What to Know about Matt Gaetz’s Investigation, Sexual Misconduct Allegations

The Washington Post / Mariana Alfaro

11:52 JST, November 21, 2024

President-elect Donald Trump shocked many in Washington last week when he announced his plan to nominate embattled Florida Republican Matt Gaetz to be the next attorney general.

Gaetz was investigated, but never charged, for allegations that he engaged in sexual misconduct with an unnamed 17-year-old girl, violated sex-trafficking laws and used illegal drugs. The allegations resulted in two separate investigations – one from the Justice Department and one from the House Ethics Committee. He resigned from Congress last week, just after being named by Trump, effectively ending the House Ethics Committee investigation.

Democratic and Republican senators have said they would like to see the House Ethics report. Members of the committee met Wednesday to discuss releasing the report but reached no agreement, said Rep. Michael Guest (R-Mississippi), the committee chairman. Rep. Susan Wild (D-Pennsylvania), the committee’s top Democrat, sought to clarify that Democrats in the panel did not vote to stop the release of the report, saying that the evenly-divided panel simply did not reach an agreement and will instead meet again on Dec. 5 “to further consider this matter.”

Wild confirmed that the committee did vote to publicly release the report, but that no Republican crossed the aisle to join all five Democrats to support doing so. Unlike other House committees, Ethics is equally divided between five Republicans and five Democrats.

What allegations does Gaetz face?

In late 2020, the Justice Department opened an investigation into whether Gaetz engaged in sexual misconduct with a minor, violated sex-trafficking laws by paying the 17-year-old girl for sex and used illegal drugs.

Gaetz has repeatedly and vehemently denied any wrongdoing. The investigation was closed last year and prosecutors decided not to press charges against him.

The investigation began after federal officials examined the actions of Gaetz’s friend Joel Greenberg, a tax collector in Seminole County, Florida. Greenberg pleaded guilty in 2021 to sex trafficking of a minor and other crimes, and agreed to cooperate in the Gaetz probe. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison.

In his plea deal, Greenberg said he paid for sex acts with a minor and “also introduced the minor to other adult men, who engaged in commercial sex acts with the minor” in Florida. Prosecutors identified more than 150 financial transactions on the payment app Venmo totaling more than $70,000, and alleged that Greenberg falsely labeled them as school or other expenses.

Greenberg’s plea deal did not mention Gaetz specifically. The Post reported in 2021 that Gaetz had boasted about women he met through Greenberg, according to people who had heard his comments.

But while Greenberg and the unnamed teen at the center of the claims were considered witnesses in a possible case against Gaetz, prosecutors recommended that the case be dropped, and the Justice Department closed the investigation in 2023 without citing a reason. The Washington Post reported at the time that people familiar with the decision, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal conversations, said there were concerns about whether a jury would be convinced of the credibility of the witnesses.

While the Justice Department investigation into Gaetz was closed, he remained under investigation by the House Ethics Committee over allegations that he participated in a scheme that led to the sex trafficking of the 17-year-old girl.

What is the House ethics report?

While Gaetz’s resignation from Congress meant the House Ethics Committee’s investigation into the allegations against him is effectively over, the committee could still release its report.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) has repeatedly said the report should not be released, telling reporters on Friday that he is “going to strongly request the Ethics Committee not issue the report because that is not the way we do things in the House, and I think that would be a terrible precedent.”

While Johnson argued that the Ethics Committee shouldn’t issue reports on former members of Congress, the House and Senate ethics committees have in the past released investigative reports or summaries, or shared their materials with other investigative bodies such as the Justice Department or congressional committees.

Both Democrats and Republicans in the Senate have said they’d like to see the committee’s report ahead of Gaetz’s confirmation hearings. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, called on the House Ethics Committee to preserve all documents related to the investigation.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told reporters last week that he would “absolutely” like to have access to the report’s findings. But in recent days, Cornyn has said that he doesn’t believe seeing the ethics report is “critical” for Gaetz’s confirmation since the committee will likely have access to the same witnesses and information in it.

“The truth is, the information is going to come out one way or the other,” he said.

What have congressional Republicans said about Gaetz?

Last week, several GOP lawmakers expressed shock over the nomination of Gaetz, a far-right Republican who has broken with members of his own party and last year led the effort to oust former speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-California). Some Republicans in Congress began questioning Gaetz’s chances at getting confirmed.

Rep. Max L. Miller (R-Ohio) said that, unlike Trump’s other Cabinet picks, Gaetz should not be allowed to serve as attorney general. Miller described Gaetz as “a guy who is literally worse than the gum on the bottom of my shoe,” and he said he was confident that Sen. John Thune (R-South Dakota), who will become the majority leader in January, will not let Gaetz “walk right through the Senate without anyone having a say.”

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said there will be “many, many questions” for Gaetz at his hearing. Collins said she was “shocked” by the news of his pick, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said she didn’t consider Gaetz to be “a serious nomination for the attorney general.”

Meanwhile, Gaetz’s allies in the far-right Freedom Caucus celebrated his nomination.

“Matt is our number one fighter, he is willing to pick fights that no one else will even entertain,” said Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colorado). “That’s one of the many qualities that [will make] him our greatest Attorney General potential ever.”

Did Gaetz resign from Congress?

Yes, he resigned from Congress on Nov. 13, the day Trump announced his plan to nominate Gaetz to be attorney general.

Johnson said the resignation “caught us by surprise a little bit,” adding that he would ensure Gaetz would be replaced quickly to help maintain the House Republicans’ slim majority next year. Under Florida state law, there’s about an eight-week period to select and fill a House vacancy.

What are Gaetz’s qualifications?

Trump, in his announcement to name Gaetz the next attorney general, called the former congressman a “deeply gifted and tenacious attorney.” Gaetz graduated from the William & Mary Law School in 2007 and served as an attorney for only about three years in Northwest Florida before running for the state House in 2010.

During his time practicing law, Gaetz – who was admitted to the Florida Bar in 2008 – worked as a junior associate at Keefe, Anchors & Gordon, a small litigation firm.

Following the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol, a group of Gaetz’s law school classmates, as well as other alumni of the William & Mary Law School, called on him to resign from Congress after Gaetz repeated the false allegations that the 2020 election had been stolen from Trump. Gaetz voted against the certification of that election, despite affirmations by the Justice Department – the agency he’s now nominated to lead – that there was no evidence of widespread election fraud.

The Florida Bar briefly suspended Gaetz’s law license in 2022 after he failed to pay fees. At the time, Gaetz’s office said the fees were delinquent because the congressman was “no longer actively engaged in the practice of the law.” After the Daily Beast reported on the ordeal, Gaetz paid the fees and had his license reinstated.

What does the attorney general do?

The attorney general is the head of the Justice Department. As the federal government’s chief law enforcement officer, the attorney general represents the nation in legal matters. The attorney general sits on the president’s Cabinet and is the president’s top adviser on legal matters.

How does one become attorney general?

The Constitution states that, while the president nominates an attorney general, it is up to the Senate to provide “advice and consent” on that pick. Traditionally, this would mean that the nominee is put through a confirmation process in the Senate, which culminates with a vote from the full chamber.

But Trump has insisted in recent days that, instead of putting Gaetz and his other Cabinet selections through an extended public-vetting process, the Senate should take an extended break that would allow him to make recess appointments.