Gaetz will ‘no longer voluntarily participate’ in ‘nosy’ Ethics Committee probe

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) told the House Ethics Committee that he will “no longer voluntarily participate” in the panel’s probe into him, accusing it of leading a “political payback exercise” and calling it “uncomfortably nosy.”

In a Thursday letter that Gaetz posted publicly on the social platform X, the Florida Republican ticked through a list of questions he said he’d received from the committee.

The Ethics Committee is investigating whether Gaetz engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, among other allegations.

Gaetz said the committee, as part of a larger correspondence on Sept. 4, asked him for a list of adult women with whom he’d had sex over the last seven years.

“The lawful, consensual sexual activities of adults are not the business of Congress,” Gaetz said.

Gaetz also said the panel asked him if he has taken illegal drugs, to which he wrote: “I have not used drugs which are illegal, absent some law allowing use in a jurisdiction of the United States.” The Florida congressman is a longtime supporter of cannabis legalization.

Gaetz wrote that his understanding is that the committee has issued, but not yet served, a subpoena for his testimony.

If true, the subpoena for Gaetz’s testimony may be a sign that the years-long investigation into him is approaching an end point.

The House Ethics Committee’s staff director declined to comment on Gaetz’s letter and assertions.

The congressional probe into Gaetz was opened in 2021, shortly after news reports emerged that the Department of Justice (DOJ) was reportedly investigating whether he had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl.

Gaetz has vigorously denied allegations of wrongdoing, and the DOJ declined to charge him with a crime.

The Ethics Committee probe, though, continued on.

In the Thursday letter, he said that the answer to the question of whether he has engaged in sexual activity with any individual under the age of 18 “is unequivocally NO.”

Gaetz asserted that his former friend Joel Greenberg — who is in prison after pleading guilty to a number of crimes including underage sex trafficking and wire fraud, and cooperated with the Justice Department investigation into Gaetz — planned to lie about Gaetz’s sexual contact with a minor in order to reduce his own prison time.

The Florida congressman cites information he says he obtained from an informant who was in jail with Greenberg. Greenberg allegedly informed the jailmate that a victim of his planned to lie about Gaetz “in hopes of a future financial benefit.”

Much of the letter reiterated longtime assertions from Gaetz that the investigations into him are political, pointing to his longtime criticism of the Biden administration.

But now, Gaetz is also accusing the panel members themselves of being political, pointing to a contribution to Gaetz’s primary opponent from a leadership PAC for Ethics Committee member Rep. Dave Joyce (R-Ohio).

“It seems the fix is in,” Gaetz said.

“The question about my sexual history reveals a sinister motive of the Committee to harm me and those who have had any associations with me,” said Gaetz, who got married in 2021. “To date, I have voluntarily produced tens of thousands of records and answered many of your relevant questions over several years. But asking about my sexual history as a single man with adult women is a bridge too far.”

The Ethics Committee, though, said in a rare update about the Gaetz investigation in June that it had “difficulty in obtaining relevant information from Representative Gaetz and others,” and is formally investigating whether Gaetz “sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct.”

In that update, the panel said it was investigating allegations that the congressman “dispensed special privileges and favors to individuals with whom he had a personal relationship, and sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct.” The panel had already been looking into whether Gaetz engaged in sexual misconduct, engaged in illicit drug use or accepted improper gifts, areas of inquiry that began in April 2021.

The Ethics Committee said at the time that it had spoken with more than 12 witnesses, issued 25 subpoenas and reviewed thousands of pages of documents.

The panel’s probe has had an influence on other political disputes in the Capitol, most notably  when Gaetz led the charge to oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).

McCarthy, who resigned from Congress in December following his historic ouster from the Speakership, has repeatedly claimed that Gaetz led the charge to remove his gavel out of frustration that the California Republican did not stop an Ethics Committee investigation into him. 

Gaetz has denied that his motivations for ousting McCarthy had anything to do with the Ethics probe.

The two butted heads over the summer in Milwaukee at the Republican National Convention, when Gaetz approached McCarthy on the floor while he was doing an interview and taunted him about attending the gathering after his ouster.