WASHINGTON ― Former Rep. Matt Gaetz, who was President-elect Donald Trump’s first choose for Lawyer Basic, denies committing statutory rape in allegedly paying a 17-year-old for intercourse and different bombshell accusations in a newly launched Home Ethics Committee report.
However among the committee’s damning allegations come from the previous congressman’s personal phrases and actions, based on particulars inside the long-awaited report made public Monday.
Others comprise textual content messages, monetary data, photographs and interviews of individuals closest to him, the committee report stated, together with a former pal who’s now in jail and an ex-girlfriend who each used a “sugar courting” website linking older males with youthful ladies.
Gaetz has denied wrongdoing, attacked the credibility of the committee and a few witnesses and stated on social media that he usually gave cash to his girlfriends and acquaintances when he was youthful.
A Justice Division investigation into Gaetz began in 2020 under then-Attorney General Bill Barr throughout Trump’s first time period in workplace. The federal investigation of the Florida Republican resulted in no charges.
In response to a Sept. 4 committee request for info, Gaetz strongly denied having “engaged in sexual exercise with any particular person underneath 18.”
“The reply to this query is unequivocally NO. You possibly can apply this response to each model of this query, in each discussion board,” Gaetz stated in a press release posted to his social media account.
However in its report, the Ethics Committee stated it obtained testimony {that a} then-17-year-old woman, recognized within the report as Sufferer A, and Gaetz had intercourse twice throughout one July 15, 2017 social gathering in South Florida, “together with no less than as soon as within the presence of different social gathering attendees.”
“The file overwhelmingly means that Consultant Gaetz had intercourse with a number of ladies on the social gathering, together with the then-17-year-old, for which they had been paid,” the report stated.
Contesting cost for a ‘drive by’
A lot of that proof got here from textual content messages by Gaetz and his associates, based on the report.
In a single textual content trade obtained by the Committee, Gaetz balked at a lady’s request for cash after he accused her of “ditching” him on an evening when she was feeling drained, claiming she solely gave him a “drive by,” the report stated.
The girl asserted to Gaetz that she was being “handled in another way” than different ladies he was paying for intercourse, the report added.
‘Buyer appreciation week’
The Committee additionally obtained textual content messages through which Gaetz’s then-girlfriend, who he initially met via the location SeekingArrangement.com, advised a gaggle of ladies that “the fellows [Gaetz and a friend] needed me to share that they’re slightly restricted of their money stream this weekend,” the report stated. “[M]att was like if it may be extra of a buyer appreciation week. . . .”
A couple of months later, the report stated, Gaetz’s then-girlfriend advised the opposite ladies, “Btw Matt additionally talked about he’s going to be a bit beneficiant reason for the ‘buyer appreciation’ factor final time.”
Gaetz, who has lengthy maintained his innocence, attacked the credibility of the Ethics Committee Monday. He additionally revealed a collection of posts on X with snippets of witness testimony that he stated refute the committee’s findings.
“Giving funds to somebody you’re courting − that they didn’t ask for − and that isn’t ‘charged’ for intercourse is now prostitution?!?” he wrote.
However the committee, citing monetary data, stated that between 2017 and 2020, Gaetz paid tens of hundreds of {dollars} to ladies “probably in reference to sexual exercise and/or drug use” together with for cocaine and Ecstasy.
‘Substantial proof’ Gaetz violated state and federal legal guidelines
Based mostly on its years-long investigation, the bipartisan committee concluded there was “substantial proof” Gaetz “violated Home Guidelines, state and federal legal guidelines, and different requirements of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, acceptance of impermissible items, the availability of particular favors and privileges, and obstruction of Congress.”
A Trump ally, Gaetz was the president-elect’s preliminary selection for legal professional basic, earlier than withdrawing from consideration within the face of Senate opposition.
The Florida Republican resigned from Congress final month and lately joined One America Information Community, the place he’s scheduled to host a one-hour weeknight present beginning in January.
