U.S. Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL) walks away from the U.S. Capitol following his motion to resign from House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and end the continued leadership of McCarthy, followed by a vote of 216 to 210, outside the US Capitol in Washington, October 3, 2023.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
The House Ethics Committee said Tuesday that it had “additional allegations” against Rep. Matt Gaetz has identified “deserving of review” as it continues to investigate the Florida Republican over claims of what it called “sexual misconduct and illegal drug use.”
The Ethics Commission said it is now monitoring claims that Gaetz — who denies wrongdoing — “granted special privileges and favors to individuals with whom he had a personal relationship, and sought to obstruct government investigations into his conduct.”
The ethics panel also said it has struggled to obtain relevant information from Gaetz and others since the investigation began in April 2021, amid a federal criminal sex trafficking investigation into Gaetz and a friend, Joel Greenberg. That criminal investigation ended with a guilty plea from Greenberg, but no charges were filed against Gaetz.
After conducting interviews with more than a dozen witnesses and examining thousands of pages of documents, the committee said it “has determined that certain allegations merit continued review.”
“During its investigation, the committee also identified additional allegations that merit review,” despite the difficulty in obtaining information from Gaetz, the ethics committee said.
But the panel also said Tuesday it was suspending existing investigations into four separate allegations of misconduct against the Florida congressman.
The committee “will take no further action at this time based on allegations that he may have shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused his identity information, converted campaign funds to personal use, and/or accepted bribes or improper tips . ', the panel said.
The committee issued the rare press release after Gaetz accused it of opening “new frivolous investigations” against him.
“They do 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 for the ethics investigation. Gaetz helped oust the California Republican and former speaker of the House of Representatives last October. McCarthy resigned from the House of Representatives in December.
“This is Soviet,” Gaetz claimed. “Kevin McCarthy showed them the man, and they are now trying to figure out the crime.”
Gaetz's fate and the outcome of the ethics investigation carry more weight now that Republicans only have a razor-thin majority in the House of Representatives.
The GOP has 218 seats in the House of Representatives, while the Democrats have 213 seats.
