Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) informed the Home Ethics Committee that he’ll “no longer voluntarily participate” within the panel’s probe into him, accusing it of main a “political payback exercise” and calling it “uncomfortably nosey.”
In a Thursday letter that Gaetz posted publicly on the social platform X, the Florida Republican ticked by an inventory of questions he mentioned he’d obtained from the committee.
The Ethics Committee is investigating whether or not Gaetz engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, amongst different allegations.
Gaetz mentioned the committee, as half of a bigger correspondence on Sept. 4, requested him for an inventory of grownup ladies with whom he’d had intercourse over the past seven years.
“The lawful, consensual sexual activities of adults are not the business of Congress,” Gaetz mentioned.
Gaetz additionally mentioned the panel requested him if he has taken unlawful medication, to which he wrote: “I have not used drugs which are illegal, absent some law allowing use in a jurisdiction of the United States.” The Florida congressman is a longtime supporter of hashish legalization.
Gaetz wrote that his understanding is that the committee has issued, however not but served, a subpoena for his testimony.
If true, the subpoena for Gaetz’s testimony could also be an indication that the years-long investigation into him is approaching an finish level.
The Home Ethics Committee’s workers director declined to touch upon Gaetz’s letter and assertions.
The congressional probe into Gaetz was opened in 2021, shortly after information studies emerged that the Division of Justice (DOJ) was reportedly investigating whether or not he had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old woman.
Gaetz has vigorously denied allegations of wrongdoing, and the DOJ declined to cost him with a criminal offense.
The Ethics Committee probe, although, continued on.
Within the Thursday letter, he mentioned that the reply to the query of whether or not he has engaged in sexual exercise with any particular person below the age of 18 “is unequivocally NO.”
Gaetz asserted that his former buddy Joel Greenberg — who’s in jail after pleading responsible to plenty of crimes together with underage intercourse trafficking and wire fraud, and cooperated with the Justice Division investigation into Gaetz — deliberate to lie about Gaetz’s sexual contact with a minor as a way to cut back his personal jail time.
The Florida congressman cites info he says he obtained from an informant who was in jail with Greenberg. Greenberg allegedly knowledgeable the jailmate {that a} sufferer of his deliberate to lie about Gaetz “in hopes of a future financial benefit.”
A lot of the letter reiterated longtime assertions from Gaetz that the investigations into him are political, pointing to his longtime criticism of the Biden administration.
However now, Gaetz can also be accusing the panel members themselves of being political, pointing to a contribution to Gaetz’s major opponent from a management PAC for Ethics Committee member Rep. Dave Joyce (R-Ohio).
“It seems the fix is in,” Gaetz mentioned.
“The question about my sexual history reveals a sinister motive of the Committee to harm me and those who have had any associations with me,” mentioned Gaetz, who received married in 2021. “To date, I have voluntarily produced tens of thousands of records and answered many of your relevant questions over several years. But asking about my sexual history as a single man with adult women is a bridge too far.”
The Ethics Committee, although, mentioned in a uncommon replace in regards to the Gaetz investigation in June that it had “difficulty in obtaining relevant information from Representative Gaetz and others,” and is formally investigating whether or not Gaetz “sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct.”
In that replace, the panel mentioned it was investigating allegations that the congressman “dispensed special privileges and favors to individuals with whom he had a personal relationship, and sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct.” The panel had already been trying into whether or not Gaetz engaged in sexual misconduct, engaged in illicit drug use or accepted improper presents, areas of inquiry that started in April 2021.
The Ethics Committee mentioned on the time that it had spoken with greater than 12 witnesses, issued 25 subpoenas and reviewed hundreds of pages of paperwork.
The panel’s probe has had an affect on different political disputes within the Capitol, most notably when Gaetz led the cost to oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).
McCarthy, who resigned from Congress in December following his historic ouster from the Speakership, has repeatedly claimed that Gaetz led the cost to take away his gavel out of frustration that the California Republican didn’t cease an Ethics Committee investigation into him.
Gaetz has denied that his motivations for ousting McCarthy had something to do with the Ethics probe.
The 2 butted heads over the summer time in Milwaukee on the Republican Nationwide Conference, when Gaetz approached McCarthy on the ground whereas he was doing an interview and taunted him about attending the gathering after his ouster.
