The Investigations Into Matt Gaetz: What to Know

The Investigations Into Matt Gaetz: What to Know

Federal prosecutors scrutinized claims that Donald Trump’s choice for attorney general had sex with an underage girl, but did not charge him. The House Ethics Committee had its own inquiry.

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By Michael S. Schmidt

President-elect Donald J. Trump’s announcement that he will nominate Matt Gaetz to be attorney general has resurrected questions about Justice Department and House ethics investigations into Mr. Gaetz’s conduct and whether he had sex with a 17-year-old girl who was being paid for her services.

Here is what we know about the investigations and allegations.

The Justice Department investigated Mr. Gaetz but never charged him.

In 2019, federal authorities in Florida opened a public corruption investigation into one of Mr. Gaetz’s close associates, an Orlando-area local tax collector named Joel Greenberg.

Fashioning himself as a local version of Mr. Trump, Mr. Greenberg was elected to his position in 2016. Shortly thereafter, he began using taxpayer money to buy sports memorabilia, harvest bitcoin and hire cronies, according to federal prosecutors and people familiar with the investigation.

As part of the investigation into Mr. Greenberg, the authorities gained access to Mr. Greenberg’s electronics, revealing that Mr. Greenberg had repeatedly paid young women — whom he met on a website — to attend parties with him and his friends where they used drugs and had sex.

Investigators would ultimately determine that one of the girls who was paid for sex was under 18 at the time.

In an attempt to stave off a lengthy prison sentence for having sex with a minor, Mr. Greenberg began cooperating with federal authorities in August 2020. He told the authorities that Mr. Gaetz, who had been elected to the House in 2016, had sex with the same girl, who was 17 at the time, and that Mr. Gaetz knew she was being paid.

Mr. Greenberg’s lawyer, Fritz Scheller, provided the authorities with additional evidence that he claimed backed up Mr. Greenberg’s testimony.

Mr. Gaetz said the allegations were unfounded and were part of an effort by his political enemies to destroy him.

The Justice Department spent two years investigating Mr. Gaetz, interviewing the women and examining a range of documents. If investigators proved that Mr. Gaetz had sex with a 17-year-old, it would expose him to federal sex trafficking laws that come with a mandatory 10-year prison sentence.

Last year, the Justice Department ended the investigation without charging Mr. Gaetz.

The House Ethics Committee also investigated.

The House Ethics Committee began an investigation into Mr. Gaetz in 2021 when The New York Times reported that he was under federal investigation. But because there was an ongoing Justice Department investigation, the committee paused its inquiry until after federal prosecutors wrapped up their work.

Over the past year and a half, the committee has examined a range of allegations about Mr. Gaetz, including whether he showed nude photos of women to other members on the floor of the House; whether he used illegal drugs; whether he had sex with the 17-year-old and knew she was being paid; and whether he misused campaign funds for personal purposes.

Mr. Gaetz blamed Kevin McCarthy, the House speaker at the time, for reviving the investigation. Mr. Gaetz said the inquiry was retribution for his being a thorn in the side of House Republican leaders.

The panel interviewed several of the women who Mr. Greenberg said had sex with Mr. Gaetz, including the 17-year-old. The panel also subpoenaed Mr. Greenberg for documents he had related to Mr. Gaetz, some of which surfaced in a related civil suit that was later dropped.

In response to questions about the subpoena, Mr. Scheller refused to say what documents may have been handed over but said: “Mr. Greenberg has fully responded to all congressional requests.”

When Mr. Gaetz resigned his House seat following Mr. Trump’s announcement, the panel lost jurisdiction over him, and the investigation ended. On Thursday, lawmakers in both parties called on the panel to release its report.

A lawyer who represents the woman who was 17 at the time of the suspected encounter with Mr. Gaetz also called for the report to be released.

“Mr. Gaetz’s likely nomination as attorney general is a perverse development in a truly dark series of events,” said the lawyer, John Clune. “We would support the House Ethics Committee immediately releasing their report. She was a high school student and there were witnesses.”

Mr. Gaetz cultivated ties to Mr. Trump to protect himself.

Mr. Gaetz — who initially supported Jeb Bush for the 2016 Republican Party nomination — arrived in the House in 2017 and established himself as a brash and unapologetic defender of Mr. Trump. But it was only in late 2017, Mr. Gaetz has said, that he first had a one-on-one call with Mr. Trump.

According to a book published by Mr. Gaetz, Mr. Trump called him after seeing him on Fox News attacking the investigation being led by the special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.

“I need warriors, you know what I mean?” the president told him, according to the book.

Over the next three years of Mr. Trump’s presidency, Mr. Gaetz took the lead as his top attack dog on Capitol Hill, repeatedly assailing the Justice Department, the F.B.I. and the intelligence community, particularly over their handling of the investigation into Mr. Trump’s ties to Russia.

Mr. Gaetz even signed a letter nominating Mr. Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize.

But in the final weeks of Mr. Trump’s term, as Mr. Trump was considering potential recipients of pardons and commutations, Mr. Gaetz sought something extraordinary from Mr. Trump: a blanket pre-emptive pardon to insulate him from the sex trafficking charges and his role in helping Mr. Trump try to overturn the 2020 election.

“The pardon that he was discussing, requesting, was as broad as you could describe, from the beginning of time up until today for any and all things,” Eric Herschmann, a White House lawyer for Mr. Trump in the final months of his presidency, testified to the special House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.

Mr. Herschmann said that Mr. Gaetz brought up Richard M. Nixon, who received clemency from Gerald R. Ford.

“I said Nixon’s pardon was not nearly that broad,” Mr. Herschmann said.

Mr. Gaetz never received a pardon.

Trump Builds His Administration

As his team ramps up the transition process, President-elect Donald Trump says his administration will radically reshape the federal government.

• Immigration: Trump’s plans to expel noncitizens on a mass scale are likely to raise prices on goods and services and lower employment rates for U.S. workers, many economists say.
• Middle East: Trump’s emerging team in the Middle East appears poised to push U.S. foreign policy into even tighter accord with Israel’s far-right government.
• Skirting the Senate: Trump’s demand that Senate Republicans surrender their role in vetting his nominees poses an early test of whether his second term will be more radical than his first.
• Department of Education: The president-elect said he would use the department to further his priorities. He also said he would close it. Both options would face difficulties.
• Slashing Government: Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have been tapped to lead what Trump called the Department of Government Efficiency, which he said would seek “drastic change.”