While the House Ethics Committee has been investigating allegations that Matt Gaetz slept with a 17-year old girl, an unlikely obstruction has been raised — the Department of Justice.
The DOJ is refusing to turn over relevant information about its own sprawling criminal probe into Gaetz, frustrating the pace of the congressional investigation, leading the committee to seriously consider issuing subpoenas to the feds.
It is unusual for the DOJ to withhold relevant information, particularly when their own investigation is inactive.
The committee currently has several subpoenas lined up to serve the feds, but have not pulled the trigger yet.
The Ethics panel had initiated its investigation into Gaetz shortly after the sex trafficking allegations first became public in 2021, when the House was under Democratic control. But the committee paused that effort when the feds asked them to back down, writing in a summary report that Ethics had “deferred consideration of the matter in response to a request from DOJ.”
In February 2023, the DOJ announced they were declining to charge Gaetz with a crime.
The Ethics Committee was undeterred but had Rep. George Santos to deal with. After Santos was booted from Congress, the committee turned its full attention to the Gaetz matter. Several key witnesses were subpoenaed, including the then-underage teen who was allegedly paid by Gaetz to have sex with him when she was a minor.
This seems kinda public, Matty.
DOJ, the House Ethics Committee, and a spokesperson for Gaetz all declined to comment for this story, from the Daily Beast.