U.S. Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL) attends the second day of the 2024 Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum on July 16, 2024 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Patrick T. Fallon | AFP | getty images
A woman told the House Ethics Committee that President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general, Matt Gaetz, had sex with minors, her attorney said Friday.
“My client testified to the House Ethics Committee that he witnessed Rep. Gaetz having sex with a minor at a House party in Orlando in 2017,” Joel Leppard said.
Gaetz, a far-right Republican, resigned from Congress on Wednesday after President Trump announced plans to nominate her for attorney general, but has denied all allegations of sexual harassment.
Leppard said the woman he represents testified before the House Ethics Committee in April.
He said he represented two witnesses who provided testimony to the committee about Gaetz.
“The American people have the right to know the truth about the man who will be our nation’s greatest law enforcement officer,” Leppard told NBC News.
ABC News first reported that Leppard said his client testified before the panel.
“Merrick Garland’s DOJ found Matt Gaetz not guilty and did not indict him. Are you claiming Garland was part of a cover-up?” A spokesperson for Gaetz said Friday.
Gaetz, 42, who represents Florida’s 1st District, which covers the Florida Panhandle, was investigated by the FBI for sex trafficking involving a 17-year-old, but has not been charged with any crime.
The federal investigation ended last year. Gaetz said he was the target of an extortion plot.
The House Ethics Committee investigation began in April 2021. It was postponed at the request of the Justice Department and reauthorized in 2023 after the Justice Department withdrew its request for a postponement.
Now that Gaetz has resigned from Congress, it is unclear what happens to the committee report.
Some Republican senators have said they want details of the committee’s investigation before a confirmation vote.
On Friday, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said he planned to ask the ethics committee not to release the report because Gaetz is no longer in Congress. Doing so would be a “horrible breach of protocol.”
The Senate is scheduled to vote on whether Gaetz is confirmed as attorney general, although a recess appointment may be possible. President Trump has asked the Republican Senate majority to allow him to make recess appointments.
The bipartisan, 10-member House Ethics Committee was scheduled to meet Friday to discuss the report on Gaetz and whether to release it to the public, but it was canceled on Thursday, one of the people said.
Gaetz worked as an attorney at a Florida law firm before being elected as a state representative. He was first elected to parliament in the 2016 elections and began his first term in early 2017. He was re-elected in November.
