A woman who attended a party with former Rep. Matt Gaetz in 2017 told the House Ethics Committee that she witnessed the recently elected congressman having sex with a minor, according to his attorney.
The woman's attorney, Joel LePard, released a statement Friday calling on the committee to release the findings of its years-long review of Gaetz. Committee planned to vote Friday on whether to release its report, but the meeting was canceled after President-elect Donald Trump announced he wanted to do so Nominate Gaetz As Attorney General and Florida Republican resigned from Congress.
“As the Senate considers the nomination of former Representative Gaetz for Attorney General, many questions demand answers,” LePard said in a statement. “What if the sworn testimony detailed conduct that would disqualify anyone from serving as our nation's chief law enforcement officer?”
According to multiple sources familiar with the matter, Lepard's client is one of at least four women who have told the committee they were paid to attend parties involving drugs and sex where Gaetz was present. Her account corroborates the testimony of the then-minor, who told the committee that she had sexual relations with Gaetz when she was 17 years old.
“She was a high school student and there were witnesses,” her attorney, John Clune, said in a statement Thursday. He also urged the committee to release its report on Gaetz.
CBS News has learned that the committee also has Venmo transactions from Gaetz that allegedly show payments to women.
Gaetz, who has denied all wrongdoing, including sex with a minor, has called the committee's investigation a “smear campaign.”
The Justice Department had previously investigated Gaetz's involvement with a minor as part of a sex trafficking investigation, but no charges were filed against him.
Speaker of the House mike johnson Said Friday that he would “strongly request” that the House Ethics Committee stop reporting on the Gaetz investigation.
Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he wanted to see the report. GOP Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota is not on the Judiciary Committee, but he said in an interview on CNN, “We should be able to get a grip on this.” [the report]And depending on how all these nominations are done, we should be able to get access to it one way or another.”