What’s in the House ethics report on Matt Gaetz | Global News Avenue

A report released Monday by the House Ethics Committee on Donald Trump ally Matt Gaetz reveals new details about the former congressman’s alleged conduct, at least one new allegation and insights into the panel’s investigation.

From at least 2017 to 2020, the committee concluded that the former Florida congressman regularly paid women “to engage in sexual activity,” had sex with 17-year-old girls, used or possessed illegal drugs, and accepted drugs beyond The House restricted the gift and reportedly helped one woman obtain a passport.

The 42-year-old was first elected as a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives in 2016.

He resigned in November, days before the report was scheduled to be released and after Trump announced his election as U.S. attorney general. A week later, Gates withdrew from consideration.

He rejected the committee’s findings and accused it of conducting an unfair investigation.

Here are four of the most compelling parts of the highly anticipated report.

House investigators said Gates paid more than $90,000 (£71,843) to women for sex and drugs but established a complex network of transactions that was difficult to trace, the report said.

“The committee was unable to determine the extent to which payments made to women by Gates’ representatives were compensation for engaging in sexual acts with him,” the report found.

He allegedly used his friend Joel Greenberg, who is currently serving 11 years in prison for crimes he committed with Gates, as a frequent middleman, and logs Greenberg in SeekingArrangement. com, which bills itself as a “luxury dating site” to interact with young women.

Gates also reportedly paid women directly, sometimes through platforms like Venmo. But the committee said he often used other people’s PayPal accounts or accounts associated with pseudonymous email addresses.

He also concealed payments, the panel wrote. In one instance, he gave a college student a check that said “Cash” on the front and “Tuition Reimbursement” in the memo line. The woman said she received it after a group encounter “which could have been a form of coercion because I really needed the money”.

Gates posted on social media that he offered money as gifts, rather than payments, to women with whom he had relationships. The commission found that the women, aged 27 and 25, did not consider their relationship to be transactional.

Another woman, believed to be his girlfriend, invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when asked whether she had received money or paid money to others for sex or drugs.

The committee sought to prove that Gates frequently paid for sex, including a text message in which he reportedly refused a woman’s request to send her money one night after he accused her of “dumping” him. The woman then claimed she was treated “differently” compared to other women he paid for sex.

In another message, his then-girlfriend said he and Greenberg were “a little cash-strapped” and asked a group of women “if this could be more of a customer appreciation week.”

A few months later, she wrote, according to the committee: “By the way, Matt also mentioned that he was going to be a little generous with his last ‘customer appreciation’ thing.”

The committee also said Gates purchased illegal drugs or reimbursed people for those drugs.

It cited examples of his alleged use of cocaine and MDMA/ecstasy, but focused on the fact that he appeared to have a serious cannabis habit. He allegedly asked women to bring marijuana cartridges to meetings and events and created fake email accounts to purchase marijuana.

His trip to the Bahamas “was paid for by an associate of Rep. Gaetz with ties to the medical marijuana industry, who also allegedly paid for the female escort who accompanied them,” the report said.

One woman believes drug and alcohol use at parties compromised her ability to “really understand what was going on or fully consent”.

“Virtually every woman who spoke with the committee could not recall details of at least one or more events they attended with Rep. Gaetz and attributed it to drug or alcohol abuse,” the report states. “

According to the report, his then-girlfriend, who was 21 years old when they met, “was paid tens of thousands of dollars during their two-year relationship” and often participated in interactions with women and acted as a go-between.

One woman told the committee that she, then 17, had sex with Gates twice at a party in 2017, at least once in front of other people and while under the influence of ecstasy. The woman, who had just completed her junior year of high school, later received $400 from him.

She also told the committee that she did not tell Gates she was a minor, and the committee found no evidence that the former congressman knew she was underage.

In 2021, Greenberg pleaded guilty to sex trafficking the girl. According to his plea agreement, Greenberg paid for sex with the minor and introduced her to other adult men who performed commercial sex acts with her.

Gates also allegedly directed his chief of staff to expedite a passport application for a woman he was having a relationship with, who he said was a constituent in his district. He also allegedly gave her $1,000.

The committee said Gates violated House rules against using his position to obtain special benefits, writing: “The woman was not a constituent of his and the case was handled differently than similar passport assistance cases.”

The committee’s report went to great lengths to detail how Gates allegedly obstructed the investigation, including failing to provide what he said was “exculpatory” evidence.

The report concluded that he “constantly sought to divert, intimidate or mislead the committee to prevent his conduct from being exposed”.

Gates reportedly accused the committee of being “weaponized” against him and leaking information to the media, claiming the committee worked on behalf of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Last year, he helped lead the effort to oust then-Speaker McCarthy.

The report found that while Gates claimed he “voluntarily produced tens of thousands of records,” he provided “only a few hundred records to the committee, more than 90 percent of which were either irrelevant or publicly available.”

One sore point was a trip to the Bahamas, where the committee said he withheld information. It was ultimately concluded that he had violated rules regarding gifts because the value of the trip was so high.

The committee also cited the Justice Department’s investigation into Gates’ allegations as the reason for the delay.

Some witnesses asked the committee to use statements they provided to the department, but the committee declined to share them because they did not bring charges and the committee said it could prevent witnesses in other future cases from coming forward.

The report ends with an unnamed single-page statement issued by Ethics Committee Chairman Michael Guest “on behalf of dissenting committee members.”

The members did not dispute the committee’s findings but disagreed with the release of the report after Gates resigned from the House, which has not happened since 2006, they wrote.

It “breaks with the Commission’s long-standing practice, exposes the Commission to undue criticism and will be viewed by some as an attempt to weaponize the Commission’s process”.