Former Florida congressman Matt Gaetz has just received a very unwelcome Christmas present with the release of the House Ethics Committee report.
A few weeks ago, the committee voted not to release the draft report along partisan lines. But the about-face is a welcome decision, highlighting that lawmakers are taking their accountability role seriously. Clearly, at least one Republican member of the evenly divided 10-member House Ethics Committee voted with Democrats to release the report.
Gaetz has been working under the shadow of various investigations for some time.
As both lawmakers and journalists rush to read and reread the committee’s findings, we can expect more than a little schadenfreude. Gaetz is disliked by politicians on both sides of the aisle, and his many detractors will no doubt place the report at the top of their Christmas reading lists. “’Twas the Night Before Christmas” will have to wait.
The report found that while Gaetz was a member of Congress, he purchased and used illegal drugs and “regularly paid” multiple women for sex. “In 2017,” the committee says, “Representative Gaetz engaged in sexual activity with a 17-year-old girl.” The committee concluded that there was “substantial evidence that Representative Gaetz violated House rules, state and federal laws, and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, acceptance of impermissible gifts, the provision of special favors and privileges, and obstruction of Congress.”
Gaetz told the committee that he denied any wrongdoing.
To recap, Gaetz has been working under the shadow of various investigations for some time. A lengthy Department of Justice investigation ended in 2023, with no charges filed (and the department did not provide the Ethics Committee a reason why they didn’t bring charges). Gaetz has always denied the allegations and used the DOJ decision to argue that he had been “fully exonerated.”
Against this backdrop, the House Ethics Committee investigation has infuriated Gaetz, who claims former Speaker Kevin McCarthy has been pushing it forward behind the scenes. “It seems that the Ethics Committee’s interest in me waxes and wanes based on my relationship with the speaker,” Gaetz said in 2023. McCarthy, meanwhile, claims Gaetz pushed to oust him as speaker because he refused to quash the committee’s investigation.
As a former chairman of the House Ethics Committee, I highly doubt McCarthy had anything at all to do with this or any other congressional ethics investigation. House Ethics Committee members, based on my experience, must make investigatory decisions on their own and in a bipartisan manner, free of any undue influence or conversations with congressional leaders.
The ethics probe was not a criminal investigation.
It would be highly improper for the committee to seek direction from party leaders on these matters, and congressional leaders, frankly, would likely not want to inject themselves into the complexities and minutia of ethics investigations. They have enough headaches. Better to have their colleagues deal with such delicate issues with the appropriate discretion.
To mitigate damage and prebut the ethics report’s release, Gaetz acknowledged potential embarrassment and expressed some measure of regret, posting on X that he had “partied, womanized, drank, and smoked more than I should have earlier in life.”
But carousing by overexuberant, indiscreet young men does not warrant congressional ethics investigations. In fact, Gaetz was investigated for, among other things, allegations of having sex with a minor and paying her — while a sitting member of Congress. That’s the key point: Gaetz’s alleged conduct here happened while he was in office. The DOJ’s decision not to charge Gaetz criminally has little bearing on whether his alleged behavior was compliant with standards of conduct for a serving lawmaker. The ethics probe was not a criminal investigation. The House Ethics Committee cannot charge anyone with a crime (although it can make referrals to the DOJ in the event potential criminal wrongdoing is exposed during its investigation). As I stated in a previous column, it is unusual, though not unprecedented, for the House Ethics Committee to release a report or take further action after a member of Congress has resigned. Ordinarily, representatives who resign from office because of scandal usually do so abruptly — and then quietly work to reconstruct relationships with family, rebuild their lives and repair their reputations. They don’t get high level nominations to Cabinet posts like U.S. attorney general. In this case, of course, President-elect Donald Trump tapped Gaetz for attorney general while the House investigation was ongoing, leading Gaetz to resign from Congress. After a firestorm of backlash, Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration just eight days after it was announced. The circumstances of the Gaetz matter warrant, in my view, some degree of transparency and justify the report’s release post-resignation. The imposition of most sanctions against a sitting member of Congress requires a vote by the full House of Representatives. Because Gaetz has departed Congress, there will likely be no further action by the House — unless Gaetz rescinds his resignation, which seems unlikely given he has already accepted a new gig as an anchor for the conservative One America News network. In any case, the speculation is finally over. Grab some eggnog, find a comfortable seat, read the report for yourself, and make your own judgments. Merry Christmas.
Charlie Dent
Charlie Dent is executive director and vice president of the Aspen Institute Congressional Program, where he leads bipartisan, bicameral policy education programs for members of Congress. He is a board member of the National Archives Foundation, CARE USA and Research America and an advisory board member of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition. Previously, he served seven terms in the House representing the 15th Congressional District of Pennsylvania. 
