The House Ethics Committee is expected to accuse former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), President-elect Trump’s former pick for attorney general, of regularly paying for sex, possessing illegal drugs and having sexual relations with an underage girl, according to a draft of the panel’s report. The report found that from at least 2017 to 2020, Gaetz “regularly paid women for engaging in sexual activity with him", and, in 2017, “engaged in sexual activity with a 17-year-old girl,” the draft said, according to the New York Times. The Ethics Committee found that from 2017 to 2019, Gaetz used or possessed illegal drugs, including cocaine and ecstasy “on multiple occasions,” and accepted lavish gifts, including transportation to and lodging in the Bahamas, in excessive of permissible amounts.
The committee concluded that Gaetz violated state sexual misconduct laws, including Florida’s statutory rape law, and violated House rules concerning gifts and misuse of his official office. However, the committee said it did not find conclusive evidence that Gaetz violated federal sex trafficking laws. “Although Representative Gaetz did cause the transportation of women across state lines for purposes of commercial sex, the committee did not find evidence that any of those women were under 18 at the time of travel, nor did the committee find sufficient evidence to conclude that the commercial sex acts were induced by force, fraud, or coercion,” the panel wrote. The release of panel’s findings did not come without significant internal strife among the Ethics Committee’s members. The report makes clear the committee’s Republican chairman objected to its release. Gaetz filed suit in federal court in Washington, D.C., on Monday seeking to block the report’s release.