A year after the Justice Department decided not to bring charges against Representative Matt Gaetz in a sex-trafficking investigation, the House Ethics Committee is moving forward with an inquiry into him.
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The House Ethics Committee began its investigation into Representative Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida, several months ago.
A lawyer for the chief witness against Representative Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida, said on Friday that the witness was cooperating with a House Ethics Committee investigation into whether Mr. Gaetz had sex with an underage girl while he was serving in Congress.
Fritz Scheller, a lawyer for Mr. Gaetz’s former friend and political ally Joel Greenberg, said he provided documents to the committee that he said backed up his client’s claims that he witnessed Mr. Gaetz having sex with a 17-year-old girl.
“Mr. Greenberg has and will cooperate with any congressional request,” Mr. Scheller said in an email on Friday.
Mr. Greenberg, who pleaded guilty in May 2021 to charges including sex trafficking, is serving an 11-year prison sentence. He had previously cooperated with a Justice Department investigation into whether Mr. Gaetz had engaged in sex trafficking of a minor, a federal offense that carries a minimum of 10 years in prison.
Last year, the Justice Department quietly closed the inquiry into Mr. Gaetz after investigators concluded they could not make a strong enough case against him in court, people familiar with the matter said.
Mr. Scheller said the documents he handed over to Congress came in response to a request from the House Ethics Committee.
A spokeswoman for Mr. Gaetz, Jillian L. Wyant, said on Friday that the Justice Department had received the same material as that sent to the Ethics Committee and “deemed it unreliable and declined to press charges.” The news media, she added, “should not be laundering smears from people in prison.”
It is unclear how useful the documents will be to the committee, which began its investigation into Mr. Gaetz several months ago, after concluding one into George Santos, the former New York representative who had fabricated large portions of his background as he ran for Congress. The House expelled Mr. Santos late last year, after the committee released its report.
The investigation of Mr. Gaetz has been slow moving as investigators have been sent a range of tips. Mr. Gaetz has claimed that the inquiry is in retaliation against him for taking the lead in ousting Kevin McCarthy as House speaker.
The Justice Department’s decision not to prosecute Mr. Gaetz came two months after Mr. Greenberg was sentenced to prison. Mr. Scheller said at the time that the Justice Department’s decision proved that the country had “two systems” — one that favors politicians like Mr. Gaetz and penalizes those who are less powerful, like Mr. Greenberg.
“Why prosecute the privileged when defendants of limited culpability provide sufficient cannon fodder?" Mr. Scheller said then.
Robert Draper is based in Washington and writes about domestic politics. He is the author of several books and has been a journalist for three decades. More about Robert Draper
Michael S. Schmidt is an investigative reporter for The Times covering Washington. His work focuses on tracking and explaining high-profile federal investigations. More about Michael S. Schmidt
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Source: nytimes.com
