Politics

House Ethics Committee Opens Investigation Into Matt Gaetz

(Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Michael Ginsberg Congressional Correspondent
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The House Ethics Committee announced Friday that they will be investigating multiple allegations of misconduct against Republican Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz

The Committee will investigate reports that Gaetz engaged in sexual misconduct, accepted bribes, shared inappropriate photographs on the House floor, illegally used drugs and committed campaign finance violations, according to a press release. Gaetz is under FBI investigation for allegedly trafficking a minor across state lines.

Gaetz is being investigated by the FBI in accordance with a sex trafficking investigation against Joel Greenberg, the former tax collector for Seminole County, Florida and a Gaetz political ally. He reportedly paid Greenberg hundreds of dollars via the Venmo app, which Greenberg then used to pay three young women. Gaetz hired two prominent defense attorneys to represent him on Friday. (RELATED: Matt Gaetz’s Female Staffers Release Statement Defending The Congressman Amid Sexual Allegations Scandal)

Gaetz also showed other lawmakers nude photographs and videos of women he claimed to have had sex with, according to a CNN report.

In an interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Gaetz accused a Pensacola-based attorney of extorting his family for $25 million. The attorney, a former Department of Justice official, denied Gaetz’s allegations.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said on March 31 that he’d remove Gaetz from the Judiciary Committee if the allegations against him are true. Republican Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who has previously clashed with Gaetz, called for the embattled representative to resign on Thursday.

“Once again, the office will reiterate, these allegations are blatantly false and have not been validated by a single human being willing to put their name behind them,” Gaetz’s office told the Daily Caller.