The scathing Home Ethics Committee report launched Monday caps off one of the vital 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 details surrounding the 2017 celebration 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 info 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 advised 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 that Gaetz in 2018 organized for his chief of workers to assist a lady 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.
In keeping with the report, after Gaetz had met the lady by means of his former good friend Joel Greenberg and had intercourse together with her, the lady – who didn’t know on the time that Gaetz was a congressman – stated that she wanted a brand new passport for an upcoming journey. Gaetz then linked the lady together with his chief of workers, who then labored with the State Division to assist safe a passport for the ladies in a course of meant for constituents. The girl, nonetheless, didn’t stay in Gaetz’s congressional district.
The report famous that the chief of workers was 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 imagine that Gaetz had a sexual encounter with a 17-year-old, recognized as Sufferer A, at a July 15, 2017 celebration when the congressman was 35.
However Gaetz has maintained that the encounter by no means occurred, and has used one other witness who disputes elements of the testimony as a method of discrediting the core discovering.
The alleged encounter came about on the house of Chris Dorworth, a former Florida state consultant. That’s in keeping with testimony from Sufferer A, testimony from two different ladies, and the sworn response of former Gaetz good friend Joel Greenberg, who’s presently in jail for together with intercourse trafficking of a minor and fraud prices, 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 celebration, Dorworth testified to the committee that he was not current — and used that assertion to accuse Sufferer A of mendacity about Gaetz as effectively.
Dorworth individually sued Greenberg and several other different folks in federal courtroom for defamation in relation to the allegations, saying on-line that he was advised Sufferer A deliberate to sue him for thousands and thousands of {dollars}. He settled with Sufferer A in an settlement by which no funds have been exchanged, in keeping with the report. He dropped a separate case towards Greenberg.
Gaetz on Monday shared a thread on X by Dorworth that once more asserted he was not on the celebration, utilizing it as a method of discrediting the whole 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 suppose 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 advised 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 messages screenshots present Gaetz asking ladies to deliver ‘party favors’
The Ethics Committee launched screenshots of textual content message exchanges between Gaetz and two ladies who he paid to journey with him to New York Metropolis in January 2019.
Gaetz instructed the ladies to ebook flights on Spirit Airways and Delta Air Strains – with one of many ladies asking, “So fly into Newark and out of New York??”
Later within the change, Gaetz requested: “Who can help w[with] party favors?” That was an inquiry about acquiring medication prematurely of the journey, in keeping with 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 occasions 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 info.
The Ethics panel had sought statements that girls 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 have been involved about further testimony in gentle 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 places of work, however stated 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.
