(CNN) – The House Ethics Committee found evidence former congressman Matt Gaetz paid women tens of thousands of dollars for sex or drugs, including paying a 17-year-old girl for sex in 2017.
The Republican-led panel chose to take the rare step of releasing a report about a former member who resigned from Congress.
Gaetz was President-elect Donald Trump’s first pick to be attorney general but he dropped out amid opposition from GOP senators and a news report of key details of this same ethics report.
The report said there is substantial evidence he violated house rules and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, impermissible gifts, special favors or privileges and obstruction of Congress.
The committee alleged Gaetz violated Florida state laws but it did not find he violated federal sex trafficking laws.
Gaetz has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and he has pointed to the Justice Department declining to bring charges against him in 2023.
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