US House Committee on Ethics has found merit to further investigate behavior of Matt Gaetz

Editor's note: This story was updated to include the specific wording of the statement by the Committee on Ethics in which it states the allegations against Gaetz it is reviewing.

The U.S. House of Representative's Committee on Ethics has determined that several of the allegations it has been investigating surrounding the behavior of Florida First District Congressman Matt Gaetz merit further review, among them that he "may have engaged in sexual misconduct."

A statement issued by the committee and bearing the signature of Committee Chairman Michael Guest, R-Mississippi, states that "the Committee is reviewing allegations pursuant to Committee Rules 14(a)(3)and 18(a) that Representative Gaetz may have: engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use,accepted improper gifts, dispensed special privileges and favors to individuals with whom he hada personal relationship, and sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct.

The statement later notes that the mere fact of an investigation into these allegations does notitself indicate that any violation has occurred.

The committee based its findings, according to the statement, on testimony from more than a dozen witnesses, information gathered through the issuance of 25 subpoenas, and the review of "thousands of pages of documents."

The committee's findings were secured "notwithstanding the difficulty in obtaining relevant information from Representative Gaetz and others," according to the statement.

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Gaetz has categorically denied all of the allegations made against him.

A Gaetz spokesman referred a request for comment regarding the committee's findings to a tweet published on X, formerly Twitter.

"Instead of working with me to ban Congressional stock trading, the Ethics Committee is now opening new frivolous investigations," it said. "They are doing this to avoid the obvious fact that every investigation into me ends the same way: my exoneration. I work for Northwest Floridians who won't be swayed by this nonsense and (former House Speaker Kevin) McCarthy and his goons know it."

The Committee did decide to drop its investigation into claims Gaetz may have shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused state identification records, converted campaign funds to personal use, and/or accepted a bribe or improper gratuity.

The Ethics Committee initiated its investigation in April of 2021, in the wake of news reports that Gaetz was being looked at by the Department of Justice for his relationship with a 17-year-old girl and payments he allegedly may have made to other women for sex. The investigation centered around claims that Gaetz had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl and paid for her travel across state lines, violating federal sex trafficking laws.

Gaetz was never charged in connection with the case, though a colleague, former Seminole County Tax Collector Joel Greenberg, pleaded guilty to six charges including sex trafficking of a minor, identity theft, stalking, wire fraud and conspiracy to bribe a public official stemming from the same investigation.

It was reported the investigation of Gaetz was closed after it was determined that two of the witnesses in the case against him, including Greenberg, were considered unreliable.

The Ethics Committee release said it had deferred consideration of the Gaetz allegations for a time at the request of the Department of Justice, and renewed its investigation in May of 2023.

According to the statement, the committee remains confident in the integrity of its investigative process despite there having been "a significant and unusual amount of public reporting on the Committee’s activities this Congress" and "a great deal of speculation publicly reported about its ongoing inquiry."

"Much of that reporting has been inaccurate," the statement read.

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"The Committee’s investigations are conducted confidentially, but the Committee’s confidentiality rules do not prohibit witnesses from disclosing information about the Committee’s requests or conversations with Committee investigators," the statement said.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Matt Gaetz ethics investigation: Committee finds merit to continue