Matt Gaetz ethics report details drug use, payments for sex, and more
Embattled ex-Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida was allegedly found to have paid multiple women—including a 17-year-old high school student—for sex and to have consumed illegal drugs while in office, according to a report from his former peers.
Gaetz, who resigned from the House in November as part of his brief stint as President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be attorney general, bowed out of consideration for the role once it became clear that even his fellow Republicans wouldn’t support his bid. A damning, comprehensive investigative report from the House Ethics Committee, whose final draft was analyzed by CBS News and other outlets, makes it clear why.
Investigators found that Gaetz allegedly violated several state laws related to sexual misconduct while in office. The committee released the 37-page report Monday, even as Gaetz sought a restraining order.
“The Committee determined there is substantial evidence that Representative Gaetz violated House Rules and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, impermissible gifts, special favors or privileges, and obstruction of Congress,” panel investigators wrote, according to CBS News.
The committee reports speaking with more than a half-dozen witnesses who attended various parties and trips with Gaetz between 2017 and 2020, when he was representing Florida’s 1st Congressional District.
“Nearly every young woman that the Committee interviewed confirmed that she was paid for sex by, or on behalf of, Representative Gaetz,” the panel’s report reads.
Gaetz has vehemently denied any wrongdoing and has not been criminally charged. In a Wednesday post to the social media platform X, the former representative said that he “NEVER had sexual contact with someone under 18.” In the same message, he also made the eyebrow-raising admission that he “often sent funds to women I dated—even some I never dated but who asked.”
“My 30’s were an era of working very hard—and playing hard too,” Gaetz added. “It’s embarrassing, though not criminal, that I probably partied, womanized, drank and smoked more than I should have earlier in life. I live a different life now.”
According to CNN, the ethics panel reviewed transactions Gaetz made—often using mobile payment service apps, including PayPal or Venmo—to over a dozen women.
“From 2017 to 2020, Representative Gaetz made tens of thousands of dollars in payments to women that the Committee determined were likely in connection with sexual activity and/or drug use,” reads the report, which lists over $90,000 in payments to 12 women.
Investigators also zeroed in on a 2018 trip to the Bahamas, which they said “violated the House gift rule.” On this trip, according to investigators, Gaetz “engaged in sexual activity” with four women, including one who said that the trip was “the payment” for sex. Gaetz also took ecstasy during the Bahamas rendezvous, one attendee told the House panel.
In addition, the report said that investigators received testimony from a 17-year-old girl who alleged that Gaetz had sex with her twice at a 2017 party. The victim said that she had just completed her junior year of high school and recalled receiving $400 in cash from Gaetz that evening “which she understood to be payment for sex.”
“Victim A said that she did not inform Representative Gaetz that she was under 18 at the time, nor did he ask her age,” the report read.
In his written response to the committee, Gaetz reportedly denied having sex with a minor. He also denied using illicit drugs, despite investigators finding “substantial evidence” to the contrary, according to CBS News. Investigators apparently obtained text messages sent by Gaetz where he referred to drugs as “party favors,” “rolls,” or “vitamins.” He also reportedly created a fake email address from his Capitol Hill office “to purchase marijuana,” the report noted.
All of the women who testified said that their sexual encounters with Gaetz were consensual, but one complained that the drugs may have “impair[ed their] ability to really know what was going on or fully consent,” according to CBS’ analysis of the report.
“When I look back on certain moments, I feel violated,” another woman told the committee.
The probe into Gaetz reportedly did not find sufficient evidence to conclude that he violated federal sex trafficking statutes. Although he allegedly transported women across state lines for the purpose of sex, they were all 18 or older at the time.
The House Ethics Committee initially voted along partisan lines to keep the report under wraps before making the stunning decision to reverse course. According to CBS News, two Republican members of the bipartisan 10-member committee were among those who later voted for its release.
The release of the report may finally bring to a close Gaetz’s incendiary tenure on Capitol Hill. The firebrand Freedom Caucus conservative, a vocal supporter of Trump, was a thorn in the side of House leadership and his fellow Republicans.
Yet this likely won’t be the last we hear of Gaetz. He’s set to join the far-right One America News Network with an eponymous show launching in January, and just last week, Gaetz suggested on X that he was considering briefly returning on the first day of the new 119th Congress in 2025.
Once there, he said that he would force a vote on a resolution to rip the lid off secretive “Me Too” settlements made by current and former lawmakers using taxpayer dollars.
It’s also possible that Gaetz will make his return to the political world in 2026. Gaetz has hinted that he might run to be Florida’s next governor.
Read the full report on Gaetz here.