The scathing Home Ethics Committee report launched Monday caps off one of the in depth investigations into former Rep. Matt Gaetz’s (R-Fla.) conduct, headlined by findings that Gaetz paid a 17-year-old highschool pupil for intercourse and used illicit medication like cocaine and ecstasy.
The report accuses Gaetz of misusing his workplace to dispense a private favor, pushes again on these disputing the info surrounding the 2017 occasion the place Gaetz allegedly had a sexual encounter with the 17-year-old, reveals textual content messages between Gaetz and a number of ladies that made references to medication, and documented failed makes an attempt to get new data from the Justice Division.
Gaetz has vigorously denied wrongdoing.
“These claims would be destroyed in court — which is why they were never made in any court against me,” Gaetz instructed The Hill on Monday forward of the report’s launch.
Listed below are some highlights from the report:
New accusation of utilizing workplace to dispense private favor
The report stated Gaetz in 2018 organized for his chief of employees to assist a girl with whom he was engaged in sexual exercise acquire a passport, falsely representing to the State Division that she was a constituent.
Whereas lots of the allegations which are extensively detailed within the committee findings have been reported on for years, the allegation about Gaetz improperly utilizing his workplace to acquire a passport for the lady is new.
Based on the report, after Gaetz had met the lady via his former pal Joel Greenberg and had intercourse together with her, the lady — who didn’t know on the time that Gaetz was a congressman — stated she wanted a brand new passport for an upcoming journey. Gaetz then related the lady together with his chief of employees, who labored with the State Division to assist safe a passport for the ladies in a course of meant for constituents. The girl, nevertheless, didn’t stay in Gaetz’s congressional district.
The report famous that the chief of employees was now not employed in Gaetz’s workplace because it investigated the matter and didn’t reply to the committee.
Committee finds ‘Victim A’ extra credible than Gaetz ally
The report discovered substantial cause to consider that Gaetz had a sexual encounter with a 17-year-old, recognized as Sufferer A, at a July 15, 2017, occasion when the congressman was 35.
However Gaetz has maintained that the encounter by no means occurred and has used one other witness who disputes components of the testimony as a method of discrediting the core discovering.
The alleged encounter passed off on the house of Chris Dorworth, a former Florida state consultant. That’s based on testimony from Sufferer A, testimony from two different ladies, and the sworn response of Greenberg, who’s at present in jail for intercourse trafficking of a minor and fraud fees and who cooperated with the DOJ matter as a part of a plea settlement. Sufferer A stated she was “certain” concerning the encounter with Gaetz that night time.
Whereas Sufferer A testified that Dorworth was current for the occasion, Dorworth testified to the committee that he was not current — and used that assertion to accuse Sufferer A of mendacity about Gaetz as nicely.
Dorworth individually sued Greenberg and a number of other different individuals in federal court docket for defamation in relation to the allegations, saying on-line that he was instructed Sufferer A deliberate to sue him for tens of millions of {dollars}. He settled with Sufferer A in an settlement by which no funds had been exchanged, based on the report. He dropped a separate case in opposition to Greenberg.
Gaetz on Monday shared a thread on social platform X by Dorworth that once more asserted he was not on the occasion, utilizing it as a method of discrediting your entire report.
“This is why they didn’t ever present these allegations in a forum where they could be challenged,” Gaetz stated.
However the committee clearly didn’t assume Dorworth’s assertions outweighed these of the alleged sufferer, explaining that Dorworth couldn’t clarify mobile phone information that poked holes in his testimony.
“After the Committee’s interview, and after he settled his lawsuit against Victim A, Mr. Dorworth was deposed and confronted with cell phone records showing that he was in fact at his residence during the party. Mr. Dorworth stated, ‘I don’t have an answer to these questions,’” the report stated.
Whereas the committee didn’t share Sufferer A’s full testimony, it included a part of it in a footnote: “I wasn’t that drunk at the beginning of the party, and those two memories are so huge in my head,” she stated. Requested if there was any probability she misremembered whether or not or not she had intercourse with Gaetz when she was 17, Sufferer A stated: “No.”
Sufferer A additionally instructed the committee that whereas Greenberg claimed to have seen her have intercourse with Gaetz on the house of one other particular person when she was 17, she didn’t recall that occasion, and had “hazy memories” of different events she noticed Gaetz.
Textual content message screenshots present Gaetz asking ladies to convey ‘party favors’
The Ethics Committee launched screenshots of textual content message exchanges between Gaetz and two ladies he paid to journey with him to New York Metropolis in January 2019.
Gaetz instructed the ladies to e book flights on Spirit Airways and Delta Air Traces — with one of many ladies asking, “So fly into Newark and out of New York??”
Later within the trade, Gaetz requested: “Who can help [with] party favors?” That was an inquiry about acquiring medication upfront of the journey, based on the committee.
The committee additionally stated it “received evidence that Representative Gaetz sent the women money to compensate them for sexual activities they engaged in with him during the trip,” citing an interview with one of many ladies.
Division of Justice didn’t cooperate
The Ethics Committee report famous a number of instances that the Division of Justice, which reportedly investigated Gaetz for intercourse trafficking in relation to the 17-year-old however declined to cost Gaetz with against the law, didn’t totally cooperate with the panel’s requests for data.
The Ethics panel had sought statements that ladies with whom Gaetz was allegedly concerned gave to the DOJ, saying that lots of the ladies didn’t need to present extra testimony and “relive their experience” and had been involved about further testimony in mild of the DOJ’s lack of motion.
“DOJ cited internal policies about protecting uncharged subjects like Representative Gaetz, general concerns about how DOJ’s cooperation with the Committee may deter other victims in other matters, and various inapposite policies relating to congressional oversight of DOJ itself,” the report stated.
The committee stated it submitted Freedom of Info Act requests to related DOJ workplaces however these “have not been adequately processed.”
It additionally issued a subpoena to the Division of Justice, which, regardless of some back-and-forth exchanges, didn’t totally comply.
“DOJ ultimately provided publicly reported information about the testimony of a deceased individual. To date, DOJ has provided no meaningful evidence or information to the Committee or cited any lawful basis for its responses,” the Ethics report stated.
The committee additionally stated it regarded into whether or not Gaetz tried to tamper with witness testimony in reference to the DOJ investigation.
“DOJ refused to provide a copy of an audio recording in which Representative Gaetz discussed the DOJ’s inquiry with one of the women he paid for sex,” the report stated.
