Federal investigators have discovered evidence that former Rep. Matt Gaetz paid thousands of dollars to women who testified that he was paid for sex, the New York Times reported Wednesday.
The Justice Department spent three years investigating Gaetz. During the investigation, the agency reportedly compiled a chart showing thousands of dollars in Venmo payments sent between the then-congressman and his friends. According to the Times, some of the money was paid to women who testified against him to the department.
Gaetz and his associates allegedly held drug-fueled sex parties for several years from 2017 to 2020. But the Florida Republican who was recently selected by President-elect Donald Trump for attorney general rejected claims of impropriety. Both he and his associates point to the fact that the Justice Department closed the investigation last year without indicting him because of questions about the credibility of two witnesses.
Senators from both parties have signaled that Gaetz will face a fierce confirmation battle if Trump sticks with his choice.
Gaetz resigned from his House seat last week.
“Intentionally leaking classified investigative material is the kind of political weaponization of the Justice Department that Matt Gaetz will end with,” Trump communications director Steven Cheung told the Times when asked about the payment chart. “The Justice Department investigated Gaetz for years, found no wrongdoing, and is now leaking material containing disinformation to smear the incoming attorney general.”
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The House Ethics Committee conducted its own investigation into Gaetz until he resigned from Congress, then abruptly ended the investigation.
Attorneys representing two women who testified before the committee claimed the women told them that Rep. Gaetz used Venmo to pay for sex, and one attorney personally witnessed Gaetz having sex with an underage girl at a party in 2017. He testified that he did.
As the Washington Post reports, House Ethics Committee investigators obtained records showing that Gaetz paid more than $10,000 to two women who testified before the committee, the newspaper said.
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A bipartisan group of lawmakers in the Senate asked the Ethics Committee to make its findings public. But the committee, comprised evenly of five Republicans and five Democrats, deadlocked along partisan lines Wednesday in a vote on whether to make the investigation public.
The panel is scheduled to meet again on December 5 to revisit the issue.
The Times points out that the Justice Department typically keeps documents collected during an investigation secret if the investigation ends without charges being filed. The House Ethics Committee was able to obtain payment charts from the DOJ, but information requested by other lawmakers was not turned over.
Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee recently asked the Justice Department to turn over documents related to the Gaetz investigation.
