Former congressman Matt Gaetz issued his response to a House Ethics Committee report on his alleged sexual misconduct in the form of a series of tweets on Monday morning.
CBS News reported on some of the salacious details expected to be included in the report early in the day, causing Gaetz to rush to social media to proclaim his innocence.
“Giving funds to someone you are dating – that they didn’t ask for – and that isn’t ‘charged’ for sex is now prostitution?!?”‘ he asked incredulously in one post. “There is a reason they did this to me in a Christmas Eve-Eve report and not in a courtroom of any kind where I could present evidence and challenge witnesses.”
Gaetz attached a screenshot of the transcript of a deposition with one women who said that she “never charged anyone anything,” and that “it [money] was just given.”
The report, which was released later in the morning, detailed how the woman — whom Gaetz dated — not only received over $63,000 from Gaetz between 2017 and 2020, but may have acted as an intermediary between him and other women:
The Committee’s record indicates that Representative Gaetz was in a long-term
relationship with Woman 1, and therefore some of the payments may have been of a legitimate nature; however, as discussed further below, Woman 1 asserted her Fifth Amendment right when asked whether the payments to her from Representative Gaetz were for sexual activity and/or drugs, or for her to pass on to others for such purposes. Based on that assertion combined with evidence received from other sources, the Committee found substantial reason to believe that most of these payments were for such activity.
Posting another screenshot from a deposition with another woman, Gaetz boasted that “ANOTHER ONE of the ethics witnesses who was an alleged ‘prostitute; claims she was indeed NOT when actually pressed in a deposition.”
In other posts including screenshots from from depositions, Gaetz boasted that a woman he is alleged to have trafficked and had sex with while she was 17 replied “No. I wouldn’t say that,” after being asked if “anybody trafficked” her, and submitted that what he did was “clearly not prostitution under any conceivable definition.”
In its report, the Ethics Committee explained that “Representative Gaetz did not appear to have negotiated specific payment amounts prior to engaging in sexual activity with the women he paid. Instead, the women had a general expectation that they would typically receive some amount of money after each sexual encounter.”
