Bombshell claims against Donald Trump ally Matt Gaetz
The man who Donald Trump wanted to be the US’ top legal official has been accused of “statutory rape” of an underage teen in a damning report.
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IN THE US
A damning report has found there is “substantial evidence” a politician who Donald Trump wanted to run the US’ justice department paid women for sex – including a 17 year old which amounted to “statutory rape” – and purchased and used illegal drugs, including from his government office.
A bombshell report by the US House Ethics Committee into Florida former Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz was released on Friday.
That’s despite the committee losing jurisdiction to continue its investigation into Mr Gaetz after he resigned from Congress last month when he was nominated by Mr Trump as Attorney-General.
But the committee, which is equally split between Democrats and Republicans, decided to release the report’s findings to that point as it deemed it was in the public interest.
‘Substantial evidence’
“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 favours or privileges, and obstruction of Congress,” the report concluded.
Mr Gaetz lost a last ditch legal attempt to stop the release of the report on Friday.
He rubbished the report, said he was “charged with nothing,” and the “people investigating me hated me”.
“It’s embarrassing, though not criminal, that I probably partied, womanised, drank and smoked more than I should have earlier in life. I live a different life now”.
Mr Gaetz is fiercely loyal to Mr Trump and was regarded as being from the far right of the party. He frequently clashed with other Republicans and was instrumental in unseating former Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Mr Trump has yet to respond the report.
Mr Gaetz was investigated for alleged sex trafficking by the US Justice Department. However, in the end, no charges were brought.
The Ethics Committee is not a legal process and the allegations have yet to be proven so Mr Gaetz has not been convicted.
However, Democratic Congressman Glenn Ivey told US network CBS that the evidence from the report could lead to the Department of Justice looking again at its investigation into Mr Gaetz.
“The Department took a look and decided not to proceed with federal charges, we do have some additional information in there that might be of interest to them,” he said.
Alleged payments to women to have sex
The House Ethics Committee report found that Mr Gaetz “regularly” paid women for sex between at least 2017 and 2020. Sex work is illegal in most US states.
A friend of Mr Gaetz contacted women through “sugar dating” website SeekingArangement.com and the women were then introduced to the politician in person.
“The website was generally understood by many of the women interviewed by the Committee to involve, at minimum, an exchange of companionship for money,” the report said.
“One woman who was paid more than $5000 ($A8000) by Representative Gaetz between 2018 and 2019 told the Committee that ‘99 per cent of the time that [Representative Gaetz and I] were hanging out, there was sex involved’”.
‘Statutory rape’ allegation
One of the people he is accused of paying for sex was a 17 year old, the report alleged.
The committee received testimony that the 17-year-old, known as “Victim A” had sex twice with Mr Gaetz at a party in 2017, once in view of other attendees.
The report notes that under Florida’s statutory rape law, it is illegal for a person who is 24 or older to have sex with a 16- or 17-year-old.
“Victim A recalled receiving $400 in cash from Representative Gaetz that evening, which she understood to be payment for sex. At the time, she had just completed her junior year of high school”.
She said that she didn’t tell Mr Gaetz she was younger than 18 and neither did he ask. There was no evidence Mr Gaetz knew she was under age.
The victim added she was under the influence of ecstasy at the time of the sexual encounters.
Mr Gaetz told the committee Victim A “didn’t exist”.
“The Committee found that to be untrue and determined that there is substantial evidence that Representative Gaetz had sex with Victim A in July 2017, when she was 17 years old, and he was 35”.
The report also said that Mr Gaetz used cocaine and ecstasy between 2017 and 2019.
On a trip to the Bahamas in 2018 it’s alleged he took ecstasy and had sex with four 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,” noted the report.
It listed payments of $144,000 to 12 different women.
The report also claimed that it had found Mr Gaetz arranged for his Chief of Staff to assist a woman who he had sex with to obtain a US passport, falsely indicating to the US Department of State that she was a constituent.
The committee said Mr Gaetz was “uncooperative” throughout the review process and refused to sit for an interview. But he did send in written answers.
“Gaetz continuously sought to deflect, deter, or mislead the Committee in order to prevent his actions from being exposed,” the report stated.
Gaetz slams report
Mr Gaetz has hit back at the report and said he gave money to women he was dating.
“There is a reason they did this to me in a Christmas Eve-Eve report and not in a courtroom of any kind where I could present evidence and challenge witnesses,” he said.
The Republican was Donald Trump’s surprise nominee for Attorney-General. As soon as that was announced, Mr Gaetz resigned from Congress, despite him not having to do so until his nomination was confirmed.
His resignation stopped any further investigation by the committee into the alleged claims.
Despite Mr Trump have huge sway over the Republican Party there were immediately doubts that the new Senate, even with a Republican majority, would confirm Mr Gaetz as Attorney-General.
Mr Gaetz had angered many on his own side due to his antics on the Congress floor which they believed had damaged the party’s reputation. That was in addition to the concerns about the claims the Ethics Committee was investigating.
On November 21, Mr Gaetz withdrew his name from nomination.
“While the momentum was strong, it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition,” Mr Gaetz said on X.
– with AFP.
Originally published as Bombshell claims against Donald Trump ally Matt Gaetz
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