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| Matt Gaetz (ABC) |
After reading about the House Ethics Committee report on former Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-FL), many Americans probably asked, "Where can I go for an industrial-strength shower to wipe off this sleaze?" Just how sleazy is this story, in which the committee accused Gaetz of paying for sex, using illegal drugs, and having sexual relations with a 17-year-old? The New York Times has five takeaways that help answer that question. Writes investigative reporter Michael S. Schmidt:
After a yearslong investigation, the House Ethics Committee released a 37-page report on Monday into former Representative Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida, and allegations that he engaged in an array of illegal and untoward conduct, including having sex with a 17-year-old girl.
Mr. Gaetz, who had been President-elect Donald J. Trump’s first choice to be attorney general before Mr. Gaetz withdrew from consideration, has repeatedly denied he did anything wrong.
Here are takeaways from the report:
(1) The report says the evidence shows Mr. Gaetz engaged in a range of questionable conduct, some of it illegal.
The committee concluded that Mr. Gaetz regularly paid women to have sex with him from 2017 to 2020 and had sex with an underage girl in 2017, during his first term in the House, and that the girl was paid.
The report says that Mr. Gaetz used illegal drugs — including cocaine and Ecstasy — on multiple occasions between 2017 and 2019. It also says that he accepted gifts of transportation and lodging, in excess of dollar limits on what members of Congress are allowed to accept, as part of a trip he took to the Bahamas where he had sex with women whom he paid.
The report adds that he used his position to falsely claim to the State Department that a woman he had sex with was really a constituent who needed help obtaining a passport.
Mr. Gaetz also obstructed the committee’s investigation, the report said.
The report concluded that “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.”
(2) It is not clear that Mr. Gaetz will face further prosecution.
The Justice Department has already investigated Mr. Gaetz for the same matters examined by the House panel. Prosecutors informed Mr. Gaetz’s legal team in February 2023 that they would not bring charges. The prosecutors had concluded that they could not make a strong enough case in court, people familiar with the matter said at the time.
There is no indication that the committee’s report has any evidence that would not have been available to federal prosecutors. And in less than a month, the Justice Department will be under the control of Mr. Trump, who just weeks ago wanted Mr. Gaetz to be the nation’s chief law enforcement officer.
The House Ethics Committee report does not include a criminal referral, but concludes that Mr. Gaetz broke state prostitution laws in Florida.
But the bar to say someone broke the law is lower than having to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt in court.
(3) The panel did not find sufficient evidence to accuse Mr. Gaetz of sex trafficking.
The committee said it “did not obtain substantial evidence” that Mr. Gaetz had violated federal sex-trafficking laws, one focus of the Justice Department inquiry, though it concluded that he had sex with a girl when she was 17 and that the girl was paid.
The committee said it had no evidence that Mr. Gaetz was aware the girl was a minor at the time. At the time she had sex with Mr. Gaetz, the report said, the girl had just completed her junior year in high school.
Evidence uncovered by the committee showed that Mr. Gaetz paid for women to travel to New York and Washington to have sex with him. But, the committee said, the women were over 18 at the time.
“While Representative Gaetz’s relationship with these women involved an exploitative power imbalance, the committee does not have reason to believe that he used force, fraud or coercion as those terms apply under the applicable laws,” the report said.
But, the report said, the committee found that by having sex with the 17-year-old, he violated Florida’s statutory rape law.
“The committee received evidence that Representative Gaetz did not learn that Victim A was 17 years old until more than a month after their first sexual encounters,” the report said. “However, statutory rape is a strict liability crime. After he learned that Victim A was a minor, he maintained contact and less than six months after she turned 18, he met up with her again for commercial sex.”
(4) Some of the women Mr. Gaetz had sex with for money felt impaired by drug or alcohol use.
The women whom committee investigators questioned said that their sexual interactions with Mr. Gaetz were “consensual.” But one woman said that she “felt that the use of drugs at the parties and events they attended” may have impaired her “ability to really know what was going on or fully consent.”
The committee said that “nearly every woman that the committee spoke with could not remember the details of at least one or more of the events they attended with Representative Gaetz and attributed that to drug or alcohol consumption.”
Some of the women expressed regret at what they had engaged in. One woman said that when she looks “back on certain moments, I feel violated.” Another woman said, “I think about it all the time,” adding, “I still see him when I turn on the TV and there’s nothing anyone can do. It’s frustrating to know I lived a reality that he denies.”
(5) The committee believed the Justice Department was unhelpful in its investigation.
Initially, after it was revealed in 2021 that Mr. Gaetz was under federal investigation, the Justice Department told the panel to stand down as it completed its inquiry — a request the committee complied with.
In 2023, Mr. Gaetz announced that the department had decided not to charge him, leading the committee to restart its inquiry.
But, at that point, the Justice Department refused to respond to the committee, according to the committee.
The committee said that “after three months without a response despite repeated follow up,” it filed Freedom of Information Act requests with Justice Department offices, “which to date have not been adequately processed.”
“The committee continued to reach out to D.O.J. throughout 2023, having still not received a substantive response to its request for information,” the committee said.
The committee said it received its first correspondence from the Justice Department in January 2024.
“At that time, D.O.J. provided no substantive response or explanation for its delay,” the report said.
But the department told the committee it does not give nonpublic information about investigations that do not result in anyone being charged.
The committee said this stance by the Justice Department is “inconsistent with D.O.J.’s historical conduct with respect to the Committee and its unique role in upholding the integrity of the House.”
“D.O.J.’s initial deferral request and subsequent lack of cooperation with the committee’s review caused significant delays in the investigation,” the report said.
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