Gaetz’s future uncertain after scathing ethics report
THE HOUSE ETHICS COMMITTEE released its highly anticipated report on former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) on Monday, finding “substantial evidence” he paid a minor for sex, used illicit drugs and “knowingly and willfully sought to impede and obstruct” the committee’s investigation.
The report comes after a nearly four-year investigation into the former congressman and on the heels of a grueling government funding fight that went into the early hours of Saturday morning.
“The committee concluded there was substantial evidence that Representative Gaetz violated House Rules, state and federal laws, and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, acceptance of impermissible gifts, the provision of special favors and privileges, and obstruction of Congress.”
The committee did not find evidence that he violated federal sex trafficking laws.
While Gaetz admits he has previously engaged in “embarrassing, though not criminal” behavior, he denies that he has ever had sex with a minor.
📄 Read the full report here
5️⃣The Hill’s Mychael Schnell has 5 key takeaways from the report here
Gaetz filed a last-minute civil complaint in federal court Monday morning in an attempt to block the Ethics Committee from releasing the report, but the judge assigned to his case has said it is most likely moot given that the committee has already made the full report public.
“If publicly released, [the report] would significantly damage plaintiff’s standing and reputation in the community. … [it] would be immediate, severe and irreversible,” Gaetz’s lawsuit reads.
As The Hill’s Emily Brooks and Schnell report, “Interest in the Ethics panel’s investigation reached its peak after President-elect Trump picked Gaetz to be attorney general, leading him to abruptly resign from Congress just before the panel was due to release the report. Amid opposition from GOP senators, Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration for attorney general the following week.”.
Follow along with The Hill’s live blog for the latest updates.
WHAT’S NEXT?
It’s unclear what sort of repercussions Gaetz will face in the wake of the report, legal or otherwise.
The report found that Gaetz likely committed statutory rape when he had sex with a minor, violating Florida state law. In Florida, it is second degree felony for someone older than 24 to engage in sexual activity with anyone who is 16 or 17 years old.
The minor in question, identified as Victim A in the report, was allegedly 17 at the time of her encounter. Gaetz, when investigated on charges of sex trafficking by the Defense Department, denied knowing Victim A’s age. But the Ethics Committee said that doesn’t matter.
“Under Florida’s statutory rape law, it is a felony for a person 24 years of age or older to engage in sexual activity with a 16- or 17-year-old,” the report said. “A person charged with this offense may not claim ignorance or misrepresentation of the minor’s age as a defense.”
Legal action:
• While no legal action has been taken, it’s possible some of the victims could sue Gaetz.
• Gaetz may be saved from any federal legal action given his close relationship with the incoming administration.
• Keep an eye out for any legal action Gaetz may take against the Ethics Committee.
Gaetz has also openly considered running for Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-Fla.) seat if Rubio is confirmed as secretary of State.
💡Perspectives:
•The Trumpian Attitude at the Heart of the Gaetz Report (The New York Times)
•The Matt Gaetz ethics report should be required Christmas reading (MSNBC)
Read more:
•12:30 Report — Gaetz ethics report released (The Hill)
• Ethics panel declines investigation into McCaul over public intoxication (The Hill)
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Luigi Mangione, 26, the suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, pleaded not guilty Monday to state murder and terror charges in New York.
Honda and Nissan, two major Japanese automakers, announced Monday that they plan to merge, citing the need to “better compete amid a changing automotive landscape.”
Department of Education data released earlier this month show 28 percent of adults in the U.S. ranked at the lowest levels of literacy, an increase from 19 percent in 2017.
President Biden commuted the sentences of nearly all 40 inmates on federal death row Monday, leaving only three, high-profile “hard cases.”
Biden reduced the inmate’s sentences from execution to life without the possibility of parole for 37 people on death row.
The president said he is “more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level.”
“These commutations are consistent with the moratorium my Administration has imposed on federal executions, in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder,” Biden said in a statement.
Biden, who has less than one month left in office, poked at President-elect Trump, saying “In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted.”
Whose sentences were commuted?: “Billie Jerome Allen, who was sentenced to death in 1998 [for armed robbery and murder], Carlos David Caro, who has been on death row for more than 15 years [for killing a prisoner in a federal prison], and Len Davis, who has been on death row for more than 25 years [for the killing of a witness],” The Hill’s Alex Gangitano reports.
For a full list of the commuted inmates, read here
Who was left out?:
• Robert D. Bowers -— The gunman at the 2018 Tree of Life Synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh
• Dylann Roof — Opened fire on Black parishioners at a Charleston, S.C., church in 2015 and
• Dzhokhar Tsarnaev — One of the brothers who carried out the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.
Those three inmates could still face execution.
