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(The Hill) -- Two women testified earlier the House Ethics Committee that erstwhile Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) paid them to person sex, according to the lawyer representing them.
Joel Leppard, a Florida-based attorney, made the disclosure successful an interview with ABC News that was published Monday. The nonfiction does not see the identities of his clients, some of whom are older than 18.
Leppard said the House Ethics Committee and his clients went 1 by 1 done a bid of Venmo transactions.
“That’s correct,” Leppard told ABC News's Juju Chang erstwhile asked if some his clients testified that they were paid by Gaetz to person sex. “The House was precise wide astir that and went done each. They fundamentally enactment the Venmo payments connected the surface and asked astir them. And my clients repeatedly testified, ‘What was this outgo for?’ ‘Well that was for sex.’”
The revelation marks the latest portion of accusation Leppard has disclosed since President-elect Trump nominated Gaetz to service arsenic lawyer general and the Florida Republican subsequently resigned from the House.
Last week, Leppard told ABC News that 1 of his clients testified that she saw Gaetz having sex with a minor.
“She testified successful July of 2017, astatine this location party, she was walking retired to the excavation area, and she looked to her right, and she saw Rep. Gaetz having enactment with her friend, who was 17,” Leppard said.
Leppard told ABC News that the lawsuit told the sheet she believed Gaetz ended that intersexual narration erstwhile helium learned the miss was a minor.
The House Ethics Committee — which is known for conducting its concern successful secrecy — had been investigating Gaetz connected and disconnected for astir 3 years, probing whether helium engaged successful intersexual misconduct and illicit cause use, among different allegations. Gaetz has denied immoderate wrongdoing.
The Hill reached retired to Gaetz for remark connected Leppard’s remarks. Alex Pfeiffer, a spokesperson for Trump’s transition, called the allegations “baseless” successful a statement.
"Matt Gaetz volition beryllium the adjacent Attorney General. He’s the close antheral for the occupation and volition extremity the weaponization of our justness system. These are baseless allegations intended to derail the 2nd Trump administration,” Pfeiffer said. “The Biden Justice Department investigated Gaetz for years and cleared him of wrongdoing. The lone radical who went to situation implicit these allegations were those lying astir Matt Gaetz.”
Gaetz’s resignation from Congress has raised questions astir whether the Ethics Committee’s highly anticipated study connected the Florida Republican volition go public. A fig of lawmakers successful some parties person called connected the sheet to merchandise it — which would necessitate a bulk ballot — but others, including Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), person pushed for it to stay private.
Leppard is 1 of the voices calling connected the Ethics Committee to merchandise its study connected Gaetz. Last week helium said, “As the Senate considers erstwhile Rep. Gaetz's information for lawyer general, respective questions request answers.”
“What if aggregate credible witnesses provided grounds of behaviour that would represent superior transgression violations?” helium added.
Johnson, meanwhile, has argued that due to the fact that Gaetz is nary longer successful Congress, the Ethics Committee’s study is moot. He besides warned that releasing the assemblage of enactment would unfastened a “Pandora’s box” of the sheet releasing reports connected individuals who nary longer service successful the little chamber.
“What I person said with respect to the study is that it should not travel out. And why? Because Matt Gaetz resigned from Congress. He is nary longer a member,” Johnson told CNN’s “State of the Union” successful an interrogation Sunday. “There's a precise important protocol and contented and regularisation that we support that the House Ethics Committee's jurisdiction does not widen to nonmembers of Congress. I deliberation that would beryllium a Pandora's box.”
While releasing an Ethics study aft a lawmaker has departed the House is rare, it is not unprecedented. In 1987, the sheet published its study connected erstwhile Rep. William Boner (D-Tenn.) aft helium had near the chamber.
The House Ethics Committee is slated to conscionable Wednesday, a root told The Hill, during which the Gaetz study is apt to beryllium discussed.
The absorption astir Gaetz’s Ethics probe comes aft the Department of Justice declined to complaint the then-congressman with immoderate crimes successful 2017, aft its probe had concluded. Investigators had questioned if witnesses astatine the halfway of the lawsuit would beryllium seen arsenic credible earlier a jury, according to aggregate outlets.
