Gaetz Report Details Sex, Drug Allegations

By Jim Saunders, The News Service of Florida

TALLAHASSEE — The U.S. House Committee on Ethics released a report Monday alleging that former Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz “regularly” paid women for sex, used illegal drugs and violated state laws.

The committee released the 37-page report more than a month after Gaetz, a Republican, resigned from Congress. The report followed years of allegations and investigations into Gaetz’s conduct, including accusations that he engaged in sexual activity with a 17-year-old girl.

The report alleged that Gaetz violated Florida law by hiring women for sex and violated a state statutory rape law. It also alleged that he violated state laws by using illegal drugs. The U.S. Department of Justice investigated Gaetz but decided last year against charging him with crimes.

“There is substantial evidence that Representative Gaetz paid women for sex, and had others pay women for sex on his behalf,” the report said. “The Committee heard testimony from over half a dozen witnesses who attended parties, events, and trips with Representative Gaetz from 2017-2020. Nearly every young woman that the Committee interviewed confirmed that she was paid for sex by, or on behalf of, Representative Gaetz. A few of the women characterized their relationship differently, describing a date-for-hire arrangement that may not necessarily implicate state prostitution laws. Even assuming the payments to those particular women would not violate prostitution laws, the Committee found evidence that Representative Gaetz spent tens of thousands of dollars on other women with whom he had a shared understanding that they would be compensated for sexual activity with him.”

The report also said the committee found substantial evidence that in 2017, “Representative Gaetz engaged in sexual activity with a 17-year-old girl” and that during “the period 2017 to 2019, Representative Gaetz used or possessed illegal drugs, including cocaine and ecstasy, on multiple occasions.”

Gaetz refuted the allegations in posts Monday and last week on the social-media platform X. In a post Wednesday, he wrote that the “Biden/Garland DOJ spent years reviewing allegations that I committed various crimes. I was charged with nothing: FULLY EXONERATED. Not even a campaign finance violation. And the people investigating me hated me.”

“In my single days, I often sent funds to women I dated –- even some I never dated but who asked,” he also wrote Wednesday. “I dated several of these women for years. I NEVER had sexual contact with someone under 18. Any claim that I have would be destroyed in court — which is why no such claim was ever made in court. My 30’s were an era of working very hard — and playing hard too. 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.”

Gaetz also filed a federal lawsuit Monday in Washington, D.C., seeking to block the committee from releasing the report, arguing in part that it could include “potentially defamatory allegations.” In addition, the lawsuit contended that the report should not be released because Gaetz resigned from the House on Nov. 14 and that the committee was “attempting to exercise jurisdiction over a private citizen in direct contravention of its own rules and constitutional limitations.”

The report acknowledged that the committee “has typically not released its findings after losing jurisdiction in a matter,” but it said a majority of the committee members agreed the findings should be disclosed.

It said the committee “concluded there was substantial evidence that Representative Gaetz violated House Rules, state and federal laws, and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, acceptance of impermissible gifts, the provision of special favors and privileges, and obstruction of Congress.”

Committee Chairman Michael Guest, R-Miss., however, wrote on behalf of dissenting members that the panel lost jurisdiction to release the information after Gaetz’s resignation.

“While we do not challenge the Committee’s findings, we take great exception that the majority deviated from the Committee’s well-established standards and voted to release a report on an individual no longer under the Committee’s jurisdiction, an action the Committee has not taken since 2006,” Guest wrote.

After the report was released, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehda ordered attorneys to file arguments about whether Gaetz’s lawsuit had become moot.

Gaetz, long a controversial political figure, resigned after President-elect Donald Trump announced he had selected Gaetz to serve as U.S. attorney general. Several days later, however, Gaetz withdrew from consideration for attorney general.

Gaetz was first elected to the Florida House in a 2010 special election before winning the congressional seat in 2016. He was re-elected Nov. 5 in Northwest Florida’s Congressional District 1 before the attorney-general announcement and subsequent resignation.