Investigating the Account of Rep. Gaetz: Investigation of a Sexual Activity involving a 14-year-old and a Man allegedly Using an Email Account in the House
“Representative Gaetz knowingly and willfully sought to impede and obstruct the Committee’s investigation of his conduct,” the committee said. “Representative Gaetz has acted in a manner that reflects discreditably upon the House.”
Trump wanted to give that position to a man who paid at least half a dozen women for sex, according to the report, which was made public on Monday. And the violation of Florida’s prostitution law isn’t even the real depravity; the committee took pains to detail the underlying implication of his actions: “Representative Gaetz took advantage of the economic vulnerability of young women to lure them into sexual activity for which they received an average of a few hundred dollars after each encounter.”
The committee says that the man committed the statutory rape of a 17-year-old girl. A man who is accused of setting up a phony email account at his office in the House to buy illegal drugs and who then used the drugs to facilitate sexual misconduct. A man who accepted gifts and plane trips and used his office to help another woman have sex with him was reported in the report. A man whose conduct, according to his own colleagues of both parties, “reflects discreditably upon the House.”
Nonetheless, when you read through the details, you can see the commonality between the two men, and the reasons Trump held Gaetz in high esteem. It is more than contempt for women as disposable commodities for hire or plunder; it is contempt for the law.
The Ethics committee decided against releasing the report in November, after Gaetz was still vying for the attorney general job. A full vote of the House to release the report, brought by a Democratic member, also failed earlier this month.
Among other accusations, the committee found Gaetz engaged in sexual activity with a 17-year-old girl in 2017, and used or possessed illegal drugs on multiple occasions from 2017-2019, including ecstasy and cocaine.
I never had sex with someone under the age of 18. Any claim that I have would be destroyed in court – which is why no such claim was ever made in court,” he wrote in the post.
Innocuous 30 Years of Working Hard and Drinking: A Report on the Gaetz-Visiting Committee’s Report to the House Ethics Committee
“My 30’s were an era of working very hard – and playing hard too. It’s embarrassing that I probably partied and drank too much when I was younger.
In a last-ditch effort on Monday, Gaetz sued the Ethics panel and its chairman, Guest, seeking to block the report’s release, and arguing the committee has no jurisdiction over a private citizen.
The panel in its report said it typically doesn’t release its findings after losing jurisdiction over the issue — which happened once Gaetz resigned from Congress last month.
There are a few instances where the Committee determined it was in the public’s interests to release its findings after a member resigns from Congress. “The Committee does not do so lightly.”
He also accepted gifts, including transportation and lodging, in connection to a trip to the Bahamas in 2018, in excess of amounts permitted to lawmakers.
Joel Leppard, an attorney for two women who testified about Gaetz before the House ethics committee, said the panel’s findings “vindicate my clients’ accounts and demonstrate their credibility.”
The report was written on behalf of the dissenters who were not happy with the results, and they took exception to the majority deviating from the Committee’s standards.
While Gaetz has drawn the ire of Democratic and Republican colleagues alike, many Republicans have raised concerns about releasing a report on someone who is no longer a member of the House, nor seeking higher office.