Lawmakers release report on Matt Gaetz sexual misconduct allegations : NPR

The Home Ethics Committee on Monday launched its long-awaited report on former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., after wanting into sexual misconduct allegations towards him.

The committee discovered there was “substantial proof” Gaetz violated Home guidelines, state and federal legal guidelines, “and different requirements of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, acceptance of impermissible presents, the supply of particular favors and privileges, and obstruction of Congress.”

Amongst different accusations, the committee discovered Gaetz engaged in sexual exercise with a 17-year-old lady in 2017, and used or possessed unlawful medicine on a number of events from 2017-2019, together with ecstasy and cocaine.

Gaetz has persistently denied any wrongdoing, together with in a press release on social media final week.

“I NEVER had sexual contact with somebody below 18. Any declare that I’ve can be destroyed in courtroom – which is why no such declare was ever made in courtroom,” he wrote within the submit.

“My 30’s have been an period of working very onerous – and enjoying onerous too. It is embarrassing, although not felony, that I most likely partied, womanized, drank and smoked greater than I ought to have earlier in life,” he continued.

The panel opened an investigation into Gaetz in 2021 after a flurry of allegations towards the then-congressman, together with unlawful drug use and sexual misconduct. It launched the report towards the objections of a few of the panel’s members and its chairman, Rep. Michael Visitor, R-Miss., who stated the committee had no jurisdiction over former members of Congress.

Gaetz, a conservative firebrand from Florida and a loyal defender of President-elect Donald Trump, resigned his seat earlier than the panel voted to launch the report, and insists he did nothing mistaken. However the panel’s leaked allegations final month derailed Gaetz’s bid to function Trump’s lawyer normal.

In a last-ditch effort on Monday, Gaetz sued the Ethics panel and its chairman, Visitor, searching for to dam the report’s launch, and arguing the committee has no jurisdiction over a personal citizen.

“Within the public curiosity”

The panel in its report stated it usually would not launch its findings after dropping jurisdiction over the difficulty — which occurred as soon as Gaetz resigned from Congress final month.

“Nevertheless, there are a couple of prior cases the place the Committee has decided that it was within the public curiosity to launch its findings even after a Member’s resignation from Congress,” the panel wrote. “The Committee doesn’t accomplish that evenly.”

In its report, the panel additionally discovered Gaetz used his chief of employees to get a passport for a lady with whom he engaged in sexual conduct, “falsely indicating to the U.S. Division of State that she was a constituent.”

He additionally accepted presents, together with transportation and lodging, in connection to a visit to the Bahamas in 2018, in extra of quantities permitted to lawmakers.

“Consultant Gaetz knowingly and willfully sought to impede and impede the Committee’s investigation of his conduct,” the committee stated. “Consultant Gaetz has acted in a way that displays discreditably upon the Home.”

Joel Leppard, an lawyer for 2 ladies who testified about Gaetz earlier than the Home ethics committee, stated the panel’s findings “vindicate my purchasers’ accounts and reveal their credibility.”

“We respect the Committee’s dedication to transparency in releasing this complete report so the reality could be recognized,” he added.

Committee modifications course

The choice to launch the report is a reversal from the Ethics committee, which deadlocked on the difficulty in November, whereas Gaetz was nonetheless vying for the lawyer normal job. A full vote of the Home to launch the report, introduced by a Democratic member, additionally failed earlier this month.

Visitor, the panel’s chairman, on Monday wrote within the report on behalf of dissenting members who objected to the report’s launch: “Whereas we don’t problem the Committee’s findings, we take nice exception that almost all deviated from the Committee’s well-established requirements and voted to launch a report on a person not below the Committee’s jurisdiction, an motion the Committee has not taken since 2006.”

The FBI investigated Gaetz in 2021 over potential intercourse trafficking violations, however the Division of Justice didn’t carry prices. The ethics panel additionally did not discover that Gaetz violated the federal intercourse trafficking statute.

Whereas Gaetz has drawn the ire of Democratic and Republican colleagues alike, many Republicans have raised issues about releasing a report on somebody who’s not a member of the Home, nor searching for increased workplace.

“The choice to publish a report after his resignation breaks from the Committee’s long-standing apply and is a harmful departure with doubtlessly catastrophic penalties,” Visitor, the Ethics Committee chairman, stated in a press release.

—With help from NPR’s Barbara Sprunt and Ryan Lucas.