The House Ethics Committee released its long-awaited report into former Rep. Matt Gaetz on Monday, putting a bookend on the panel’s roughly 3 1/2-year investigation into the firebrand Florida Republican.
The report — which spans 42 pages and includes several more in exhibits — found “substantial evidence” that Gaetz violated House rules, state and federal laws, outlining allegations of prostitution, statutory rape and illicit drug use, among other accusations. Gaetz has denied any wrongdoing.
Most of the allegations in the Ethics Committee’s report are not new, given that the panel publicly released the areas it was investigating.
But the vast — and salacious — details included in the body of work are dealing an embarrassing blow to Gaetz, who tried until the final hours to keep the findings under wraps.
The biggest bombshell accusation in the report is that Gaetz, then a 35-year-old, first-term congressman, twice had sex with a woman who was then 17.
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