Matt Gaetz paid thousands of dollars for drugs and sex, House Ethics report says.

A House Ethics Committee investigation found that former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz (R) paid a 17-year-old for sex and consumed illegal drugs while in office.

Gaetz, a sex scandal-plagued Republican who recently withdrew from President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination for attorney general, violated several state laws related to sexual harassment while in office, according to a committee report released Monday.

Details of the final draft of the report were released this morning on CBS News and CNN.

Investigators found “substantial evidence” that Gaetz violated House rules and other standards of conduct that prohibit “prostitution, statutory rape, illegal drug use, impermissible gifts, special favors or privileges, and obstruction of Congress.”

The panel listed more than $90,000 in payments to 12 women, including a 17-year-old, that the commission “deemed likely related to sexual activity and/or drug use.”

According to the report, Gaetz had sex twice with a 17-year-old girl described as “Victim A” at a party in 2017. She just finished her senior year of high school.

‘Victim A’ recalled receiving $400 on the night in question, which he ‘understood was in exchange for sex,’ the report said. The committee said, “Victim A said that he did not inform Rep. Gaetz that he was under 18 years old at the time, and that he did not ask his age.”

The report states that under Florida’s statutory rape law, it is a felony for a person 24 years of age or older to engage in sexual activity with a 16- or 17-year-old.

The committee noted that all of the women who gave evidence said their sexual encounters with Gaetz were consensual. But one woman told investigators: “When I look back on certain moments, I feel humiliated.”

The panel wrote that it did not find Gaetz violated federal sex trafficking laws. “Despite the fact that Representative Gaetz arranged to transport women across state lines for the purpose of commercial sex, the committee found no evidence that any of the women were under the age of 18. Even at the time of the trip, the Commission did not find sufficient evidence to conclude that the commercial sexual activity was motivated by force, fraud or coercion.”

The committee claimed to have seen texts in which Gaetz referred to drugs as “party favors,” “vitamins” or “rolls,” and the report also said Gaetz was seen in his Capitol Hill office “purchasing marijuana for the purpose.”

The report’s details come days after media reports that the committee reversed course and held a secret vote to release the report in response to accusations of prostitution, illegal drug use and other misconduct by Gaetz, who denies all allegations. It will. Earlier this month, a full House vote on whether to release the report failed largely along party lines.

Gaetz emphasized in a statement last week that the committee decided to release the report that he had not been charged with a crime.

“I often sent funds to women I had only dated for one day. He even sent money to women he had never dated but who had requested it. I dated some of these women for years,” Gaetz said. “It’s not a crime, but it’s embarrassing that I’ve been partying, womanizing, drinking and smoking more than I ever did before. “I live a different life now.”

The committee said Gaetz declined to participate in sworn testimony but submitted written answers to some questions, including denying having sex with minors.

On Monday, Gaetz unsuccessfully filed an injunction in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to stop the congressional committee’s findings from being released.

Trump’s selection of Gaetz upended the Republican Party’s career as he knew it. When he accepted the nomination last month, he said he would resign a House seat from which he had just won re-election and would allow Florida to nominate his successor in time for the next Congress. Notably, giving up his seat meant that House committees could no longer continue their ethics investigation into him.

But his plans began to fall apart almost immediately as Republicans began to publicly question his suitability for the office of attorney general. Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) probably gave the most blunt answer when HuffPost asked him for his first reaction to Gaetz’s nomination. “Are you kidding me?”

A little more than a week after Trump nominated him to be attorney general, when it became clear that senators were increasingly unlikely to confirm someone who had suffered so much criticism, Gaetz withdrew his acceptance of the nomination. He argued that his upcoming confirmation process was “unfairly interfering” with the work of Trump’s transition team.

The next day, Gaetz said he would not return to Congress.

By then, the House committee’s investigation had concluded, and when he dropped out, reports emerged that a vote on whether to release a report on its findings was days away. Top Senate lawmakers quickly urged the committee to release its findings anyway.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told reporters Thursday that the committee “absolutely” needs to release the report and “doesn’t want to put any restrictions on it.” What the Senate may consider as it evaluates Gaetz’s nomination.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the Senate majority leader, said the circumstances surrounding Gaetz’s resignation raise doubts.

“The order and timing of Rep. Gaetz’s resignation from the House raises serious questions about the content of the House Ethics Committee report,” he told reporters. “We cannot allow this valuable information from a bipartisan investigation to be hidden from the American people.”

The public investigation into possible criminal activity by Gaetz began for the first time since the Justice Department opened an investigation into Gaetz in 2020 for allegedly prostituting a 17-year-old girl in 2017 and soliciting the women to recruit others for prostitution. Gaetz has denied all accusations. The Justice Department ultimately decided not to prosecute the lawmaker.

But at the same time, a House investigation was underway. The investigation found that he “may have engaged in sexual misconduct and/or illegal drug use, may have shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused state identification records, diverted campaign funds for personal use, and may have paid bribes.” “We were investigating the possibility of receiving it.” , improper gratuities or impermissible gifts,” the commission announced in 2021.

Amid Gaetz’s fallout, Trump nominated Pam Bondi, a longtime ally who represented him in one of his impeachment trials, to be attorney general.