Matt Gaetz’s Texts About Alleged Payments to Sex Workers Revealed in New House Report

The House Ethics Committee has finally released its report The allegations against Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz on Monday, following Donald Trump’s failed effort to nominate the former congressman as U.S. attorney general, make for some shocking reading.

Gaetz allegedly paid the women thousands of dollars for sex with a 17-year-old girl from at least 2017 to 2020. The report also says Gaetz took illegal drugs such as cocaine and ecstasy and accepted a free trip. to the Bahamas, which violates congressional rules. Gaetz also helped one of the women he had sex with. to obtain an expedited passport by falsely telling the State Department that he was one of his constituents, the report said.

Gaetz also allegedly obstructed Congress as his conduct was investigated and refused to cooperate as the committee sought to determine whether the congressman had violated ethics rules for anyone, though the committee no longer has jurisdiction over Gaets since he resigned despite being re-elected in November.

The congressional report found that, based on its investigation, “there is substantial evidence that Representative Gates violated House rules, state and federal laws, and other standards of conduct that prohibit prostitution, statutory rape, illegal drug use, acceptance of impermissible gifts, special privileges and immunities and obstruction of Congress”.

The report also includes screenshots of text messages from Joel Greenberg, Gaetz’s boyfriend, who is currently serving an 11-year sentence for sex trafficking of a minor. Greenberg pleaded guilty to several charges in 2022 but denied having sex with underage girls.

The report details how much Gaetz allegedly paid various women between 2017 and 2020, totaling more than $60,000, including an ex-girlfriend who allegedly engaged in some activity with sex workers, though the report notes that “some payments may be of a legal nature.”

Gaetz did not turn over the text messages to the committee, but the report includes some he allegedly received through sex workers he paid.

The commission also details in the report how Gaetz was allegedly introduced to Greenberg, who found them on SeekingArrangement.com, an online dating site now known simply as Seeking.com that specializes in “sugar dating” relationships where a younger woman is usually working with an older man under some sort of stable financial arrangement.

After the report was released, Gaetz took to social media to defend himself against the allegations in the report.

Giving someone you’re dating money that they didn’t ask for and that isn’t “charged” for sex is now prostitution.

There’s a reason they did this to me in a report on Christmas Eve and not in any courtroom where I could give evidence and argue… pic.twitter.com/HzWODpBBB9

— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) December 23, 2024

Many Republicans opposed the release of the report, including Mississippi State Ethics Commission Chairman Michael Guest. Guest wrote for the commission’s dissenting members, arguing that they no longer had the authority to release the findings because Gaetz had resigned, an argument that no one accepted. doesn’t make sense.

“We believe that acting outside the bounds of authority established by House rules and committee standards, particularly when making public disclosures, is a dangerous departure with potentially disastrous consequences,” Gust wrote.

It’s unclear what would be “dangerous” about the release of a congressional report unless it contains some inaccuracy that Gust claims. Congress releases reports about people who have never served as congressmen at all . State and federal authorities, however, have jurisdiction if they want to charge him with any of the crimes listed in the report.

The attachments include hundreds of pages, from airline boarding passes and travel itineraries to questionnaires submitted to the commission and text messages between Gaetz and the women he allegedly paid for sex.And some on social media took the opportunity to joke about some of the details there, including the fact that at least one of the women was flying. Spirit Airlines.

It’s not enough to talk about how Matt Gaetz made them fly on Spirit Airlines pic.twitter.com/nqstSfZoTu

— Monica Venzke (@monicavenzke) December 23, 2024

No matter what the topic, the internet is going to grill you.