Matt Gaetz, the MAGA Republican congressman nominated to be the next attorney general, allegedly paid two women for sex, according to the lawyer who represented the women before the House Ethics Committee.
Attorney Joel Leppard told ABC News Monday that his clients had testified to the Ethics Committee that they’d been paid for sex through Venmo. “They essentially put the Venmo payments on the screen and asked about them. And my clients repeatedly testified, ‘What was this payment for?’ ‘That was for sex,’” Leppard explained.
Leppard said that one of his clients had also alleged that she saw Gaetz having sex with her 17-year-old friend.
“She testified [that] in July of 2017, at this house party, she was walking out to the pool area, and she looked to her right, and she saw Rep. Gaetz having sex with her friend, who was 17,” Leppard said.
Leppard explained that his client had testified that Gaetz was not aware that the girl was underage.
“Her understanding was that Matt Gaetz did not know that she was a minor, and that when he learned that she was a minor, that he broke off things and did not continue a sexual relationship until she turned 18,” Leppard said.
Gaetz has been the subject of a multiyear ethics investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct, sharing inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, and converting campaign funds for personal use. The House Ethics Committee is set to vote Wednesday on whether to release its report on Gaetz.
Last week, Donald Trump nominated Gaetz to be attorney general, a mind-boggling pick considering that Gaetz has no experience as a judge or government lawyer. Rather, his only qualification is his unfaltering loyalty to the president-elect. The freshly Republican-led Senate will be forced to weigh the allegations against Gaetz when considering his confirmation, and even if the report is not formally released, the serious allegations against him have continued to mount.
A separate lawsuit filed last week involves a number of people involved in the criminal investigation into Gaetz, leading to a new record of evidence outside of the ethics report, according to CNN’s Paula Reid. Gaetz was previously investigated by the Justice Department over allegations that he’d engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a 17-year-old girl and violated sex trafficking laws, but no charges were ever formally filed against him. The evidence entered into this new lawsuit reportedly included the underage victim’s testimony that she’d had sex with Gaetz on an air hockey table.
Gaetz has repeatedly denied any allegations of wrongdoing.
Last week, Senator John Cornyn said that “there should not be any limitation” on the Senate’s investigation into Gaetz, and insisted that he “absolutely” wanted to see the ethics report on the former Florida congressperson, who has since resigned from his seat.
Last week, John Clune, the attorney representing the underaged woman, posted on X urging for the committee to release its report. “Mr. Gaetz’s likely nomination as attorney general is a perverse development in a truly dark series of events,” wrote Clune. “We would support the House Ethics Committee immediately releasing their report. She was a high school student and there were witnesses.”