Saturday, April 27, 2024

House investigators scrutinize Rep Matt Gaetz's defunct federal criminal sex trafficking probe

house ethics committee matt gaetz

The woman, who ABC News is not identifying, had previously been contacted by the committee about voluntarily sitting for an interview and had informed the committee that she had planned to "plead the fifth" on any questions related to the congressman, a source familiar told ABC News. The legislation passed with wide Democratic support and avoided a government shutdown, but Gaetz followed through on his threat. In an interview with CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday, he announced he would be moving to oust McCarthy and accused the California Republican of repeatedly going back on the deal he made with conservatives in January in his bid for the gavel.

Why oust McCarthy? What Matt Gaetz has said about his motivations to remove the speaker of the House

ABC News previously reported that as part of his cooperation, Greenberg had provided investigators with years of Venmo and Cash App transactions and thousands of photos and videos, as well as access to personal social media accounts. 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. 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. 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.

MORE: Associate of Matt Gaetz could cooperate with probe as part of plea deal, say prosecutors

For presidential candidates who are not the Republican or Democratic Party nominee, getting on the ballot for the general election is a state-by-state, make-or-break scramble. Mr. Trump’s interview — in which he faced detailed and probing questions about his policy positions — reveals the pitfalls for candidates when they sit down with mainstream news organizations. But Mr. Biden has been even more averse to being questioned by journalists, a traditional undertaking of those running for the White House. Mr. Trump said he would “absolutely” consider pardoning every person who had been convicted on, or pleaded guilty to, charges related to the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. One notable part of Trump’s interview with Time — a relative rarity with a mainstream news outlet for him — was his leaving open the possibility of violence around the fall election’s aftermath. “It always depends on the fairness of the election.” It’s a warning that resonates differently after the riot of Jan. 6, 2021.

Trump again vows mass deportations and won’t rule out political violence.

A 2016 investigation by The Los Angeles Times found that many of the American Independent Party’s registered voters had marked their party affiliation in confusion, thinking they were registering as independents. In a video posted to his campaign website on Monday, Mr. Kennedy explained the back story of his alliance with the party, reflecting on his father’s presidential campaign in 1968, which ended with his assassination. The American Independent Party was founded in the late 1960s in San Francisco, and its first nominee for president, in 1968, was Mr. Wallace, the governor of Alabama who had built his career on “states’ rights” and opposition to desegregation. The party’s original platform focused on devolving power to the states, law and order, and ending the war in Vietnam. Democratic allies of President Biden, worried that Mr. Kennedy could have a spoiler effect on the election that hands the White House back to former President Donald J. Trump, have been waging a legal campaign to keep him off the ballot in key states.

Matt Gaetz attended 2017 party where minor and drugs were present, woman's sworn statement obtained by Congress ... - ABC News

Matt Gaetz attended 2017 party where minor and drugs were present, woman's sworn statement obtained by Congress ....

Posted: Fri, 19 Apr 2024 07:00:00 GMT [source]

On Friday, the House Ethics Committee also announced that it would investigate allegations that Rep. Tom Reed, R-N.Y., groped a female lobbyist in 2017. Reed has apologized for his actions and has said he will not seek reelection or run for governor of New York next year. The committee does not have jurisdiction over former members of Congress, so the investigation would be closed if Gaetz were to resign.

Gaetz attacks GOP House Ethics chair amid investigation - POLITICO

Gaetz attacks GOP House Ethics chair amid investigation.

Posted: Fri, 23 Feb 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]

house ethics committee matt gaetz

Mr. Kennedy lives in Los Angeles, and his running mate, Nicole Shanahan, is a Silicon Valley lawyer and investor. California is the fourth state where Mr. Kennedy, who is running as an independent, is all but assured a spot. The secretary of state’s office does not certify candidates until late August, the office said, but confirmed that Mr. Kennedy’s campaign filed paperwork on Monday. Critics of Tuesday’s ruling argued that the repercussions in Louisiana could extend beyond a single election, or even partisan divisions.

House Ethics Committee opens investigation into Rep. Matt Gaetz

Gaetz rattled off a list of issues McCarthy had agreed to put to a vote and criticized him for reaching a deal with Mr. Biden this summer to lift the debt ceiling. "He's the product of a corrupt system that rewards people who collect large sums of special interest money and then redistribute that money in exchange for political loyalty and political favors," Gaetz said. After filing his motion to vacate on Monday night, Gaetz denounced to reporters McCarthy as a figure compromised by special interests. Gaetz and his fellow GOP holdouts wanted to put an end to that practice, and return to "regular order" — the consideration and passage of the individual, annual spending bills.

