House Ethics panel confirms sexual misconduct, drugs probe of Matt Gaetz
The House Ethics Committee released a rare public statement Tuesday confirming that its reopened investigation of far-right Rep. Matt Gaetz involves allegations of sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, among other claims.
The 10-member bipartisan panel initially revealed in April 2021 it was looking into an array of allegations against Gaetz, 42, which also included accepting bribes or impermissible gifts, misuse of state identification records, and sharing of inappropriate images on the House floor.
The House probe was later put on pause while the Justice Department investigated Gaetz (R-Fla.), then restarted in May of last year after the feds declined to prosecute the congressman.
“There has been a significant and unusual amount of public reporting on the Committee’s activities this Congress. Much of that reporting has been inaccurate,” the committee said in its statement.
The panel went on to note that despite “difficulty in obtaining relevant information from Representative Gaetz and others,” it had “spoken with more than a dozen witnesses, issued 25 subpoenas, and reviewed thousands of pages of documents in this matter.”
In addition to the sex and drugs claims, the committee said it was also looking into allegations Gaetz had “accepted improper gifts, dispensed special privileges and favors to individuals with whom he had a personal relationship, and sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct.”
Gaetz had lashed out at the panel Monday, accusing it of “opening new frivolous investigations” against him.
The federal investigation into Gaetz, which began in 2020, centered on the congressman’s alleged relationship with a 17-year-old girl several years earlier — and allegations he paid for her to travel across state lines for sex.
Former Seminole County tax commissioner Joel Greenberg, a friend of Gaetz, took a plea deal in May 2021 in which he admitted to recruiting women — at least one of whom was underage — for commercial sex acts and paid them more than $70,000 between 2016 and 2018.
Greenberg reportedly introduced Gaetz to the then-17-year-old, though federal investigators reportedly were unable to determine whether she was of legal age when her purported liaison with the lawmaker began.
The Ethics Committee said Tuesday it was no longer reviewing whether Gaetz had accepted a bribe, misused state identification records, shared inappropriate images on the House floor, or improperly converted campaign funds for personal use.
In October, Gaetz made headlines after he and seven other Republicans overthrew House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), with the help of 208 House Democrats.
McCarthy has since claimed that the revolt was motivated by Gaetz’s desire for the then-speaker to intervene in the ethics investigation, but the Florida rep has categorically denied that.
“The House Ethics Committee has closed four probes into me, which emerged from lies intended solely to smear me. Instead of working with me to ban Congressional stock trading, the Ethics Committee is now opening new frivolous investigations,” Gaetz posted on X Monday.
“They are doing this to avoid the obvious fact that every investigation into me ends the same way: my exoneration. This is Soviet. Kevin McCarthy showed them the man, and they are now trying to find the crime.”
Gaetz, who represents Florida’s western Panhandle region, is facing a primary challenge from former naval aviator Aaron Dimmock on Aug. 20.
Dimmock has harped on Gaetz’s ethics issues during his campaign.
