A lawyer representing two women who testified before the House Ethics Committee about Attorney General-elect Matt Gaetz said Monday that his clients have both sworn under oath that the former Republican lawmaker paid them for sex acts. , one said he was caught red-handed on a 17-year-old crime. age.
Orlando-based attorney Joel Leppard told ABC News The ethics commission said it matched the client's story with Gaetz's Venmo records obtained through a subpoena.
“They basically put the Venmo payment on the screen and asked about it,” Leppard told the outlet. “And my client repeatedly testified, 'What was this payment for?' 'It was for sex.'
Both women were adults at the time of the alleged transactions. But one of Leppard's clients offered more damaging testimony against Gaetz, who resigned from Congress on November 13, hours after President-elect Trump nominated him to lead U.S. law enforcement. Ta.
“She testified [that] “At this house party in July 2017, she walked out to the pool area and looked to her right and saw Congressman Gaetz having sex with his 17-year-old friend,” Leppard told ABC News.
The age of consent in Florida, the Panhandle state where Gates served as a representative in Congress for nearly eight years, is 18.
But Leppard added that her client told the committee that “her understanding is that Matt Gaetz did not know about that.” [the 17-year-old] He stated that he was a minor and that when he learned that she was a minor, he broke off the relationship and did not continue the sexual relationship until she was 18 years old. ”
The attorney's statement was released two days before the Ethics Committee was scheduled to meet to possibly investigate Gaetz on charges including sexual misconduct, illegal drug use and sharing inappropriate images on the House floor. It appears that the purpose of the meeting was to discuss what to do with the report that had been compiled.
Gaetz has denied any wrongdoing, and his resignation left the ethics investigation in limbo because the committee has no jurisdiction over former lawmakers.
However, senators from both parties urged the committee to release a report on Gaetz to better guide decision-making regarding his nomination.
John Clune, a Colorado lawyer believed to be representing the former 17-year-old, also called on lawmakers to release the report, saying of X: There was also a witness who was a high school student. ”
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) opposed the release of the report, saying it would “set a terrible precedent.”
“For people who are no longer members of Congress, we are not in the business of investigating and publishing reports on people who are no longer part of this body,” he told reporters on Friday. “The jurisdiction of the Ethics Committee rests with sitting members of Congress.''
Meanwhile, Trump, 78, remains adamant about his nomination to head the Justice Department.
“Matt Gaetz will be our next attorney general. He is the right person for the job and will end the weaponization of our justice system,” Trump transition press secretary Alex Pfeiffer told the Post. told.
“These are baseless claims designed to derail the second Trump administration. The Biden Justice Department investigated Gaetz for years and cleared him of any wrongdoing. He will go to prison on these charges. The only people who got in were the ones who lied about Matt Gaetz.”
Mr. Gaetz has long had a scandalous reputation in Washington, even after marrying his wife, Ginger, in 2021.
In October 2023, Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-Oklahoma), who served in the House of Representatives with Mr. Gaetz for six years, told CNN: “We all watched the videos he was showing on the floor of the House of Commons of the girls he slept with. He crushed ED drugs and chased them with energy drinks all night long. I was proud of how I was able to spend my time there.”
Gaetz is perhaps best known for spearheading the October 2023 revolt against former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).
At the time, then-members claimed the rebellion was motivated by dismay over Mr. McCarthy taking away the temporary spending patch, something the House has done nearly six times since.
Mr. McCarthy claimed that Mr. Gaetz wanted to intervene in the ethics investigation, which Mr. Gaetz denied. Back in June, the commission issued an unusual public statement confirming that it was still investigating the Floridian.
It was first revealed in April 2021 that the Ethics Committee was investigating Gaetz, but it has since been revealed that Gaetz paid minors to cross state lines for sex acts. The case was frozen pending a Justice Department investigation.
Ultimately, the Justice Department rejected the charges, and the committee reportedly resumed its efforts last May.
Gaetz' friend and former Seminole County Tax Commissioner Joel Greenberg entered into a plea deal in May 2021, confessing to recruiting women for paid sex, at least one of whom was a minor. Ta. He publicly stated that he paid them more than $70,000 between 2016 and 2018.
Later that year, Florida businessman Stephen Alford pleaded guilty Gates was indicted on wire fraud charges related to a scheme in which he extorted $25 million from his father, a former Florida Senate president, by promising to secure a pardon for the then-Senator.
