Never heard of this outlet.
The House Ethics Committee has restarted an investigation into Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), the latest legal problem for the controversial Florida Republican, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.
punchbowl.news
News: House Ethics Committee quietly restarts Gaetz probe
The House Ethics Committee has restarted an investigation into Rep.
Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), the latest legal problem for the controversial Florida Republican, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.
The secretive panel hasn’t decided yet whether to move ahead with a special investigative subcommittee. That would require a vote by the Ethics Committee members and would be publicly disclosed.
But committee investigators have begun looking into the allegations surrounding the fourth-term lawmaker, we’re told.
The Justice Department told Gaetz’s lawyers earlier this year that he
wouldn’t be charged in a federal sex trafficking investigation involving underage girls.
Gaetz long denied any wrongdoing, including when his friend and political ally
Joel Greenberg pleaded guilty as part of the federal probe. Greenberg was later sentenced to 11 years in prison.
The Ethics Committee announced in April 2021 that it had begun a preliminary probe into Gaetz. Here’s former Rep.
Ted Deutch (D-Fla.) and the late Rep.
Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.), who were chair and ranking member of the Ethics Committee at that time:
“The Committee is aware of public allegations that Representative Matt Gaetz may have engaged in sexual misconduct and/or illicit drug use, shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused state identification records, converted campaign funds to personal use, and/or accepted a bribe, improper gratuity, or impermissible gift, in violation of House Rules, laws, or other standards of conduct.”
But the Ethics Committee later disclosed that it had deferred its investigation at the request of the Justice Department. The panel also noted it wasn’t finished with Gaetz either.
Which leads to the current situation. Since DOJ didn’t charge Gaetz and is no longer scrutinizing him, the Ethics Committee is free to conduct its own investigation.
Gaetz’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment on Thursday night.
The Florida Republican has been at the center of an ongoing standoff with Speaker
Kevin McCarthy and the GOP leadership in the wake of the debt-limit crisis.
Gaetz, 41, was also one of the most vocal opponents to McCarthy’s ascension to the speaker’s chair during January’s grueling 15-vote floor drama.
— John Bresnahan and Jake Shernan