House panel votes to release Matt Gaetz ethics report

[Mike Honcho 4,729]

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The House Ethics Committee secretly voted earlier this month to release its report into the conduct of former Rep. Matt Gaetz before the end of this Congress, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the matter.

The report is now expected to be made public after the House’s final day of votes this year as lawmakers leave Washington for the holidays, those sources said.

The vote, which has not previously been reported, amounts to a stark reversal for the panel after it had voted along party lines in late November not to release the results of the investigation. The decision to release the report suggests that some Republicans ultimately decided to side with Democrats on the matter, and it is unclear if the committee will once again change course now that it has voted.

When the committee voted last month to shelve the report, Gaetz was President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to be attorney general. Since then, Gaetz withdrew himself from consideration for the Senate-confirmed post, though he maintains frosty relations with many in his party and is still active in GOP politics.

It is exceedingly rare for an ethics report to be released after a member has left Congress, though it has happened on a couple of occasions in the past. The committee revisited the issue behind closed doors earlier this month after a feud over the report spilled into public view before Thanksgiving.

[Hardcore troubadour 14,164]

Enjoy.  Will backfire. Book it. 

[MDC 6,754]

Drain the swamp crowd won’t like this.  

[Mike Honcho 4,729]

19 minutes ago, Hardcore troubadour said:

Enjoy.  Will backfire. Book it. 

Okay, it's booked. I look forward to you not admitting that it didn't backfire.

[Hardcore troubadour 14,164]

Just now, Mike Honcho said:

Okay, it's booked. I look forward to you not admitting that it didn't backfire.

Sad

[The Real timschochet 5,232]

Not really in love with this decision. If he did something illegal prosecute him. But this seems vindictive, designed simply to embarrass the dude. I have no love for Gaetz, I think he’s a real jerk. But he’s out of Congress and not going to be AG so this seems unnecessary. 

[Engorgeous George 1,775]

I welcome the transparency, if partisan investigations can actually offer such. As the investigation had partisan overtones I will take the report with a grain of salt, though I believe it will be based at least partially, if not in fact mostly on truth.

As an attorney I do worry about precedent.  Now that the door has been cracked open a bit who or what will batter that door completely down.  In trials we attorneys look for the opposing side to open the door to admission of inadmissable evidence.  It happens all the time.  Me, when it happened I did not gently dip my toe in those waters, I dove right in.

 

Asfopr this particular incident, my mind is already made up on Matt Gaetz.  I pretty much accept that he paid for sex snd drugs with under-aged girls.   

 

[Mike Honcho 4,729]

6 minutes ago, The Real timschochet said:

Not really in love with this decision. If he did something illegal prosecute him. But this seems vindictive, designed simply to embarrass the dude. I have no love for Gaetz, I think he’s a real jerk. But he’s out of Congress and not going to be AG so this seems unnecessary. 

I'd like to hear the reasoning why the committee decided to release the report also. It seems if they could have just forwarded to DOJ, if they found more evidence that would have warranted charges. 

On the other hand, he is a complete colostomy bag and I don't really overly care about bad things happening to him.

[edjr 6,300]

Still waiting for the Fouchi one

[IGotWorms 4,025]

I wonder why republicans changed their mind. Doesn’t make any sense. Seems weird to release it now that the guy is gone. I guess they must really hate him or they think it’s so bad he has to be exposed for what he is?

[Mike Honcho 4,729]

43 minutes ago, IGotWorms said:

I wonder why republicans changed their mind. Doesn’t make any sense. Seems weird to release it now that the guy is gone. I guess they must really hate him or they think it’s so bad he has to be exposed for what he is?

I'm thinking that Kevin McCarthy slipped a friend on the committee a few bucks. 

[IGotWorms 4,025]

1 hour ago, Mike Honcho said:

I'm thinking that Kevin McCarthy slipped a friend on the committee a few bucks. 

