Photo: Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg via Getty
The House Ethics Committee has quietly reopened a probe into Republican Rep.Matt Gaetz,Punchbowl News reports, citing sources familiar with the investigation.
The outlet reports that the committee’s investigators have begun re-examining allegations surrounding the controversial lawmaker, months after it deferred an investigation into 41-year-old Gaetz following a request from the Department of Justice, which was conducting its own investigation.
Ultimately, after agrand jury investigatedwhether the Florida Republican had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old and paid her to travel with him, investigators recommended not moving forward with trafficking charges against the lawmaker.
According to Punchbowl, the Ethics Committee is now reexamining allegations against him, but hasn’t yet decided whether it will move forward with a special investigative subcommittee, but if it does, the move would be publicly disclosed.
Gaetz’s office declined to comment, and requests for comment from members of the House Ethics Committee and Speaker Kevin McCarthy were not immediately returned.
The committee first announced ithad begun an investigation into Gaetzin April 2021, saying in a statement, “The Committee is aware of public allegations that Representative Matt Gaetz may have engaged in sexual misconduct and/or illicit drug use, shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused state identification records, converted campaign funds to personal use, and/or accepted a bribe, improper gratuity, or impermissible gift, in violation of House Rules, laws, or other standards of conduct.”
But ina January report, the committee said it “had not completed its investigation into this matter,” and had “deferred consideration of the matter in response to a request from DOJ.”
Gaetz, who assumed office in 2017, was reelected to the House in 2022.
News of the investigation into the Florida lawmaker first broke in March 2021. According toTheNew York Times, it was opened in the final months of the Trump administration under then-Attorney GeneralBill Barr.
Gaetz denied any wrongdoing, previously insisting to multiple news outlets that the overarching case was “rooted in an extortion effort” against him.
The probe involving Gaetz reportedly spun out of another investigation, into Joel Greenberg, his friend and former GOP official from Seminole County, Florida.
Greenberg wasindicted on a range of charges, including sex trafficking of a child, in 2020. In May, hepleaded guiltyto multiple charges including sex trafficking a minor and was believed to be cooperating with authorities.
Greenberg and Gaetz have beenphotographed togetherin the past.
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Gaetz was allegedly among those whoasked the Trump White House for a pardon, according to several witnesses who testified in the Jan. 6 hearings.
Former Trump White House aideCassidy Hutchinsontestified that Gaetz had been seeking a pardon since early December 2020, saying he had requested a meeting with chief of staffMark Meadows"about receiving a presidential pardon."
source: people.com
