U.S House panel finds Matt Gaetz paid thousands for drugs and sex: media reports
The U.S. House Ethics Committee has found that former Florida congressman Matt Gaetz paid tens of thousands of dollars to women for drugs and sex, including with a 17-year-old girl, U.S. media reported on Monday, citing a final draft of the panel’s report.
Gaetz, who has denied wrongdoing, resigned from the House of Representatives last month after he was selected by president-elect Donald Trump to be attorney general. He withdrew from consideration in the face of an uphill confirmation battle in the Senate.
In a bid to prevent the report’s release, expected on Monday, Gaetz filed a lawsuit against the Ethics panel saying
damage to his reputation and professional standing would be “severe and irreversible.”
Denied all wrongdoing
The panel investigated transactions Gaetz personally made, often using PayPal or Venmo, to more than a dozen women during his time in Congress, CNN reported.
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.
“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 favours or privileges, and obstruction of Congress,” panel investigators wrote, according to CNN.
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, CBS reported.
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.”
Gaetz was the subject of a three-year FBI investigation into allegations of sex trafficking that produced no criminal charges.
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.
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.
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.
‘Substantial evidence’
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.
In a statement Gaetz released on X last week after CNN reported that the committee had voted to release the report, Gaetz denied having sex with a minor or paying women for sex.
“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,” Gaetz said. “It’s embarrassing, though not criminal, that I probably partied, womanized, drank and smoked more than I should have earlier in life. I live a different life now.”
Published at Mon, 23 Dec 2024 15:48:09 +0000
Honda and Nissan announce plans to merge, creating world’s third-largest automaker
Japanese automakers Honda and Nissan have announced plans to work toward a merger, forming the world’s third-largest automaker by sales as the industry undergoes dramatic changes in its transition away from fossil fuels.
The two companies said they had signed a memorandum of understanding on Monday and that smaller Nissan alliance member Mitsubishi Motors also had agreed to join the talks on integrating their businesses.
Honda’s president, Toshihiro Mibe, said Honda and Nissan will pursue unifying their operations under a joint holding company. Honda will initially lead the new management, retaining the principles and brands of each company. The aim is to have a formal merger agreement by June and to complete the deal and list the holding company on the Tokyo Stock Exchange by August 2026, he said.
No dollar value was given and the formal talks are just starting, Mibe said.
There are “points that need to be studied and discussed,” he said. “Frankly speaking, the possibility of this not being implemented is not zero.”
Japanese automakers lagging behind Tesla, Chinese rivals
Automakers in Japan have lagged behind their big rivals in electric vehicles — namely Tesla and China’s BYD — and are trying to cut costs and make up for lost time.
China’s auto sector has seen a surge of exports in the last several years, with one industry group claiming that it had overtaken Japan as the world’s top auto exporter in 2023. In China’s domestic auto market, the world’s largest, hybrids and EVs accounted for more than half of car sales this year.
The Japanese government has been sounding the alarm on China’s existential threat to its auto industry since at least 2019, when it reportedly urged Honda and Nissan to meet and discuss potential consolidation. A merger could result in a behemoth worth more than $50 billion US based on the market capitalization of all three automakers.
Together, Honda, Nissan and Mitsubishi would gain scale to compete with Toyota Motor Corp. and with Germany’s Volkswagen AG. Toyota has technology partnerships with Japan’s Mazda Motor Corp. and Subaru Corp.
Planned merger a ‘desperate move’
News of a possible merger surfaced earlier this month, with unconfirmed reports saying that the talks on closer collaboration partly were driven by aspirations of Taiwan iPhone maker Foxconn to tie up with Nissan by buying shares from the Japan’s company’s other alliance partner, Renault SA of France.
Nissan’s CEO Makoto Uchida said there had been no direct approach to his company from Foxconn. He also acknowledged that Nissan’s situation was “severe.”
Canada is stepping in line with the U.S. and imposing 100 per cent tariffs on all electric vehicles coming from China to combat the “unfair advantage” it has in the global marketplace. About That producer Lauren Bird explores why North America is closing the door on a massive source of cheap electric vehicles and why experts say consumers will pay the price.
CORRECTION: At 1:47 in this video, we state that the cheapest Tesla on the market as of Aug. 28, 2024, in the U.S. is a Model Y for about $45,000 USD. In fact, the cheapest Tesla you can buy in the U.S. without a federal tax credit is the Model 3 Rear-Wheel Drive for $38,990.
Even after a merger, Toyota, which rolled out 11.5 million vehicles in 2023, would remain the leading Japanese automaker. If they join, the three smaller companies would make about eight million vehicles. In 2023, Honda made four million and Nissan produced 3.4 million. Mitsubishi Motors made just over one million.
Nissan, Honda and Mitsubishi announced in August that they would share components for electric vehicles, like batteries, and jointly research software for autonomous driving to adapt better to dramatic changes centered around electrification, following a preliminary agreement between Nissan and Honda set in March.
Nissan has struggled following a scandal that began with the arrest of its former chairman Carlos Ghosn in late 2018 on charges of fraud and misuse of company assets, allegations that he denies. He eventually was released on bail and fled to Lebanon.
Speaking Monday to reporters in Tokyo via a video link, Ghosn derided the planned merger as a “desperate move.”
Nissan has years of experience building batteries, EVs
From Nissan, Honda could get truck-based body-on-frame large SUVs such as the Armada and Infiniti QX80 that Honda doesn’t have, with large towing capacities and good off-road performance, Sam Fiorani, vice president of AutoForecast Solutions, told The Associated Press.
Nissan also has years of experience building batteries and electric vehicles, and gas-electric hybrid powertrains that could help Honda in developing its own EVs and next generation of hybrids, he said.
But the company said in November that it was slashing 9,000 jobs, or about six per cent of its global work force, and reducing its global production capacity by 20 per cent after reporting a quarterly loss of 9.3 billion yen (around $85 million Cdn).
It recently reshuffled its management and Makoto Uchida, its chief executive, took a 50 per cent pay cut to take responsibility for the financial woes, saying Nissan needed to become more efficient and respond better to market tastes, rising costs and other global changes.
“We anticipate that if this integration comes to fruition, we will be able to deliver even greater value to a wider customer base,” Uchida said.
Fitch Ratings recently downgraded Nissan’s credit outlook to “negative,” citing worsening profitability, partly due to price cuts in the North American market. But it noted that it has a strong financial structure and solid cash reserves that amounted to 1.44 trillion yen ($13 billion Cdn).
Nissan’s share price also has fallen to the point where it is considered something of a bargain.
Merger reflects industry-wide trend toward consolidation
On Monday, NIssan’s Tokyo-traded shares gained 1.6 per cent. They jumped more than 20 per cent after news of the possible merger broke last week.
Honda’s shares surged 3.8 per cent. Honda’s net profit slipped nearly 20 per cent in the first half of the April-March fiscal year from a year earlier, as sales suffered in China.
The merger reflects an industry-wide trend toward consolidation.
At a routine briefing Monday, Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said he would not comment on details of the automakers’ plans, but said Japanese companies need to stay competitive in the fast changing market.
“As the business environment surrounding the automobile industry largely changes, with competitiveness in storage batteries and software is increasingly important, we expect measures needed to survive international competition will be taken,” Hayashi said.
Published at Mon, 23 Dec 2024 11:19:48 +0000
