The Gaetz report

Trump and Clarence Thomas in unison:  Is that all???

Former Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican who briefly stood to become President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to be attorney general, was found by congressional ethics investigators to have paid numerous women — including a 17-year-old girl — for sex, and to have purchased and used illegal drugs, including from his Capitol Hill office, according to a final draft of a comprehensive investigative report obtained by CBS News.

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Among the report's most lurid findings were the allegations of sex- and drug-fueled parties and travel, including a 2018 trip to the Bahamas where witnesses say he took ecstasy and had sex with four women.

"From 2017 to 2020, Representative Gaetz made tens of thousands of dollars in payments to women that the Committee determined were likely in connection with sexual activity and/or drug use," noted the report, which lists payments totaling more than $90,000 to 12 different women.

The committee said it also received testimony that at a 2017 party, Gaetz twice had sex with "Victim A," who was 17 years old at the time and had just completed her junior year in high school.

"Victim A recalled receiving $400 in cash from Representative Gaetz that evening, which she understood to be payment for sex," the committee wrote. "Victim A said that she did not inform Representative Gaetz that she was under 18 at the time, nor did he ask her age."

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The committee said it did not find sufficient evidence Gaetz violated the federal sex trafficking statute because although he transported women across state lines for the purpose of sex, those women were all 18 or older at the time.

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The report found "substantial evidence" Gaetz engaged in rampant illicit drug use. The committee said it obtained text messages he sent where he referred to drugs as "party favors," "rolls" or "vitamins." It also said he created a fake email from his Capitol Hill office "for the purpose of purchasing marijuana." The report noted that Gaetz had denied using illicit drugs in his written answers to the committee.

In addition to sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, the report also accused Gaetz of accepting gifts of luxury travel in excess of permissible limits with the 2018 trip to the Bahamas. And, it said he arranged for his chief of staff to assist a woman with whom he had engaged in sexual activity in obtaining a passport, falsely indicating to the State Department that she was one of his constituents.

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The House Ethics Committee had initially voted to keep the report under wraps, but reversed course in a secret vote earlier this month. Two Republican members of the committee were among those who voted for its release, according to two sources familiar with the vote. The committee has 10 members, evenly split between Republicans and Democrats.

  CBS News

Begging the question: Why did he wait until now?