The House Ethics Committee announced on Tuesday that it needs to further review allegations against Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., involving sexual misconduct, illicit drug use, and accepting improper gifts.
The committee also accused Gaetz of being uncooperative with its probe and said it had “difficulty in obtaining relevant information” from him.
Gaetz has been under a years-long House investigation, spurred by the Department of Justice (DOJ), looking into reports in early 2021 that he had a relationship with an underage girl. The DOJ declined to charge Gaetz in 2023.
The bipartisan committee, led by Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss., rarely releases such lengthy public statements.
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Rep. Matt Gaetz is under investigation by the House Ethics Committee. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
But its investigation into Gaetz, which kicked off in April 2021, has attracted widespread media attention – which the panel noted.
“There has been a significant and unusual amount of public reporting on the Committee’s activities this Congress. Much of that reporting has been inaccurate,” the committee said, without elaborating on whether it was talking about the Gaetz matter specifically.
The committee also noted that Gaetz denies all allegations.
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“Based on its review to date, the Committee has determined that certain of the allegations merit continued review. During the course of its investigation, the Committee has also identified additional allegations that merit review,” the committee said.
House investigators are delving further into accusations Gaetz “engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, accepted improper gifts, dispensed special privileges and favors to individuals with whom he had a personal relationship, and sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct.”
The House began probing Gaetz in April 2021 but temporarily deferred to the DOJ’s investigation into the congressman. (Aaron Schwartz/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
It said it’s no longer reviewing accusations “that he may have shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused state identification records, converted campaign funds to personal use, and/or accepted a bribe or improper gratuity.”
When reached for further comment, Gaetz’s office pointed Fox News Digital to a Monday night X post criticizing the investigation.
He lashed out against the House Ethics Committee in a post on X Monday night, calling on the panel to instead work with him on cracking down on lawmakers who profit off the stock market.
“The House Ethics Committee has closed four probes into me, which emerged from lies intended solely to smear me. Instead of working with me to ban Congressional stock trading, the Ethics Committee is now opening new frivolous investigations,” Gaetz said. “They are doing this to avoid the obvious fact that every investigation into me ends the same way: my exoneration.”
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Gaetz has blamed former Speaker Kevin McCarthy for his continued entanglement with the Ethics Committee. (Getty Images)
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He then took aim at former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., whose ouster Gaetz triggered late last year.
“This is Soviet. Kevin McCarthy showed them the man, and they are now trying to find the crime. I work for Northwest Floridians who won’t be swayed by this nonsense and McCarthy and his goons know it,” Gaetz said.
Fox News Digital reached out to a representative for McCarthy for comment.