Matt Gaetz’s ethics report says his drug use and sex with a minor violated state law

The former Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican who briefly ran to be President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general, was found by congressional ethics investigators to have paid several women — including a 17-year-old girl — for sex, and to have purchased and used illegal drugs, including from his Capitol Hill office, according to a final draft of a comprehensive investigative report obtained by CBS News.

These were among the findings of the House Ethics Committee’s lengthy investigation of Gaetz, which concluded that the former Florida congressman violated several state laws related to sexual misconduct while in office.

“The committee determined that there is substantial evidence that Representative Gaetz violated House rules and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illegal drug use, illegal gifts, special favors or privileges, and obstruction of Congress,” the 37-page report concludes.

Gaetz resigned from Congress in November after Trump announced plans to nominate him for the Attorney General. But in the face of opposition from some other Republicans, Gaetz withdrew from treatment a week later. The release of the ethics reportexpected on Monday, ends — at least for now — Gaetz’s fiery tenure on Capitol Hill, where he became one of the most vocal and provocative members of the pro-Trump faction in Congress.

Gaetz has denied any inappropriate behavior and claimed the allegations were a “smear” concocted by his political enemies. The committee said the congressman refused to sit for sworn testimony, even though he submitted written responses to some of the committee’s questions.

The report gives fresh voice to allegations of wrongdoing that have circulated around Gaetz for years, despite his staunch denials. It draws on testimony from witnesses who told the committee they were paid to have sex with Gaetz, text messages discussing the transactions and Venmo and PayPal receipts.

Among the report’s most chilling findings were the allegations of sex- and drug-fueled parties and trips, including a 2018 trip to the Bahamas where witnesses say he took ecstasy and had sex with four women.

“From 2017 through 2020, Representative Gaetz made tens of thousands of dollars in payments to women who the committee determined were likely related to sexual activity and/or drug use,” noted the report, which shows payments totaling more than $90,000 to 12 different women.

The committee said it also received testimony that at a party in 2017, Gaetz twice had sex with “Victim A,” who was 17 years old at the time and had just finished his junior year of high school.

“Victim A recalled receiving $400 in cash from Representative Gaetz that evening, which she understood to be payment for sex,” the committee wrote. “Victim A stated that she did not inform Representative Gaetz that she was under 18 at the time, nor did he ask her age.”

In his written responses to the committee, Gaetz denied having sex with a minor. Ministry of Justice previously investigated Gaetz for violating sex-trafficking laws, but did not press charges. The committee said it did not find sufficient evidence that Gaetz violated the federal sex trafficking statute because, although he transported women across state lines for sex, those women were all 18 or older at the time.

The report noted that while all of the women who testified said the sexual encounters with Gaetz were consensual, one woman told the committee that the use of drugs at the parties and events they attended may have “impaired their ability to really knowing what was going on or fully consenting.”

Another woman told the committee: “When I look back at certain moments, I feel violated.”

The report found “substantial evidence” that Gaetz was involved in widespread illegal drug use. The committee said it received text messages he sent in which he referred to drugs as “party favors”, “rolls” or “vitamins”. It also said he created a fake email from his Capitol Hill office “for the purpose of purchasing marijuana.” The report noted that Gaetz had denied the use of illegal drugs in his written responses to the committee.

In addition to sexual misconduct and illegal drug use, the report also accused Gaetz of accepting luxury travel gifts beyond permissible limits with the trip to the Bahamas in 2018. And it said he arranged for his chief of staff to help a woman he had been dating in sexual activity with, with obtaining a passport, which falsely indicated to the State Department that she was one of his constituents.

Gaetz told conservative personality Charlie Kirk last month that he plans to spend the coming years “fighting for President Trump.”

“I think eight years is enough time in the US Congress,” Gaetz said, although last week in a post on X he floated the idea of returns to participate in the election to the House of Representatives.

The House Ethics Committee had initially voted to keep the report under wraps, but reverse course in a secret ballot earlier this month. Two Republican members of the committee were among those who voted for its release, according to two sources familiar with the vote. The committee has 10 members, equally divided between Republicans and Democrats.