Elections

In theory, executive branch departments — like the Pentagon, the Justice Department, Homeland Security — are funded through a dozen individual appropriations bills that set spending levels for the year ahead. These bills typically must be passed by Congress and signed by the president by the start of the new fiscal year on Oct. 1 to avoid a government shutdown. But why Gaetz would aim to remove McCarthy as speaker of the House at a time when voters far prefer Republicans than Democrats to handle the economy, and when Republicans only narrowly control the House, is a complicated question. The answer can be traced back to when McCarthy became speaker in the first place, just nine months ago. The House is now without a permanent speaker, after Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz's motion to vacate the speaker's chair proved successful in a historic vote on Tuesday, removing California Rep. Kevin McCarthy from the role. Gaetz, who is refusing to resign, did preemptively ask then-President Trump for a blanket pardon before the ex-president left office, according to two sources familiar with the situation.

But while he has been increasingly critical of the Israeli government, he has not made substantive changes to the United States’ policies, and has continued to provide weapons to Israel without conditions. The statement came after two tumultuous weeks in which pro-Palestinian protests spread to campuses across the country in the wake of a police crackdown at Columbia University. Students who oppose Israel’s actions in Gaza since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack have set up encampments and, in many cases, kept them going after participants were suspended or arrested. Mr. Kennedy’s campaign says it has enough signatures to reach the ballot in six other states, including North Carolina, New Hampshire and Nevada. The campaign is gathering signatures using paid petitioners and volunteers in other states, including in New York. California has the most electoral votes of any state, with 54, and it has particular resonance for the Kennedy campaign.

The sworn statement places Gaetz at a party with the then-minor, who Gaetz has denied ever having a relationship with and previously claimed "doesn't exist" when asked about the allegations on Fox News in March 2021. The House Ethics Committee is investigating whether or not Rep. Matt Gaetz used illicit drugs as a member of Congress, multiple sources familiar with the committee's work told ABC News. "The committee notes the mere fact that it is investigating these allegations, and publicly disclosing its review, does not itself indicate that any violation has occurred, or reflect any judgment on behalf of the committee," the committee said in announcing both probes. "No other public comment will be made on this matter in accordance with committee rules." "What began with blaring headlines about 'sex trafficking' has now turned into a general fishing exercise about vacations and consensual relationships with adults," Gaetz's office added. "Yesterday, we even learned of some nonsense 'pardon' story that turned out to be false, and today it's just more euphemism. It's interesting to watch the Washington wheels grinding so hard every time one of their falsehoods gets knocked down."

As that Oct. 1 deadline approached this year, McCarthy brought up and the House passed four individual spending bills but said a continuing resolution would be needed to avoid a shutdown. Gaetz and about a dozen other Republicans saw this as McCarthy reneging on the terms of their deal to support him in the speaker's election and refused to go along with a funding extension. The House Ethics probe into Gaetz has continued to move forward in recent weeks, with investigators reaching out to more individuals, including young women who were allegedly paid by Gaetz's one-time close friend Joel Greenberg to attend sex parties, sources said. Though the statement obtained by Congress references Gaetz, it was not written specifically to the Ethics Committee and is not primarily about the congressman, and the woman does not discuss whether or not she had knowledge of Gaetz's alleged sexual relations with the then-minor, sources said. Gaetz has repeatedly denied all wrongdoing, including the allegations that he had sex with a minor.

Though Mr. Trump stated a number of plans for a second term, he declined to offer specific views on abortion, a searing and politically sensitive issue that has been central to elections since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Mr. Trump said he had not ruled out building new camps to hold undocumented migrants, a plan reported by The Times last year. And he told Time that his efforts would include giving the police immunity from prosecution, something he has mentioned recently on the campaign trail, too. If they weren’t able to, then I’d use the military,” he said, after describing the surge of migrants across the border as an “invasion,” language he uses frequently during campaign stops and interviews. A Biden campaign spokesman, James Singer, argued that Mr. Trump's stated plans were unconstitutional and anti-democratic.

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