This is the reason why Matt Gaetz was being investigated by the House Ethics Committee

Former-Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz is back in the news after the House Ethics Committee voted to release the controversial report into his conduct while serving as a representative.

President-elect Donald Trump nominated Gaetz to serve as US Attorney General just as the committee prepared to release the report. After Gaetz withdrew from consideration, the GOP members of the body voted to keep the report from the public. However, at least one member has since changed their mind, with the report being released just before the holiday recess. The allegations, which include that the Congressman paid for sex with a minor and purchased drugs while in his House office, have only confirmed for many that the Florida Congressman was unfit to serve as head of the Justice Department.

The FBI receives intel on Matt Gaetz

The House Ethics investigation was opened after the FBI began its own inquiry into Gaetz’s conduct following the arrest of a close friend of the former Congressman. The friend, Joel Greenberg, who served as the tax collector for Florida’s Seminole County, pled guilty to a slew of federal crimes, ranging from stalking and wire fraud to conspiracy to bribe a public official and identity theft.

The allegations of sexual misconduct against Gaetz stem from the accusations brought by prosecutors that Greenberg paid a minor to have sex with him, as well as other men. Greenberg had cooperated with authorities in the investigation into Gaetz, with reports from the time showing that one of the incidents being examined was the paying of a minor for sex while he was a congressman. Those allegations are detailed in the Ethics report. The FBI evidence that Gaetz had paid for the “transportation of women across state lines for purposes of commercial sex” reads the report.

However, there was no evidence that the women who formed part were minors or that the “commercial sex acts were induced by force, fraud, or coercion.” Those factors help to explain why the FBI never brought criminal charges against the then-Congressman. One of the women listed in the report, who was also the girlfriend of Gaetz, was paid over $60,000 by him between 2017—the year he became a congressman—and 2020. A total of twelve women were paid by Gaetz through payment apps like Venmo and PayPal over the same period, some only being sent a few hundred dollars while others were paid thousands. Joel Greenberg was also named in the report, and he was paid $3,950.00 between 2018 and 2019, and investigators believe these payments were transferred onto different women.

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