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CNN
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Former Rep. Matt Gaetz filed a lawsuit Monday asking a federal judge to block the official release of a long-awaited House Ethics Committee report into his possible misconduct while in office.

Gaetz filed the lawsuit around the same time that CNN and other media outlets reported a draft of the report’s findings about his alleged sexual misconduct and drug use. Just hours after the lawsuit was filed, the committee officially posted the report on its website, essentially mooting its lawsuit.

In the lawsuit filed in Washington, D.C., against the Republican-led committee and its chairman, Gaetz alleged that the release of the report would cause “immediate, serious and irreversible” harm to his reputation, in part because “the reporting in He also claimed he had not been informed of the panel’s plans to publish the report, nor had he received copies of the materials.

“As a result, plaintiff was not given an opportunity to respond to reports or investigative findings,” the lawsuit states.

Gaetz’s lawyers said he has “frequently and vehemently declared his innocence of the alleged misconduct” and asked the committee to “discontinue its investigation and grant him appropriate procedural rights.” He said the Republican-led panel “did not respond” to those demands.

The federal judge overseeing the case, Amit Mehta, asked Gaetz to explain by 5 p.m. ET why the case should not be dismissed because it “appears moot” given the committee’s official release of the report.

CNN has reached out to Gaetz’s lawyers regarding the report. The House Ethics Committee declined to comment on the lawsuit.

In a post on He further said that “giving money to someone you are with” is not prostitution, citing the testimony of a woman who said she did not charge him for sex.

The lawsuit alleges that the committee’s own rules say it does not have the authority to publicly release a report on a private individual.

“The Committee’s apparent intention to publish its report after explicitly acknowledging that it lacks jurisdiction over former members, does not follow constitutional notions of due process, and does not adhere to its own procedural rules and precedents constitutes a constitutes “unprecedented overreach that threatens fundamental constitutional rights and established procedural protections,” the lawsuit says.

The House Ethics Committee voted last week to release the report, a rare move since Gaetz is no longer in Congress.

The committee found that Gaetz had paid tens of thousands of dollars to women for sex or drugs at least 20 times, including in 2017 when he paid a 17-year-old girl for sex, and said Gaetz may have violated state laws prohibiting prostitution Law prohibits rape, illegal drug use, improper gifts, special favors or privileges, and obstruction of Congress.

He added that he was neither formally informed of the committee’s intention to publicly release the report nor received a copy, so he was never “provided the opportunity to respond to the conclusions.”

The lawsuit also notes that the Justice Department investigated Gaetz for similar reasons and declined to charge him — a defense the former congressman has repeatedly relied on.

However, the report simply alleges that Gaetz may have violated state law.

Gaetz also denies using campaign funds for personal expenses, saying in his lawsuit that the Federal Election Commission investigated the allegations and found “no reason to believe” they were true. Furthermore, he states that the claim that he “may have used illegal drugs” is false, as is the claim that he obtained fake IDs.