Would be just desserts 

[Engorgeous George 1,775]

1 hour ago, Mike Honcho said:

I'm thinking that Kevin McCarthy slipped a friend on the committee a few bucks. 

Ahhh, payback.  A time honored tradition.  Revenge, the dish best served cold.  Seems possible.

[seafoam1 2,525]

3 hours ago, MDC said:

Drain the swamp crowd won’t like this.  

Lonely, useless mdcack still has nothing to offer. 

[Death 131]

4 hours ago, Hardcore troubadour said:

Enjoy.  Will backfire. Book it. 

You'll later deny that you wrote this.

Pickles gonna Pickle.

[thegeneral 2,491]

At least some Republicans on this committee voted to release it. When the parties both agree on something it probably tells you something. 

[RaiderHaters Revenge 4,045]

I never understand nonsense like this

how about just release it, dont put out a memo saying were gonna release it, focking clickbaiters

 

[Maximum Overkill 1,373]

17 hours ago, The Real timschochet said:

Not really in love with this decision. If he did something illegal prosecute him. But this seems vindictive, designed simply to embarrass the dude. I have no love for Gaetz, I think he’s a real jerk. But he’s out of Congress and not going to be AG so this seems unnecessary. 

I agree, what's the point? We already know that Gaetz is an assshole. Politicians are scumbags in general, you can dig up anything on anyone. 

I'd be careful if I were the Dems, especially with Trump coming into power. 

[jonmx 2,196]

18 hours ago, Mike Honcho said:

I'd like to hear the reasoning why the committee decided to release the report also. It seems if they could have just forwarded to DOJ, if they found more evidence that would have warranted charges. 

On the other hand, he is a complete colostomy bag and I don't really overly care about bad things happening to him.

The DOJ and FBI have all the information and they did the actual investigation.   There was nothing credible there.  

[Voltaire 4,940]

I got the sense he's being railroaded out of spite since he is so widely disliked by the swamp; we'll see for ourselves what they came up with.

[thegeneral 2,491]

14 hours ago, jonmx said:

The DOJ and FBI have all the information and they did the actual investigation.   There was nothing credible there.  

Why wouldn’t the deep state bootlickers just prosecute him??!?

[jonmx 2,196]

11 hours ago, thegeneral said:

Why wouldn’t the deep state bootlickers just prosecute him??!?

 

Because there is a lot more to this story then is widely reported in the media.   There were prosecutions made.in this case but they were prosecutions for extroerion and perjury.  The real story is about a man trying to set Gaetz up and then trying to extort $25 million from Gaetz's family.  The man and the key female witness lied to set up Gaetz.  The only evidence against Gaetz is extremely tainted.  The deep state did use the story to put out headlines they knew were false to derail Gaetz nomination.   The crap you read in the NYT is just the spin the deep state wants to tell you.  The truth of this story is far weirder and involved state-made fake IDs.   

[TimHauck 2,444]

Gaetz admits sending money to women he never dated, but asked for money

https://twitter.com/mattgaetz/status/1869406920768917618

[Mike Honcho 4,729]

12 hours ago, Voltaire said:

I got the sense he's being railroaded out of spite since he is so widely disliked by the swamp; we'll see for ourselves what they came up with.

He directly paid teenage escorts from his Venmo(that's public), how was he being railroaded?

[Mike Honcho 4,729]

1 hour ago, TimHauck said:

Gaetz admits sending money to women he never dated, but asked for money

https://twitter.com/mattgaetz/status/1869406920768917618

I love:  The Biden/Garland DOJ spent years reviewing allegations that I committed various crimes. I was charged with nothing: FULLY EXONERATED. Not even a campaign finance violation. And the people investigating me hated me.

Lies and faulty logic.  The investigation started under the Trump/Bill Barr, and not being charged <> FULLY EXONERATED. Heck, him not being charged is more suspect because of that.  Christ, it's so sad how easy it is to lie people today---he's on my team---this must be true.

[Hardcore troubadour 14,164]

Bill Barr.  lol.  

