Matt Gaetz ethics report says his drug use and sex with a minor violated state laws
Matt Gaetz ethics report says his drug use and sex with a minor violated state laws
A report by the House Ethics Committee found former Rep. Matt Gaetz paid multiple women, including a 17-year-old girl, for sex.
From the report: “The Committee determined there is substantial evidence that Representative Gaetz violated House Rules and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, impermissible gifts, special favors or privileges, and obstruction of Congress.”
More: “The record overwhelmingly suggests that Representative Gaetz had sex with multiple women at a 2017 Florida party, including the then-17-year-old, for which they were paid… Victim A recalled receiving $400 in cash from Representative Gaetz that evening, which she understood to be payment for sex. At the time, she had just completed her junior year of high school. Victim A said that she did not inform Representative Gaetz that she was under 18 at the time, nor did he ask her age.”
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I know it's still illegal, but if he didn't know that's not nearly as salacious as what was suggested (I thought this was more than one, like a regular thing). I guess the rumors were hyped up. Or the evidence was not provable enough to document?
There's a huge difference between being told their age, and lying about it, and intentionally not asking for their age, knowing they're a junior in high school (the math is easy) so you have plausible deniability.
He was a Lawyer FFS. Of course he knows the tricks of the trade.
He absolutely knew they were underage. But because he explicitly didn't ask, and they explicitly didn't tell, he has plausible deniability.
You don't fuck around with "teens" and not ask their age/get verification if you're on the up and up. It's really fucking easy to ask for their age, or some form of ID to prove it so you avoid jail/legal repercussions.
Not doing that says a lot more about his intent than anything else in the article.
I don't know Florida's law, but mine (and others) say things like "did knowingly, or was negligent in". If they met at a bar/club that's checking IDs, that would probably be ok. But I somehow doubt that's where he met the high schooler. High schoolers tend to associate with other high schoolers, in places full of high schoolers.
It was at a sex party after paying a friend $400 to provide the girl. If you didn't ask questions then it's because you didn't want to know.
In this particular situation, "didn't know" and "didn't care" are the same.
The document found gaetz violated floridas statutory rape law.
The report found many laws broken, but the DOJ was not acting on any of the information during their investigation and it sounds like were not particularly helpful in the House Committee's investigation.
So just because gaetz wasn't charged with anything doesn't mean that he didn't break any laws. The house report and appendices have quite a bit of evidence in it including text conversations, interviews with victims, payment history, and more.
A civil suit might be a winner.