Last week, Donald Trump nominated Matt Gaetz to be his new Attorney General. Gaetz resigned his Florida congressional seat on the day that Trump nominated him. As we soon learned, Gaetz’s resignation from Congress came just days before the House Ethics Committee was about to release their years-long report into Gaetz’s sleazy, criminal behavior, behavior which included human trafficking, statutory rape, illegal drug use and solicitation. The House Ethics Committee apparently heard testimony from one of Gaetz’s victims that he had sex with her when she was a minor. Apparently, the Ethics Committee also heard testimony that Gaetz paid adult women for sex:
An attorney representing two women who testified before the House Ethics Committee told ABC News in an interview that former Rep. Matt Gaetz paid both his adult clients for sex. Florida attorney Joel Leppard told ABC News’ Juju Chang that one of his clients also witnessed Gaetz having sex with a third woman — who was then 17 years old — at a house party in Florida.
“She testified [that] in July of 2017, at this house party, she was walking out to the pool area, and she looked to her right, and she saw Rep. Gaetz having sex with her friend, who was 17,” Leppard said.
The Justice Department spent years probing the allegations against Gaetz, including allegations of obstruction of justice, before informing Gaetz last year that it would not bring charges. Gaetz has long denied any wrongdoing related to the allegations investigated during Justice Department probe.
“Matt Gaetz will be the next Attorney General. He’s the right man for the job and will end the weaponization of our justice system,” Trump transition spokesperson Alex Pfeiffer told ABC News regarding all the allegations involving Gaetz. “These are baseless allegations intended to derail the second Trump administration. The Biden Justice Department investigated Gaetz for years and cleared him of wrongdoing,” Pfeiffer said of the allegations, which the Justice Department began investigating during the first Trump administration.
Leppard, who has called for the House Ethics Committee to release its report amid Gaetz’s nomination to serve as President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general, told ABC News that the former congressman paid both of his clients for sex using Venmo.
“Just to be clear, both of your clients testified that they were paid by Rep. Gaetz to have sex?” Chang asked Leppard. “That’s correct. The House was very clear about that and went through each. They essentially put the Venmo payments on the screen and asked about them. And my clients repeatedly testified, ‘What was this payment for?’ ‘That was for sex,’” Leppard said.
After failing to release the Gaetz report last Friday, the Ethics Committee is meeting again on Wednesday to discuss whether or not it should be released. Speaker Mike Johnson has gone on the record about how he doesn’t think it should be released. Donald Trump is also personally calling up senators to persuade them to vote for Gaetz as AG. But the Times reports that, privately, Trump has admitted that Gaetz might not be confirmed by the Senate given all of his baggage (baggage = Law & Order: SVU plotlines), but Trump still has shown no interest in withdrawing Gaetz’s nomination. Still, I bet shutting down Congress and pushing all of his nominees through as recess appointments is still on the table?
Photos courtesy of Cover Images, YouTube screencaps.