As a House Ethics probe into Rep. Matt Gaetz heats up, investigators are zeroing in on the sex trafficking allegations against him, multiple sources told The Daily Beast.
Staffers on the Ethics Committee have been reaching out to alleged witnesses to potential sex crimes, according to two sources familiar with the Ethics probe. And the panel has also been trying to obtain records from the Department of Justice related to its investigation into Gaetz, according to one of those sources.
Prosecutors announced they decided against charging Gaetz in February 2023, following a 30-month investigation into allegations that the congressman paid to have sex with a minor who was half his age in 2017.
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Just before publication of this report, CNN reported that the Ethics Committee had reached out to the woman Gaetz allegedly had sex with when she was underage.
The Ethics panel has made contact and requested meetings with these witnesses, but sources wouldn’t confirm if any interviews had already occurred.
Reports up to this point have not confirmed that the ethics investigation—which the House revived last year shortly after the DOJ tabled its probe—was targeting the most explosive allegations against Gaetz. Sources familiar with the House probe previously told The Daily Beast that investigators didn’t initially appear eager to delve into the sex trafficking claims. However, after the committee published its report on Rep. George Santos (R-NY)—prompting his ouster in November—it appears investigators have gone all-in on Gaetz.
Two people familiar with the investigation confirmed to The Daily Beast that the committee is now “zeroing in” on the sex trafficking. A person briefed on the committee’s work added that investigators have contacted a number of women at the center of the child sex trafficking probe, including the former minor, and that they expect the outreach to be returned in the coming weeks.
“They’re specifically looking at sex trafficking, as well as drugs and payments,” this source said.
ABC News first reported on Tuesday that the Ethics Committee had reached out to multiple new witnesses, as well as witnesses in the DOJ’s investigation. (That investigation had centered on the sex trafficking allegations but also included other potential crimes, including public corruption and campaign finance violations).
A spokesperson for the Ethics Committee declined to comment.
The House Ethics probe is still being conducted on a staff level and has not been elevated to the full committee, according to two sources familiar with the matter. But depending on how the current probe goes, the committee could vote to authorize an Investigative Subcommittee to more fully look into the allegations soon.
Shortly before the House voted to expel Santos, the committee started to ramp up their outreach to witnesses in the Gaetz probe.
When asked about the Ethics panel investigating him, Gaetz told reporters at the time “oh please.”
“I wish them luck,” he said.
Gaetz later took to the House floor to defend Santos—or, at least, the principle of keeping Santos in Congress.
“I rise not to defend George Santos, whoever he is, but to defend the very precedent my colleagues are willing to shatter,” Gaetz said on the floor.
“The fact the Ethics Committee has done this incredible violation of precedent will do grave damage to this institution for many years to come because now there’s no requirement of any conviction,” he said.
Shortly after publication, Gaetz issued a statement.
“These allegations are not true,” he said. “They’ve never been true. The people who have made these allegations have been exposed, indicted, and in some cases, imprisoned.”
But that last claim does not apply to everyone who has made these allegations. The final part—about people being indicted and imprisoned—likely refers to just two people specifically: Joel Greenberg and Stephen Alford.
Greenberg, a former and longtime close friend of Gaetz’s, confessed and was convicted of multiple charges related to the alleged sex ring, including having sex with the 17-year-old girl at the center of the Gaetz investigation.
Alford was indicted and later convicted for fraud after promising Gaetz that he could secure a presidential pardon for the alleged crimes, in exchange for a $25 million payment to—bizarrely—help spring an American hostage held in Iran and long presumed dead.
Last spring, not long after the Ethics Committee re-opened its probe, Florida lobbyist and Gaetz ally Chris Dorworth filed a sweeping RICO suit against Greenberg, his family, and the former teen, whom he accused of defaming him for his alleged role in sex parties. In response, the former teen stood her ground, accusing Dorworth of raping and trafficking her.
