(NewsNation) — Former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz allegedly used illicit drugs and paid for sex with multiple women, including a 17-year-old girl, according to a House Ethics Committee report released to the public Monday.
Gaetz filed a lawsuit against the committee Monday, challenging the body’s “unconstitutional … attempt to exercise jurisdiction over a private citizen through the threatened release of the report.”
The 37-page report concludes Gaetz, a Republican from Florida, regularly paid women for sex between 2017 and 2020, and on multiple occasions between 2017 and 2019, he possessed drugs such as cocaine and ecstasy. The committee also concluded Gaetz knowingly and willfully sought to impede and obstruct the House committee’s investigation of his conduct.
NewsNation reported last week the ethics report would be released by Christmas after the House committee initially voted not to release the report after Gaetz resigned his House seat.
The report indicated that Gaetz, President-elect Donald Trump’s initial pick for attorney general, paid tens of thousands of dollars to women for sex or drugs on several occasions. That included money he was said to pay to a 17-year-old girl in 2017. The report indicated Gaetz violated Florida’s statutory rape law as well as other state laws.
“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 in the report.
The report stated that the committee does not typically release its findings after losing its jurisdiction. However, the panel determined it was in the public interest to release the report despite Gaetz no longer being a member of Congress.
In his lawsuit filed Monday, Gaetz claims the report contains “potentially defamatory allegations” that violate the House committee’s own rules.
The suit said that while Gaetz was a member of Congress, the committee began an investigation of previously unsubstantiated allegations of misconduct. The suit said that the investigation continued after Gaetz resigned his seat and “apparently voted” to release the report without proper notice to Gaetz.
Gaetz’s attorneys have until 5 p.m. Monday to show just cause why the matter should not be dismissed with prejudice for a lack of subject matter jurisdiction since the report has already been released.
In a post on X on Monday, Gaetz wrote, “There is a reason they did this to me in a Christmas Eve-Eve report and not a courtroom of any kind where I could present evidence and challenge witnesses.”
The ethics report found Gaetz often used Venmo or PayPal to pay women during his tenure in Congress. Investigators zeroed in on a 2018 trip to the Bahamas, which they said “violated the House gift rule.”
The report also said that during the trip, Gaetz “engaged in sexual activity” with multiple women, including one who described the trip itself as “the payment” for sex on the trip. On the same trip, he also took ecstasy, one woman on the trip told the committee.
The report concluded that in 2018, Gaetz arranged for his chief of staff to assist a woman with whom he engaged in sexual activity in obtaining a passport, falsely indicating to the U.S. Department of State that she was a constituent.
The report said that Gaetz paid “Victim A” $400 to have sex with him, which she understood was payment for sex. The report indicated that Victim A was 17 and recently completed her junior year of high school. The report said that it is unclear whether Gaetz knew the girl’s age at the time but that his not knowing the girl’s age would not matter under Florida law.
Investigators also determined that Gaetz had sex twice at a party, including one occasion that was witnessed by other party attendees. However, the committee wrote in the report that it did not obtain substantial evidence that Gaetz violated federal sex trafficking laws.
Committee members identified at least 20 occasions between 2017 and 2020 when Gaetz met with women who were paid for sex and/or drugs. The committee was able to prove more than $95,200 in payments Gaetz made to women that were connected either to sex or to drug use, the report states.
Text messages obtained by the committee found that Gaetz asked women to bring drugs with them to their encounters.
In response to the news the ethics report would be released, Gaetz wrote on X last week, “My 30s were an era of working very hard — and playing hard too. 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.”
Gaetz resigned after Trump named the former Florida lawmaker as his pick for attorney general. Gaetz, however, withdrew his name as the nominee following controversy over him being tabbed by Trump.
In a social media post, Gaetz said it was clear his confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction for the transfer of power over to Trump.