Illegal drugs and sex with a minor: All the allegations against Matt Gaetz revealed in explosive report

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. The report determined Gaetz likely violated rules of conduct for the House of Representatives that prohibit “prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, impermissible gifts, special favors or privileges, and obstruction of Congress.” open image in gallery Matt Gaetz is accused of paying for sex with a 17-year-old girl and using illicit drugs while a member of Congress Ethics committee members paint a damning portrait of a four-year span, in which Gaetz allegedly paid tens of thousands of dollars to young women for sex — a period when Gaetz emerged as a far-right bulldog for Donald Trump’s agenda and a prominent figure in right-wing media. “Instead, the women had a general expectation that they would typically receive some amount of money after each sexual encounter.” One woman told the committee Gaetz paid her more than $5,000 between 2018 and 2019, and “99 percent of the time that Gaetz and I] were hanging out, there was sex involved.” open image in gallery Gaetz is also accused of routinely using drugs including cocaine and ecstasy A 21-year-old woman Greenberg met on SeekingArrangement.com eventually became Gaetz’s girlfriend when he was 35. “It’s frustrating to know I lived a reality that he denies.” open image in gallery The committee’s report suggests women may not have been able to ‘fully consent’ to sex with Gaetz while they were under the influence of drugs and alcohol In one instance, a 21-year-old woman who joined Greenberg and Gaetz at a Florida hotel, along with another 20-year-old woman Gaetz “regularly” paid for sex, had asked Gaetz for help with her tuition payments, according to messages included in the report. The 21-year-old woman told the committee she believed that the encounter “could potentially be a form of coercion because I really needed the money.” While the committee did not find evidence that Gaetz violated federal sex trafficking laws, the report noted that the youngest person who joined the Bahamas trip was 18 years old at the time, and that while his relationship with the women “involved an exploitative power imbalance, the Committee does not have reason to believe that he used force, fraud, or coercion as those terms apply under the applicable laws.” Abuse of office In early 2018, Greenberg paid a woman who had sex with Gaetz the night they met, according to the report.