The House Ethics Committee concluded that there is “substantial evidence” that Matt Gaetz broke Florida’s statutory rape laws by repeatedly having sex with a 17-year-old, that he paid at least 15 women roughly $100,000 for sex acts, that he used illegal drugs including cocaine and ecstasy, that he improperly accepted gifts and that he knowingly impeded the House’s investigation.
The report, released Monday, tells a story of young women who were paid small amounts for sex, of women who were allegedly impaired during these acts, and of a Justice Department that failed a 17-year-old who allegedly had sex with a then-35-year-old congressman.
The report notes that “Victim A,” the 17-year-old girl at the heart of the report, having just finished her junior year of high school when she went to a drug-fueled party at Florida lobbyist Chris Dorworth’s house on July 15, 2017, “cooperated with DOJ’s investigation for years and was let down by the justice system when reports circulated that DOJ would be unlikely to pursue charges against Representative Gaetz.”