[jonmx 2,196]

14 minutes ago, Mike Honcho said:

I love:  The Biden/Garland DOJ spent years reviewing allegations that I committed various crimes. I was charged with nothing: FULLY EXONERATED. Not even a campaign finance violation. And the people investigating me hated me.

Lies and faulty logic.  The investigation started under the Trump/Bill Barr, and not being charged <> FULLY EXONERATED. Heck, him not being charged is more suspect because of that.  Christ, it's so sad how easy it is to lie people today---he's on my team---this must be true.

Bill Barr also colluded with Big Fani and is the architect of the Georgia Rico case against Trump.  Bill Barr is the biggest deep state back-stabbing corrupt bastard there is..

[jonmx 2,196]

19 minutes ago, Mike Honcho said:

I love:  The Biden/Garland DOJ spent years reviewing allegations that I committed various crimes. I was charged with nothing: FULLY EXONERATED. Not even a campaign finance violation. And the people investigating me hated me.

Lies and faulty logic.  The investigation started under the Trump/Bill Barr, and not being charged <> FULLY EXONERATED. Heck, him not being charged is more suspect because of that.  Christ, it's so sad how easy it is to lie people today---he's on my team---this must be true.

Well you conveniently don't talk about the $25 million extortion of Gaetz and the perjury convictions that taints all the evidence against Gaetz.  This may not exonerate Gaetz, but the evidence against him relates to the massive extortion attempt.  

[Mike Honcho 4,729]

 

Quote

 

“One woman who was paid more than $5,000 by Representative Gaetz between 2018 and 2019 told the Committee that ‘99 percent of the time that (Representative Gaetz and I) were hanging out, there was sex involved,’” the panel said.

Gaetz’ then-girlfriend “appeared to act as an intermediary” between Gaetz and women he paid for sex, the committee found, citing text messages it obtained. The committee said it found evidence that “Representative Gaetz’s then-girlfriend sometimes participated with him in sexual encounters with other women who were active on the website or otherwise involved in sex-for-money arrangements.”

The committee bolstered its findings by citing those text messages, including when Gaetz’s then-girlfriend wrote to women that “the guys (Representative Gaetz and Mr. Greenberg) ‘wanted me to share that they are a little limited in their cash flow this weekend … (M)att was like(,) if it can be more of a customer appreciation week… .”

In another text message exchange cited by the committee, Greenberg exchanged messages with a woman in September 2018, writing, “If you have a friend that is down, perhaps all four of us can meet up later.”

The woman responded she did have a friend who could meet up, adding, “I usually do $400 per meet.”

Greenberg responded by sending a photo of Gaetz holding out a phone and taking a selfie. “Oooh my friend thinks he’s really cute!” the woman responded.

“Well, he’s down here only for the day, we work hard and play hard,” Greenberg wrote. “Have you ever tried molly.”

The panel wrote that several women told the committee they would not voluntarily participate in the investigation, and some were “clear at first contact that they feared retaliation or were unwilling to voluntarily relive their interactions with Representative Gaetz.”

“While all the women that the Committee interviewed stated their sexual activity with Representative Gaetz was consensual, at least one woman felt that the use of drugs at the parties and events they attended may have ‘impair(ed their) ability to really know what was going on or fully consent,’” the panel wrote. “One woman said, ‘I think about it all the time … . I still see him when I turn on the tv and there’s nothing anyone can do. It’s frustrating to know I lived a reality that he denies.’”

 

Sounds like a great guy.

[The Phantom's Phantom 192]

15 minutes ago, Mike Honcho said:

 

Sounds like a great guy.

To think that Trump wanted him to be attorney general.  Unbelievable.

[thegeneral 2,491]

Dems should have let this guy become AG then this report would have come out

[seafoam1 2,525]

7 minutes ago, thegeneral said:

Dems should have let this guy become AG then this report would have come out

Well, you democrats are stupid. So, there's that.