Matt Gaetz paid thousands for drugs and sex, U.S. House panel finds
The U.S. House ethics committee on Monday accused Matt Gaetz of “regularly” paying for sex, including with a 17-year-old girl, and purchasing and using illicit drugs as a member of Congress.
The 37-page report by the bipartisan panel includes explicit details of sex-filled parties and vacations that Gaetz, now 42, took part in from 2017 to 2020 while representing Florida’s western panhandle.
Congressional investigators concluded that Gaetz violated multiple state laws related to sexual misconduct while in office, though not federal sex trafficking laws. They also found that Gaetz “knowingly and willfully sought to impede and obstruct” the committee’s work.
“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,” the report states.
Ahead of the report’s release Gaetz denied any wrongdoing and criticized the committee’s process.
A report from the U.S. House ethics committee found that former Florida congressman Matt 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,’ according to reporting from CBS and CNN, who say they have obtained a final draft of the investigative report.
“Giving funds to someone you are dating — that they didn’t ask for — and that isn’t ‘charged’ for sex is now prostitution?!?” he posted on X, the website formerly known as Twitter. “There is a reason they did this to me in a Christmas Eve-Eve report and not in a courtroom of any kind where I could present evidence and challenge witnesses.”
Lawmakers paint a damning portrait of Gaetz’s conduct, using dozens of pages of exhibits, including text messages and financial records, travel receipts, checks and online payments, to document a party- and drug-fuelled lifestyle. The committee said it compiled the evidence after issuing 29 subpoenas for documents and testimony and contacting more than two dozen witnesses.
In addition to soliciting prostitution, the ethics committee report states that Gaetz “accepted gifts, including transportation and lodging in connection with a 2018 trip to the Bahamas, in excess of permissible amounts.”
That same year, investigators say Gaetz arranged for his chief of staff to obtain a passport for a woman with whom he was sexually involved, falsely telling the State Department that she was his constituent.
Texts show Gaetz inviting women to events, panel says
In some of the text exchanges, Gaetz appears to be inviting various women to events, getaways or parties, and arranging airplane travel and lodging. At one point, he asks one woman if she has a “cute black dress” to wear. There are also discussions of shipping goods.
One of the exhibits is a text exchange that appears to be between two of the women concerned about their cash flow and payments. In another, a person asks Gaetz for help to pay an educational expense.
Former U.S. congressman Matt Gaetz has withdrawn his name from consideration as president-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general, saying his confirmation was becoming a distraction.
Mounting a last-ditch effort to halt the publication of the report, Gaetz filed a lawsuit Monday asking a court to intervene, citing what he called “untruthful and defamatory information” that would “significantly damage” his “standing and reputation in the community.” Gaetz’s complaint argues he’s no longer under the committee’s jurisdiction since he resigned from Congress.
“The committee’s position that it may nonetheless publish potentially defamatory findings about a private citizen over whom it claims no jurisdiction represents an unprecedented expansion of congressional power that threatens fundamental constitutional rights and established procedural protections,” Gaetz’s lawyers wrote in their request for a temporary restraining order.
Investigated claims since 2021
The often secretive, bipartisan panel has investigated claims against Gaetz since 2021. But its work became more urgent last month when Trump picked him shortly after Election Day as his first choice to be the nation’s top law enforcement officer. Gaetz resigned from Congress that same day, putting him outside the purview of the ethics committee’s jurisdiction.
But Democrats had pressed to make the report public even after Gaetz was no longer a member and had withdrawn as Trump’s pick to lead the Justice Department. A vote on the House floor this month to force the report’s release failed; all but one Republican voted against it.
The report brings to a close a nearly five-year investigation into Gaetz. Its release comes after at least one Republican joined all five Democrats on the panel earlier this month in a secret vote to release the report about their former colleague despite initial opposition from GOP lawmakers, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, to publishing findings about a former member of Congress.
Earlier, CNN, which said it had obtained a copy of the report before its release, said that the panel investigated transactions Gaetz personally made, often using PayPal or Venmo, to more than a dozen women during his time in Congress.
The report found that Gaetz paid more than $90,000 US to 12 different women, payments the ethics panel determined were likely in connection with sexual activity and drug use, reported CBS. which also said it obtained a copy of the report before its release.
Had sex twice with 17-year-old, panel heard
The ethics panel received testimony that Gaetz had sex twice with a 17-year-old girl, described in the report as “Victim A,” at a party in 2017, CBS reported.
