A woman has testified that she saw former Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz having sex with a 17-year-old girl at a party several years ago, according to her lawyer.
Joel Leppard, who represents two women who testified before the House Ethics Committee, said in interviews with ABC News and CBS News that Gaetz paid his adult clients for sex. Leppard added that one of them witnessed Gaetz having sex with the 17-year-old at a party in Florida.
“She testified [that] in July of 2017, at this house party, she was walking out to the pool area, and she looked to her right, and she saw Rep. Gaetz having sex with her friend, who was 17,” Leppard told ABC News.
Newsweek has contacted Gaetz’s office, as well as his attorney, via email for comment outside of normal office hours. Newsweek has also contacted Leppard’s office outside of regular office hours.
The House Ethics Committee had launched an investigation into Gaetz over allegations that he “engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use” and was part of a scheme that led to the sex trafficking of a 17-year-old girl.
The Department of Justice had also investigated allegations that he participated in child sex trafficking. No charges were brought against Gaetz, and he has denied any wrongdoing. Leppard’s clients also testified as part of the federal investigation.
Gaetz resigned from Congress after he was named as President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general. There has been demand on both sides of the aisle for the committee’s report to be released publicly. It is unclear whether this will happen since Gaetz is no longer in office and the House technically no longer has jurisdiction over him. The Associated Press has noted however that ethics reports have previously been released even after a resignation, though this is extremely rare.
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Leppard told ABC News that his client testified to the House Ethics Committee, which began investigating Gaetz in 2021, that she believed he stopped having sex with the 17-year-old when he found out her age.
“Her understanding was that Matt Gaetz did not know that she was a minor, and that when he learned that she was a minor, that he broke off things and did not continue a sexual relationship until she turned 18,” Leppard said.
Leppard also told CBS News that the woman testified she saw Gaetz having sex with the 17-year-old on a game table at the July 2017 party. Gaetz had been sworn in to his first term in the House in January of that year.
The woman said she knew the girl in question was 17-year-old because they attended high school together.
In September, Gaetz issued his “final response” regarding the House misconduct investigation into him, which included denying claims he had sex with a minor.
“Your correspondence of September 4 asks whether I have engaged in sexual activity with any individual under 18. The answer to this question is unequivocally NO. You can apply this response to every version of this question, in every forum,” Gaetz wrote in a letter to the committee.
The allegations surrounding Gaetz and the potential release of the House Ethics Committee’s report have raised concerns from some GOP lawmakers about the suitability of Gaetz serving as the next attorney general.
With the GOP on course to control the upper chamber with a 53-47 seat majority next year, Gaetz cannot afford more than three Republican defectors in a Senate confirmation vote.
Trump is hoping to push through his Cabinet picks via recess nominations to avoid a vote in the upper chamber.
Alex Pfeiffer, a spokesman for the Trump transition team, told Newsweek: “Matt Gaetz will be the next Attorney General.
“He’s the right man for the job and will end the weaponization of our justice system. These are baseless allegations intended to derail the second Trump administration. The Biden Justice Department investigated Gaetz for years and cleared him of wrongdoing.”
The House Ethics Committee is to meet on Wednesday. It will discuss releasing the Gaetz report, according to The Hill and ABC News citing unnamed sources. Newsweek is unable to verify these outlets’ reporting.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said the report on Gaetz should not be released, as tradition states the lower chamber does not release investigations on those who are not members of Congress.
“I’m afraid that that would open a Pandora’s box because the jurisdiction of the Ethics Committee is limited to those who are serving in the institution,” Johnson told Fox News Sunday. “That’s its very purpose. And I think this would be a breach of protocol that could be dangerous for us going forward in the future.”
John Cornyn, a Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said senators must see the House Ethics Committee report before deciding whether to approve Gaetz as attorney general.
“I think that there should not be any limitations on the Senate Judiciary Committee’s investigation including whatever the House Ethics Committee has generated,” Cornyn told reporters on November 14.
Attorney John Clune, who represents the former minor at the center of the probe, also called for the report’s release.
“Mr. Gaetz’s likely nomination as Attorney General is a perverse development in a truly dark series of events,” Clune posted to X, formerly Twitter. “We should support the House Ethics Committee immediately releasing their report. She was a high school student and there were witnesses.”
