U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) walks away from the U.S. Capitol after his motion to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and end McCarthy’s continued leadership passed by a vote of 216 to 210, outside the United States. Capitol in Washington, October 3, 2023.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
The House Ethics Committee said Tuesday it has identified “additional allegations” against Rep. Matt Gaetz “that merit investigation” as it continues to investigate the Florida Republican over allegations of what he called “sexual misconduct and illegal drug use.”
The ethics committee said it was now looking into allegations that Gaetz – who denies any wrongdoing – “granted special privileges and favors to people with whom he had a personal relationship and sought to obstruct government investigations into his conduct.”
The ethics committee also said it has had difficulty obtaining relevant information from Gaetz and others since the investigation began in April 2021, part of a federal investigation into criminal sex trafficking of Gaetz and a friend, Joel Greenberg. That criminal investigation ended with a guilty plea from Greenberg, but no charges were filed against Gaetz.
After interviewing more than a dozen witnesses and reviewing thousands of pages of documents, the committee said it “determined that certain allegations merit continued review.”
“During its investigation, the committee also identified additional allegations that warrant investigation,” despite the difficulty in obtaining information from Gaetz, the ethics committee said.
But the panel also announced Tuesday that it was suspending ongoing investigations into four separate allegations of wrongdoing against the Florida congressman.
The committee “will take no further action at this time regarding allegations that he shared inappropriate images or videos in the House, misused state identification documents, converted campaign funds to for personal purposes and/or accepted a bribe or improper gratification.” ” the panel said.
The committee issued the rare press release after Gaetz accused it of “opening new frivolous investigations” against him.
“They are doing this to avoid the obvious fact that every investigation into me ends the same way: my exoneration,” Gaetz wrote in the post on the social media site X.
Gaetz blamed former Rep. Kevin McCarthy for pushing the ethics investigation. Gaetz helped impeach the California Republican and former House speaker last October. McCarthy resigned from the House in December.
“It’s Soviet,” Gaetz said. “Kevin McCarthy showed them the man, and now they are trying to uncover the crime.”
Gaetz’s fate and the outcome of the ethics investigation carry more weight now that Republicans have only a razor-thin majority in the House of Representatives.
The GOP holds 218 seats in the House, while Democrats hold 213.
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