‘A dangerous departure’: Republican lawmakers slam release of Matt Gaetz ethics-probe findings

Several Republican lawmakers disagreed with publishing the findings of an ethics probe into former Republican Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, according to a House Ethics Committee report released Monday.

Republican lawmakers who sit on the committee, led by Mississippi Rep. Michael Guest, chair of the House Ethics Committee, issued a dissent in the report against releasing the committee’s findings on the former Florida congressman.

“Representative Gaetz resigned from Congress, withdrew from consideration to serve in the next administration, and declared that he would not seek to be seated in the 119th Congress,” the dissenting lawmakers, including Guest, wrote in the report. “The decision to publish a report after his resignation breaks from the Committee’s long-standing  practice, opens the Committee to undue criticism, and will be viewed by some as an attempt to weaponize the Committee’s process.”

“We believe that operating outside the jurisdictional bounds set forth by House Rules and Committee standards, especially when making public disclosures, is a dangerous departure with potentially catastrophic consequences,” the dissenting lawmakers added.

The dissenting lawmakers notably did not dispute the report’s allegations.

Gaetz allegedly paid more than ten women for sexual favors or illicit drugs — including a 17-year-old girl — between 2017 and 2020, according to the report.

The committee identified at least 20 occasions from 2017-2020 during which the former Florida congresswoman allegedly paid women for sex or illicit drugs during the ethics panel’s years-long investigation into Gaetz. The former Florida congressman allegedly paid one of the women, who the committee determined may have been in a long-term relationship with the former congressman, more than $60,000.

The release of the ethics report Monday comes as lawmakers initially balked at releasing the report into Gaetz following his appointment by President-elect Donald Trump to serve as attorney general. Following Gaetz’s decision to withdraw his nomination after failing to secure support from key Republican senators and his resignation from the House of Representatives, Democratic lawmakers on the committee, led by retiring Democratic Rep. Susan Wild, moved ahead to release the report.

Two Republican members on the ethics panel voted with Democratic lawmakers to release the report, CBS News reported.

“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,” the authors of the report wrote.

“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 added.

The report also alleges that Gaetz “knowingly and willfully sought to impede and obstruct the Committee’s investigation of his conduct.”

The committee did not find sufficient evidence to suggest that the former Florida congressman violated federal sex trafficking laws. The Biden Department of Justice notably did not indict Gaetz after investigating the former Florida congressman in a sex trafficking probe.

Gaetz has denied the findings within the report, especially the committee’s allegation that Gaetz violated Florida’s statutory rape law by paying a 17- year- old- girl $400 in exchange for sex. The report alleges that the girl did not inform Gaetz of her age and the former Florida congressman did not ask.

“In my single days, I often sent funds to women I dated — even some I never dated but who asked,” Gaetz wrote on X on Dec. 18. “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.”

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.

Then, the very “witnesses” DOJ deemed not-credible were…

— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) December 18, 2024

“It’s embarrassing, though not criminal, that I probably partied, womanized, drank and smoked more than I should have earlier in life,” Gaetz added. “I live a different life now.”

The former Florida congressman is slated to join the primetime lineup of the conservative One America News Network in January. Gaetz will host an hour-long program called “The Matt Gaetz Show” during the 9:00 p.m. EST hour every weeknight, OAN announced on Dec. 10.

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