“Victim A recalled receiving $400 in cash from Representative Gaetz that evening, which she understood to be payment for sex,” CBS quoted the report as saying. “Victim A said that she did not inform Representative Gaetz that she was under 18 at the time, nor did he ask her age.”
The ethics panel said there was not sufficient evidence that the three-term congressman violated the federal sex trafficking statute, CBS reported.
All of the women who testified said the sexual encounters with Gaetz were consensual, according to CBS.
However, one woman told the committee that the use of drugs at the parties and events they attended may have “impair[ed their] ability to really know what was going on or fully consent.”
Another woman told the committee: “When I look back on certain moments, I feel violated.”
The report found that Gaetz violated House rules and other standards of conduct banning prostitution, statutory rape and drug use, CBS reported.
It also found “substantial evidence” Gaetz engaged in illicit drug use, CBS reported. It accused him of accepting gifts of luxury travel in excess of permissible limits with a 2018 trip to the Bahamas, CBS added.
Published at Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:48:09 +0000
North Gaza hospital faces ‘continuous daily threat’ from Israeli strikes, says director
An official at a hospital in northern Gaza is sounding the alarm as the building faces Israeli bombardment “from all directions” after being ordered to evacuate, while ceasefire negotiations continue.
One of Gaza’s few still partially functioning hospitals sits in an area that has been under intense Israeli military pressure for nearly three months. It sought urgent help after being hit by Israeli fire.
“We are facing a continuous daily threat,” Hussam Abu Safiya, director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, said on Monday. “The bombing continues from all directions, affecting the building, the departments and the staff.”
The Israeli military did not immediately comment.
Meanwhile, at least 24 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes across the enclave on Monday, medics said.
Palestinians accuse Israel of seeking to permanently depopulate northern Gaza to create a buffer zone, which Israel denies.
Israel says its operation around the three communities on the northern edge of the Gaza Strip — Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun and Jabalia — is targeting Hamas militants.
Tom Fletcher, the aid chief for the United Nations, said Israeli forces had hampered efforts to deliver much-needed aid in northern Gaza.
“North Gaza has been under a near-total siege for more than two months, raising the spectre of famine,” he said Monday. “South Gaza is extremely overcrowded, creating horrific living conditions and even greater humanitarian needs as winter sets in.”
Gaps appear to narrow in truce deal
Gaps between Israel and Hamas over a possible Gaza ceasefire have narrowed, according to remarks by Israeli and Palestinian officials on Monday, although crucial differences have yet to be resolved.
A fresh bid by mediators Egypt, Qatar and the United States to end the fighting and release Israeli and foreign hostages has gained momentum this month, although no breakthrough has yet been reported.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said progress had been made in ongoing hostage negotiations with Hamas in Gaza but that he did not know how much longer it would take to see the results.
Talks to broker a ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas have restarted in Cairo, and sources close to negotiations say an agreement could be signed in coming days. Palestinians in southern Gaza say they hope this round of talks will see the war ending so life can resume.
During a speech in Israel’s Knesset, Netanyahu said Israel had made “great achievements” militarily on several fronts and that military pressure on Hamas had led its leaders to soften their previous demands.
The prime minister, in between heckles from opposition members, said Israel had solidified its stance as a “regional power.”
A Palestinian official familiar with the talks said while some sticking points had been resolved, the identity of some of the Palestinian prisoners to be released by Israel in return for hostages had yet to be agreed upon, along with the precise deployment of Israeli troops in Gaza.
His remarks corresponded with comments by the Israeli diaspora minister, Amichai Chikli, who said both issues were still being negotiated. Nonetheless, he said, the sides were far closer to reaching agreement than they have been for months.
“This ceasefire can last six months or it can last 10 years, it depends on the dynamics that will form on the ground,” Chikli told Israel’s Kan radio. Much hinged on what powers would be running and rehabilitating Gaza once fighting stopped, he said.
The duration of the ceasefire has been a fundamental sticking point throughout several rounds of failed negotiations. Hamas wants an end to the war, while Israel wants an end to Hamas’s rule of Gaza first.
“The issue of ending the war completely hasn’t yet been resolved,” the Palestinian official said.
The war was triggered by Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza has since killed more than 45,200 Palestinians, according to health officials in the Hamas-run enclave. Most of the population of 2.3 million has been displaced and much of Gaza is in ruins.
Published at Mon, 23 Dec 2024 17:10:30 +0000
