Matt Gaetz v the ethics committee

On December 23rdMAGA US a congressional committee released a lurid 37-page report alleging ethical misconduct by Matt Gaetz, the former maverick member of the House of Representatives who as Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney-general. In a different time the investigation’s details about illicit sex and drug use would definitively end Mr Gaetz’s political career, and perhaps it will now. Yet he could soon test how far deviance has been defined down in America’s norm-smashing political era.“The Committee concluded there was substantial evidence that Representative Gaetz violated House Rules, state and federal laws, and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, acceptance of impermissible gifts, the provision of special favors and privileges, and obstruction of Congress,” the report from the House Ethics Committee concluded. Among other things, while he was a House member, Mr Gaetz allegedly paid tens of thousands of dollars to several women between 2017 and 2020 “likely in connection with sexual activity and/or drug use”.The corresponded with the committee in writing, but he declined to sit for interviews. The report relied on testimony from women he allegedly paid for sex, as well as some 14,000 documents that included text messages and receipts of financial transactions. Mr Gaetz reportedly paid for sex with, among others, a 17-year-old. The document says she did not inform him that she was underage and he did not ask. He is also accused of the more run-of-the-mill violation of accepting a gift beyond permissible limits.“In my single days, I often sent funds to women I dated – even some I never dated but who asked”, Mr Gaetz posted on X before the report’s release. He added that he “NEVER had sexual contact with someone under 18.” As to his sybaritic lifestyle, “It’s embarrassing, though not criminal, that I probably partied, womanized, drank and smoked more than I should have earlier in life,” he wrote. “I live a different life now.” After the report’s release, he continued to challenge its findings, citing testimony that he said undermined its findings.Mr Gaetz has noted that he hadn’t been charged after a Justice Department investigation and has said on social media that “at least” he never voted for budget bills “that fuck over the country”, a reference to his disruptive, attention-grabbing role as a rebel in the House Republican caucus. Suggesting that any attack on him personally is really about his politics has been a hallmark of his career.The allegations will come as little surprise to many of Mr Gaetz’s former colleagues, few of whom took a liking to the Floridian during his nearly eight years in Congress. The House Ethics Committee is evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats, and two Republican members reportedly voted with Democrats to release the report, even though Mr Gaetz resigned from Congress on November 16th, after being re-elected to a fifth term. A note in the report from dissenting House Ethics members says “we do not challenge the Committee’s findings” but object to its publication on the grounds that Mr Gaetz is no longer in Congress. Nevertheless, a silver lining to this sordid affair may be that some members of Mr Trump’s party have shown integrity in the face of egregious misconduct.Mr Gaetz has floated plans to force embarrassing disclosures about other members of the House. Whether he seeks revenge or not, Mr Gaetz already is looking beyond Congress. When he withdrew from consideration to become attorney-general on November 21st, he said he would still fight for Mr Trump and do “whatever he asks of me, as I always have”. Mr Gaetz has long been rumoured as a candidate for governor of Florida in 2026, to succeed a term-limited Ron DeSantis. He also could run for a Senate seat that same year. Would Mr Gaetz’s ethical issues be an asset, rather than a liability, in a Republican primary? And is Florida so deeply red that someone like Mr Gaetz would be able to win a general election? The fact that those questions don’t seem firmly settled may tempt him to run.For now he has taken a gig as an anchor on the small, pro-Trump One America News network. As someone always more interested in bomb-throwing than governance or legislative dealmaking, television suits him. But it isn’t clear that he will be satisfied with the relative obscurity of a marginal media outlet, even one with a devoted fanbase.Mr Gaetz is now a private citizen, but it seems clear that embarrassment about the ethics report won’t be enough to drive him from public life.