Extra:Matt Gaetz ethics report finds ‘substantial proof’ of statutory rape, prostitution
Monetary data on the coronary heart of Home Ethics investigation
On the coronary heart of the investigation had been funds it stated Gaetz made to no less than 12 ladies the report stated in money, by test or most frequently via on-line companies like Venmo, PayPal and Money App.
The ladies had been often greater than 15 years youthful than Gaetz, of their early twenties, and lots of had been discovered by a pal of Gaetz via the “sugar courting” web site, which “primarily linked older males and youthful ladies searching for ‘mutually helpful relationships,’“ the report stated.
“Gaetz took benefit of the financial vulnerability of younger ladies to lure them into sexual exercise for which they obtained a mean of some hundred {dollars} after every encounter,” the report stated.
It cited prosecutions in opposition to people for intercourse trafficking that originated with contacts made on “sugar courting” via SeekingArrangement.com or related web sites.
Joel Greenberg, Gaetz’s pal who the report stated procured ladies for them each from the “sugar daddy” website, is presently serving an 11-year federal prison sentence, partly for intercourse trafficking of a minor.
The committee’s Republican chairman and rating Democrat licensed 29 subpoenas for paperwork and testimony, reviewed almost 14,000 paperwork, and contacted greater than two dozen witnesses, it stated.
The committee stated it additionally obtained sworn written responses from Greenberg, the previous Seminole County tax collector. Citing “credibility points,” it stated it could “not rely completely on info supplied by Mr. Greenberg in making any findings.”
Gaetz for essentially the most half refused to cooperate past stalling for time and giving non-responsive replies for requests for info and data, the committee stated.
Extra:Underage prostitution, guidelines violations and extra: Key takeaways from the Matt Gaetz report
In February 2023, the Justice Division knowledgeable Gaetz he would not be charged in reference to the investigation. It declined to share its investigative materials with the committee, citing the dearth of felony fees in opposition to Gaetz.
Though DOJ has not commented, news reports at the time stated the credibility of among the witnesses, together with the alleged underage sufferer, performed a component in its choice to not convey fees.
A ‘basic expectation’ of cash for intercourse
Lots of the ladies interviewed by the committee stated they understood why they had been being paid, usually between $400 and $1,000 for an occasion or encounter.
“Consultant Gaetz didn’t seem to have negotiated particular cost quantities previous to participating in sexual exercise with the ladies he paid,” the report stated. “As a substitute, the ladies had a basic expectation that they’d usually obtain some sum of money after every sexual encounter.”
Monetary data cited by the committee confirmed Gaetz paid greater than $4,000 to 4 of the ladies. One, who obtained greater than $5,000 from Gaetz between 2018 and 2019, stated that “99 % of the time” that she and Gaetz had been collectively, “there was intercourse concerned.”
Textual content messages obtained by the Committee confirmed that Gaetz “would additionally ask ladies to convey medicine to their rendezvous,” in some circumstances requesting “a full praise [sic] of social gathering favors.”
Gaetz didn’t return quite a few requests for remark. He additionally refused to reply most committee questions whereas denying wrongdoing – particularly with regard to allegations about paying for intercourse, the report stated.
“There was, nonetheless, proof that he understood and shared lots of the ladies’s transactional views of their preparations,” it stated.
In a single occasion, the report stated, Gaetz despatched $400 to Greenberg with a word to “Hit up” one of many ladies, recognized solely as Sufferer A. “Mr. Greenberg then despatched two ladies funds totaling $400, together with Sufferer A.” Not one of the ladies are recognized within the report.
‘It’ll be enjoyable and really chill’
The report famous that, whereas Gaetz’s spokesman denied Gaetz knew a lady he’d been photographed with in Could 2017, the investigation confirmed that he had invited her and others for what he referred to as a “enjoyable and really chill” time in Key West with “2 guys, 4 women. A really high-quality, adventurous group.”
“Cost data reviewed by the Committee,” the report stated, “present that Consultant Gaetz paid $600 to the lady the identical day he was photographed along with her.”
( headline and story edited by our employees and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)
