Ethics Committee Delivers Update on Gaetz Probe

A House Ethics Committee investigation of Rep. Matt Gaetz that began more than three years ago is still looking into allegations, the bipartisan committee said in a statement Tuesday. The 10-member panel, which has five Republicans and five Democrats, said it has "determined that certain of the allegations merit continued review." It said some new allegations have surfaced, while other lines of investigation have been dropped, the Washington Post reports.

• The committee said it is reviewing allegations that the Republican "engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, accepted improper gifts, dispensed special privileges and favors to individuals with whom he had a personal relationship, and sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct."

• The committee said it "will take no further action at this time on the allegations that he 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 committee noted that Gaetz has denied the allegations but suggested he had not been cooperative, the Guardian reports. "Notwithstanding the difficulty in obtaining relevant information" from Gaetz and others, it said, the committee "has spoken with more than a dozen witnesses, issued 25 subpoenas, and reviewed thousands of pages of documents in this matter."
• In a post on X on Monday, Gaetz accused the panel of "opening new frivolous investigations" and blamed former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy for the review, which began before McCarthy was speaker, the AP reports. "This is Soviet," he wrote. "Kevin McCarthy showed them the man, and they are now trying to find the crime. I work for Northwest Floridians who won't be swayed by this nonsense and McCarthy and his goons know it."
• The review began in April 2021 but the investigation was deferred after a request from the Justice Department, the AP reports. In its statement Tuesday, the committee said it reauthorized the investigation after the request was dropped in May last year. In February last year, Gaetz said the federal sex-trafficking investigation was over.

(More Matt Gaetz stories.)