Against Matt Gaetz: Prostitution, Drugs and Obstruction
On December 23, 2024, the U.S. House Committee on Ethics released in Washington its investigative report on former Representative Matt Gaetz. The committee concluded there was "substantial evidence" that Gaetz, while serving in the House, had violated House Rules and state and federal laws, in conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, acceptance of impermissible gifts, the provision of special favors and privileges, and obstruction of Congress. Gaetz denied the report's allegations, and he was never criminally charged in the matter.
The committee's principal findings were that, from at least 2017 to 2020, Gaetz regularly paid women for engaging in sexual activity with him; that in 2017 he engaged in sexual activity with a 17-year-old girl; that during 2017 to 2019 he used or possessed illegal drugs, including cocaine and ecstasy, on multiple occasions; that he accepted gifts, including transportation and lodging in connection with a 2018 trip to the Bahamas, in excess of permissible amounts; that in 2018 he arranged for his chief of staff to assist a woman with whom he engaged in sexual activity in obtaining a passport, falsely indicating to the U.S. Department of State that she was a constituent; and that he knowingly and willfully sought to impede and obstruct the committee's investigation, acting in a manner that reflects discreditably upon the House.
On the 2017 allegation, the committee said it received credible testimony from "Victim A" herself and from multiple corroborating witnesses, and determined there was substantial evidence that Gaetz had sex with Victim A in July 2017, when she was 17 and he was 35, in violation of Florida's statutory rape law. The report also records that Gaetz denied the allegation and had publicly stated that Victim A "doesn't exist" and that he had not "had sex with a 17-year-old since I was 17," statements the committee found to be untrue. On drugs, the committee found substantial evidence that Gaetz used cocaine, ecstasy and marijuana, while Gaetz denied using illicit drugs in written correspondence to the committee.
On the September 2018 Bahamas trip, the committee found that Gaetz accepted a return flight on a private plane, lodging and other travel costs provided by an associate, well in excess of the personal-friendship gift threshold, without first seeking the committee's approval and without disclosing the gifts on his financial disclosure forms. At the same time, the committee stated expressly that it did not find sufficient evidence to conclude that Gaetz violated the federal sex trafficking statute: although he did cause the transportation of women across state lines for purposes of commercial sex, the committee found no evidence that any of those women were under 18 at the time of travel, nor sufficient evidence that the commercial sex acts were induced by force, fraud or coercion.
The investigation began in April 2021, was deferred for a time at the request of the Department of Justice, and was reauthorized in the 118th Congress. On November 14, 2024, Gaetz resigned from the House after the President-elect announced his intention to nominate him for U.S. Attorney General, and the committee lost jurisdiction over him; the report was adopted by the committee on December 10, 2024. Chairman Michael Guest, writing on behalf of the dissenting members, argued in views appended to the report that the committee had lost jurisdiction to release any substantive work product regarding Gaetz after his resignation, that publishing the report departed from the committee's well-established standards and could be viewed as an attempt to weaponize its process, while stating that the dissenters did not challenge the committee's findings themselves.
Related: Attorney General Nominee Matt Gaetz Withdraws From Consideration
By the time the report was released, Gaetz was no longer a member of the House and had withdrawn from consideration for Attorney General. He denied all allegations of wrongdoing, and the Department of Justice's earlier investigation of him ended without criminal charges against him. (Source: U.S. House Committee on Ethics)
Source: U.S. House Committee on Ethics
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于华盛顿的美国国会大厦西侧全景近景。Gryffindor 摄，公共领域，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The west front of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., in a closer ground-level view. By Gryffindor, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
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