Two women told House ethics panel that Matt Gaetz paid them for sex — and one saw him with a minor: lawyer

A lawyer who is representing two women Testified before the House Committee on Ethics About this Attorney General-nominee Matt Gaetz Said Monday that both of his clients said under oath that the former Republican congressman had paid them for sex — and one had seen him perform indecent acts with a 17-year-old girl.

Orlando-based attorney Joel LePard told ABC News The ethics committee cross-checked his clients’ stories with Gaetz’s Venmo records, which were obtained through subpoenas.

“They essentially put Venmo payments up on the screen and asked about them,” Lepard told the outlet. “And my clients testified again and again, ‘What was this payment for?’ ‘That was for sex.’

Both women were adults when the alleged transactions took place. However, one of Lepard’s clients provided more damaging testimony against Gaetz, Who resigned from Congress on 13 November — hours after President-elect Trump nominated him to be the top US law enforcement official.

“She testified (that) in July 2017, at this house party, she was going to the pool area, and she looked to her right, and she saw Rep. Gaetz having sex with her friend, who was 17 years old. Was,” Leppard told ABC News.

The age of consent in Florida, the Panhandle that Gaetz represented in Congress for almost all of eight years, is 18.

However, Leppard said his client told the committee that “his understanding was that Matt Gaetz did not know that (the 17-year-old) was a minor, and when he found out she was a minor, he broke everything and Did not continue sexual relations until she turned 18.”

The lawyer’s statement comes two days before the Ethics Committee meeting, which is likely to discuss what to do Report compiled from investigation of Gaetz for crimes Which includes sexual misconduct, use of illegal drugs and sharing of inappropriate images on the floor of the House.

Gaetz has denied wrongdoing and his resignation leaves the ethics investigation in limbo, as the panel has no jurisdiction over former members of Congress.

But senators from both parties have urged the committee to release its report on Gaetz to better guide decisions on his nomination.

Colorado-based attorney John Clune, who is representing the former 17-year-old, also called on lawmakers to release the report, stating in part: “The potential nomination of Gaetz as Attorney General is actually a chain of events. There is a distorted development in the dark series… He was a high school student and there were witnesses.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has opposed the public release of the reportCalled it “a terrible precedent to set.”

“Someone who is no longer a member of Congress, we are not in the business of investigating and publishing reports on people who are not part of this institution,” the speaker told reporters on Friday. “The Ethics Committee has jurisdiction over sitting members of Congress.”

Meanwhile, Trump, 78, is sticking to his choice to lead the Justice Department.

“Matt Gaetz will be the next Attorney General. He is the right person for the position and will end the weaponization of our justice system,” Trump transition spokesman Alex Pfeiffer told The Post.

“These are baseless allegations aimed at derailing the second Trump administration. The Biden Justice Department investigated Gaetz for years and cleared him of wrongdoing. The only people who went to jail because of these charges were the ones who were lying about Matt Gaetz.”

Even after marrying his wife, Ginger, in 2021, Gaetz has long had a scandalous reputation in Washington.

In October 2023, Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), who served with Gaetz for six years in the House of Representatives, told CNN: “We all saw the videos he was showing…on the floor of the house…of the girls he slept with. He would brag about how he would crush the ED drug and follow it up with energy drinks so he could go all night.

Gaetz is perhaps most famous for leading the insurrection against former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in October 2023.

At the time, the then-congressman claimed that the rebellion was motivated by his frustration that McCarthy had taken a temporary spending patch, something the lower house has done about a half-dozen times since then.

McCarthy alleged that Gaetz wanted him to intervene in the ethics investigation, which was later denied. back in june, The panel issued a rare public statement. Confirming that it was still investigating the Floridian.

It was initially revealed in April 2021 that the Ethics Committee was investigating Gaetz, though the claim was later put on hold amid a Justice Department investigation into claims that the lawmaker had defrauded minors beyond state limits for sex. Had to pay to travel across.

Ultimately, the D.O.J. declined to pursue charges And the committee reportedly resumed its efforts in May last year.

Former Seminole County Tax Commissioner Joel Greenberg, a friend of Gaetz, took a plea agreement in may 2021 Confessing to recruiting women for paid sex – at least one of whom was underage. He claimed to have paid them more than $70,000 between 2016 and 2018.

Later that year, Stephen Alford, a Florida businessman, pleaded guilty Charged with wire fraud related to a scheme in which he attempted to extort $25 million from Gaetz’s father – the former president of the Florida Senate – by promising a pardon for the then-congressman.