The president announced last week pardons for 39 people convicted of non-violent crimes, as well as 1,500 people — setting a new daily record for clemency — who were put on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Biden came under fire for pardoning his son Hunter Biden earlier this month, despite pledging repeatedly that he would not do so. He absolved his son of federal gun and tax charges.
REACTIONS
Biden’s move to commute these sentences has been met with mixed reviews.
• Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), a proponent of abolishing the death penalty, praised Biden’s decision:
“There is no action more powerful or righteous than sparing someone’s life, and today President Biden is doing just that. The President’s decision to commute the death sentences of 37 individuals on federal death row is a historic and groundbreaking act of compassion that will save lives, address the deep racial disparities in our criminal legal system, and send a powerful message about redemption, decency, and humanity.”
• U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, also commended the president in a press release:
“The President’s decision today provides accountability with a term of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole and ensures that these individuals never again pose a threat to public safety, but without implicating the myriad issues associated with capital punishment. I have long advocated for the abolition of the federal death penalty and commend President Biden for this act of justice and mercy and for his leadership.”
•Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) bashed the move:
“Once again, Democrats side with depraved criminals over their victims, public order, and common decency. Democrats can’t even defend Biden’s outrageous decision as some kind of principled, across-the-board opposition to the death penalty since he didn’t commute the three most politically toxic cases. Democrats are the party of politically convenient justice,” Cotton said on social platform X.
•Conservative host Hugh Hewitt questioned Biden’s decision in a post on X, suggesting he did not make the decision himself because of his age and mental acuity:
“We all know President Biden is not mentally competent to make these decisions, and whoever did lacks even the minimum political courage to make it an actual expression of belief by commuting all 40,” Hewitt said.
•Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) criticized Biden’s decision, saying courts must have “autonomy.”
“I have real concerns overall with death penalty but I also have concerns with the executive branch overturning cases that have been decided by courts across the country,” the Quigley told CNN. “We have to have some autonomy there.”
💡Perspectives:
•The long decline of the American death penalty, explained (Vox)
• The story of two of Biden’s death row commutations(The Washington Post)
•Biden did the right thing granting clemency to 37 federal death row inmates (The Hill)
Washington roundup: Trump wants Greenland, Panama Canal
• President-elect Trumpsaid in a Sunday social media post that owning Greenland is an “absolute necessity” for the United States.
“For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity,” Trump said in the Truth Social post, in which he announced Ken Howery, a tech investor who co-founded PayPal, as ambassador to Denmark.
Greenland’s prime minister Múte Egede has said the island is “not for sale and will never be for sale.”
In a Truth Social post Saturday, Trump also expressed interest in turning oversight of the Panama Canal to the United States, complaining about the fees associated with use of the canal.
Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino fired back at Trump Sunday, saying, “[a]s president, I want to express clearly that every square meter of the Panama Canal and its adjacent zone belongs to Panama, and will continue to do so. … The sovereignty and independence of our country are not negotiable.”
• Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said that Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) will be ousted from his job by spring, airing grievances with the Speaker in his annual X thread roasting D.C. power players.
“I want to be the first to congratulate former @SpeakerJohnson, who will be gone before DC gets warm again,” Paul posted.
Paul called last week for billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk to replace Johnson as Speaker, noting that the Speaker doesn’t need to be part of the House.
“Nothing would disrupt the swamp more than electing Elon Musk… think about it… nothing’s impossible.”
• Texas, Florida, Arizona and Idaho, all right-leaning states, are set to gain House seats after the 2030 census. According to consulting firm Election Data Services, Texas and Florida will gain two seats, while Arizona and Idaho would each get one, if “congressional reapportionment” was being held today.
These gains are based on 2024 population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.
These increases in the commonly right-leaning four states bodes well for Republicans, who will have a narrow majority in the House starting with the new Congress. The House will be a nearly even split between Democrats and the GOP, with Republicans only leading by two seats, 217-215.
Some states also stand to lose seats. According to those same estimates, California would lose two, while Illinois, Minnesota, New York and Oregon would each lose one seat.
These losses could be risky for Democrats, with these states having been key to Democratic victories and power in recent years.
💡Perspectives:
•Can Trump Buy Greenland? What to Know Besides ‘No’ (Bloomberg)
• Who owns the Panama Canal and what does Trump want with it? (The Guardian)
Other notable headlines:
•Ocasio-Cortez faces uncertain political future
• Cardinal Dolan: Trump ‘takes his Christian faith seriously’
• Texas AG Paxton sues NCAA for allowing transgender women to compete
• US targets China with probe into semiconductor industry
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Minnie Hanson is a news writer at Simplym Press, where she covers politics, health, business, parenting, and finance. She also has a passion for writing about sports and the arts.
Minnie has lived in New York her whole life and graduated from New York University with a degree in journalism. She loves to read, watch movies, and listen to music when she's not working—but she doesn't have a lot of time for hobbies these days.
