A woman told lawmakers that Matt Gaetz, Donald Trump’spick for Attorney General, had sex with her when she was 17 years-old, according to a new report.
The woman, now in her 20s, is said to have testified over multiple days before the House Ethics Committee after they subpoenaed her this summer, according to ABC News, citing unnamed sources familiar with the investigation.
Her reported testimony came amid a House Ethics investigation into allegations that Gaetz engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use. However, that investigation ended on Wednesday when Gaetz resigned from his seat in the House of Representatives as news of his nomination to Trump’s cabinet went live.
John Clune, an attorney representing the woman, condemned Gaetz’s nomination to Trump’s cabinet and called for the committee to release their report on the investigation.
“Mr. Gaetz’s likely nomination as Attorney General is a perverse development in a truly dark series of events,” Clune wrote on X. “We would support the House Ethics Committee immediately releasing their report. She was a high school student and there were witnesses.”
Gaetz has denied all wrongdoing and branded the allegations “invented” in a statement to The Independent.
“These allegations are invented and would constitute false testimony to Congress,” Gaetz said. “This false smear following a three-year criminal investigation should be viewed with great skepticism.”
In September, he also told the Ethics Committee that the “answer” to whether he engaged in sexual activity with a minor is “unequivocally NO.”
“You can apply this response to every version of this question, in every forum,” Gaetz said in a statement.
The committee also subpoenaed and interviewed Gaetz’s ex-girlfriend, ABC News reports.
Gaetz’s resignation this week came two days before the House Ethics committee was set to release a “highly damaging” report regarding their investigation, according to Punchbowl News and other national outlets.
Texas Senator John Cornyn, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, called for the committee to still release the report despite his resignation.
“I can’t understand any situation under which we would deny ourselves access to full and complete information,” Cornyn said, according to Punchbowl News. “Part of this is not only to determine fitness for the nominee, it’s also to protect the president.”
“Because there may be information that the investigation would find forthcoming that would ultimately be an embarrassment to the president,” he added. “So this is for all of the above reasons, we need to get access to everything.”
Gaetz and his associates were also at the center of a sex trafficking investigation carried out by current Attorney General Merrick Garland last year. The former Florida lawmaker was ultimately never charged with a crime and has denied all wrongdoing.
Tom Rust, Chief Counsel and Staff Director for the House Ethics Committee, declined to comment when contacted by The Independent.
Allegations that Gaetz had sex with a 17-year-old have even been repeated by his former fellow lawmakers.
Former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy made such a claim earlier this year when he was ousted from his position.
“I’ll give you the truth as to why I’m not Speaker,” McCarthy said in April. “Because one person, a member of Congress, wanted me to stop an ethics complaint because he slept with a 17-year-old, an ethics complaint that started before I ever became Speaker…Did he do it or not? I don’t know.”
Gaetz played a key role in outsing McCarthy last year, which paved the way for current speaker Mike Johnson to take power. The MAGA loyalist has previously said he ousted McCarthy because of concerns he violated the “fundamental commitments” he made to become Speaker, not because of the ethics probe.
