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
Prosecutors withdraw appeal of dismissed case against Alec Baldwin in fatal shooting on movie set
New Mexico prosecutors won’t pursue an appeal of a court’s decision to dismiss an involuntary manslaughter charge against actor Alec Baldwin in the fatal shooting on a cinematographer on the set of a western movie, the Santa Fe district attorney’s office announced on Monday.
Special prosecutor Kari Morrissey withdrew the appeal of a July decision made at trial to dismiss the charge against Baldwin in the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during a rehearsal on set for the movie Rust outside Santa Fe in October 2021.
“Today’s decision to dismiss the appeal is the final vindication of what Alec Baldwin and his attorneys have said from the beginning — this was an unspeakable tragedy but Alec Baldwin committed no crime,” said defence lawyers Luke Nikas and Alex Spiro. “The rule of law remains intact in New Mexico.”
Representatives for the state attorney general could not be be reached immediately for comment.
The decision to drop the appeal solidifies the ruling by Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer halfway through Baldwin’s trial that dismissed the case on allegations that police and prosecutors withheld evidence from the defence.
Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer dismissed charges of involuntary manslaughter against actor Alec Baldwin, in New Mexico. His defence lawyers accused Santa Fe law enforcement of hiding evidence of the source of the live round that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins in 2021, failing to list the rounds in the Rust investigation file or inform the defence lawyers of their existence.
Baldwin’s trial was upended by revelations that ammunition was brought into the Santa Fe County sheriff’s office in March by a man who said it could be related to Hutchins’s killing.
Prosecutors said they deemed the ammo unrelated and unimportant, while Baldwin’s lawyers said investigators “buried” the evidence in a separate case file and filed a successful motion to dismiss.
The district attorney’s office said that under state law, the New Mexico attorney general would have carried forward the appeal but “did not intend to exhaustively pursue the appeal on behalf of the prosecution.”
“As a result, the State’s efforts to continue to litigate the case in a fair and comprehensive manner have been met with multiple barriers that have compromised its ability to prosecute to the fullest extent of the law,” local prosecutors said.
Baldwin faces several lawsuits
Baldwin, the lead actor and co-producer for Rust, was pointing a gun at Hutchins during a rehearsal on set when the revolver went off, killing Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza. Baldwin has said he pulled back the hammer — but not the trigger — and the revolver fired.
In April, a judge sentenced movie weapons supervisor Hannah Gutierrez-Reed to the maximum of one and a half years at a state penitentiary on an involuntary manslaughter conviction in Hutchins’s death.
Prosecutors blamed Gutierrez-Reed for unwittingly bringing live ammunition onto the set of Rust, where it was expressly prohibited, and for failing to follow basic gun safety protocols.
Assistant director and safety co-ordinator David Halls pleaded no contest to the negligent use of a deadly weapon and was sentenced to six months of unsupervised probation. A no-contest plea isn’t an admission of guilt but is treated as such for sentencing purposes.
Several civil lawsuits have been brought against Baldwin and Rust producers, including a complaint by Hutchins’s parents and sister.
Prosecutors said Hutchins’s death has prompted industry-wide scrutiny of safety protocols, especially the use of firearms and live ammunition on set.
Published at Tue, 24 Dec 2024 03:18:31 +0000
