2 women tell Ethics panel Gaetz paid them for sex, attorney says

(The Hill) -- Two women testified before the House Ethics Committee that former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) paid them to have sex, according to the attorney representing them.

Joel Leppard, a Florida-based attorney, made the disclosure in an interview with ABC News that was published Monday. The article does not include the identities of his clients, both of whom are older than 18.

Leppard said the House Ethics Committee and his clients went one by one through a series of Venmo transactions.

“That’s correct,” Leppard told ABC News's Juju Chang when asked if both his clients testified that they were paid by Gaetz to have sex. “The House was very clear about that and went through each. They essentially put the Venmo payments on the screen and asked about them. And my clients repeatedly testified, ‘What was this payment for?’ ‘Well that was for sex.’”

The revelation marks the latest piece of information Leppard has disclosed since President-elect Trump nominated Gaetz to serve as attorney general and the Florida Republican subsequently resigned from the House.

Last week, Leppard told ABC News that one of his clients testified that she saw Gaetz having sex with a minor.

“She testified in July of 2017, at this house party, she was walking out to the pool area, and she looked to her right, and she saw Rep. Gaetz having sex with her friend, who was 17,” Leppard said.

Leppard told ABC News that the client told the panel she believed Gaetz ended that sexual relationship when he learned the girl was a minor.

The House Ethics Committee — which is known for conducting its business in secrecy — had been investigating Gaetz on and off for roughly three years, probing whether he engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, among other allegations. Gaetz has denied any wrongdoing.

The Hill reached out to Gaetz for comment on Leppard’s remarks. Alex Pfeiffer, a spokesperson for Trump’s transition, called the allegations “baseless” in a statement.

"Matt Gaetz will be the next Attorney General. He’s the right man for the job and will end the weaponization of our justice system. These are baseless allegations intended to derail the second Trump administration,” Pfeiffer said. “The Biden Justice Department investigated Gaetz for years and cleared him of wrongdoing. The only people who went to prison over these allegations were those lying about Matt Gaetz.”

Gaetz’s resignation from Congress has raised questions about whether the Ethics Committee’s highly anticipated report on the Florida Republican will become public. A number of lawmakers in both parties have called on the panel to release it — which would require a majority vote — but others, including Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), have pushed for it to remain private.

Leppard is one of the voices calling on the Ethics Committee to release its report on Gaetz. Last week he said, “As the Senate considers former Rep. Gaetz's nomination for attorney general, several questions demand answers.”

“What if multiple credible witnesses provided evidence of behavior that would constitute serious criminal violations?” he added.

Johnson, meanwhile, has argued that because Gaetz is no longer in Congress, the Ethics Committee’s report is moot. He also warned that releasing the body of work would open a “Pandora’s box” of the panel releasing reports on individuals who no longer serve in the lower chamber.

“What I have said with regard to the report is that it should not come out. And why? Because Matt Gaetz resigned from Congress. He is no longer a member,” Johnson told CNN’s “State of the Union” in an interview Sunday. “There's a very important protocol and tradition and rule that we maintain that the House Ethics Committee's jurisdiction does not extend to nonmembers of Congress. I think that would be a Pandora's box.”

While releasing an Ethics report after a lawmaker has departed the House is rare, it is not unprecedented. In 1987, the panel published its report on former Rep. William Boner (D-Tenn.) after he had left the chamber.

The House Ethics Committee is slated to meet Wednesday, a source told The Hill, during which the Gaetz report is likely to be discussed.

The focus around Gaetz’s Ethics investigation comes after the Department of Justice declined to charge the then-congressman with any crimes in 2017, after its probe had concluded. Investigators had questioned if witnesses at the center of the case would be seen as credible before a jury, according to multiple outlets.