The House Ethics Committee’s report on Donald Trump ally Matt Gaetz, released Monday, revealed new details about the former congressman’s alleged behavior, at least one new allegation and insights into the panel’s investigation.

The committee concluded that from at least 2017 to 2020, the former Florida congressman regularly paid women for “sexual activity,” had sex with a 17-year-old girl, used or possessed illegal drugs, accepted gifts outside the confines of the House of Representatives, and According to the report, a woman received a passport.

Gaetz, who resigned from the U.S. House of Representatives in November – days before the report was scheduled to be released and after Trump announced him as his nominee for U.S. attorney general – disputed the committee’s findings and accused it of conducting an unfair investigation to carry out.

Here are four parts of the highly anticipated report that stand out.

House investigators said Gaetz paid more than $90,000 (£71,843) to women for sex and drugs, but in the process created a complicated web of transactions that were difficult to trace, the report said.

“The committee was unable to determine the extent to which Representative Gaetz’s payments to women constituted compensation for sexual activity with him,” the report said.

He allegedly used his friend Joel Greenberg, who is currently serving an 11-year prison sentence for crimes he allegedly committed with Gaetz, as a frequent go-between and logged into Greenberg’s account on SeekingArrangement.com, which bills itself as a “luxury dating site.” “Page”. interact with young women.

According to the report, Gaetz also paid women directly, sometimes through platforms like Venmo. However, the committee said he often used someone else’s PayPal account or an account linked to an email address with a fake name.

He also concealed payments, the panel wrote. In one example, he gave a college student a check made out to “cashing” with “tuition reimbursement” in the memo line. The woman said she received it after a group encounter, which “could possibly be a form of coercion because I really needed the money.”

Gaetz posted on social media that he gave money to women he worked with, rather than as payment. The committee found that two women, ages 27 and 25, did not view their relationships as transactional.

Another woman believed to be his girlfriend invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when asked if she had been given money for sex, drugs or to pay others.

The committee attempted to prove that Gaetz frequently paid for sex through a text message in which he described being unable to pay at a particular time.

His then-girlfriend said in the message that he and Greenberg were “somewhat limited in their cash flow” and asked a group of women “if it could be more of a customer appreciation week.”

A few months later, according to the committee, she wrote: “By the way, Matt also mentioned last time that he was going to be a little generous because of ‘customer appreciation’.”

The committee also said Gaetz bought illegal drugs or gave people refunds for them.

It details examples of his alleged cocaine and Ecstasy/MDMA use, but focuses on what appears to be a strong marijuana addiction. He allegedly asked women to bring marijuana cartridges to meetings and events and created an email account using a false name to purchase marijuana.

A trip he took to the Bahamas “was paid for by an associate of Rep. Gaetz with ties to the medical marijuana industry, who also allegedly paid female escorts to accompany him,” the report said.

One woman felt that using drugs and alcohol at parties affected her ability to “really know what was going on or fully consent.”

“In fact, almost every woman the committee spoke with could not recall the details of at least one or more of the events she attended with Rep. Gaetz, attributing it to drug or alcohol use,” it said Report.

His then-girlfriend, who was 21 when they met and “received tens of thousands of dollars” during their two-year relationship, frequently participated in encounters with women and acted as a go-between, according to the report.

One woman told the committee she was 17 when she had sex with Gaetz twice at a party in 2017 — at least once in front of other people — while under the influence of Ecstasy. The woman, who had just completed her freshman year of high school, then received $400 from him.

She also told the panel that she did not tell Gaetz she was a minor, and the committee found no evidence that the former congressman knew she was a minor.

In 2021, Greenberg pleaded guilty to sex trafficking of the girl.

Gaetz also allegedly directed his chief of staff to expedite the passport application for a woman he was sleeping with who he said was a voter in his district. He also allegedly gave her $1,000.

Gaetz violated House rules prohibiting using his position for special favors, according to the committee, which wrote: “The woman was not his constituent, and the case was not handled in the same manner as similar cases of.” Pass support.”

The committee devoted a large portion of the report to detailing how Gaetz allegedly obstructed its investigation, including his failure to provide evidence that he said would “exonerate” him.

The report concludes that he “continuously attempted to distract, deter or mislead the committee in order to prevent his actions from being discovered.”

Gaetz, who accused the committee of being “weaponized” against him and leaking information to the press, claimed the panel was working on behalf of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, according to the report. Last year, he helped lead the effort to oust then-Speaker McCarthy from office.

While Gaetz claimed he “voluntarily created tens of thousands of records,” he gave the committee “only a few hundred records, more than 90% of which were either irrelevant or publicly available,” the report said.

A sore point was a trip to the Bahamas, where the committee said he withheld information. Ultimately, it was determined that he had violated gift rules because the trip was worth too much.

The committee also cited the Justice Department’s investigation into the allegations against Gaetz as a reason for the delays.

Some witnesses asked the committee to use statements they had provided to the ministry, but the committee refused to share them because they had not brought charges and because it said it might discourage future witnesses in other cases from coming forward report.

The report ends with a one-page statement from Ethics Committee Chair Michael Guest “on behalf of the dissenting committee members,” who are not named.

These members do not question the committee’s findings, but oppose the release of the report after Gaetz resigns from the House, which has not happened since 2006, they write.

It “breaks with the Committee’s long-standing practice, exposes the Committee to inappropriate criticism, and is viewed by some as an attempt to weaponize the Committee’s process.”