众议院道德委员会：有充分证据显示 Matt Gaetz 涉卖淫、与未成年人性行为及非法药物
2024年12月23日，美国众议院道德委员会在华盛顿公布了对前众议员 Matt Gaetz 的调查报告。报告认定，有「充分证据」显示，Gaetz 在担任众议员期间违反了众议院规则以及州与联邦法律，涉及卖淫、与未成年人性行为、非法药物、违规接受礼物、给予特殊关照与妨碍国会调查等行为。Gaetz 否认报告中的指控，他从未因此事被刑事起诉。
报告列出的主要认定包括：至少在2017年至2020年间，Gaetz 经常付钱与女性发生性行为；2017年，他与一名17岁少女发生性行为；2017年至2019年间，他多次使用或持有包括可卡因与摇头丸在内的非法药物；他接受了与2018年巴哈马之旅有关的交通与住宿等超出允许额度的礼物；2018年，他安排自己的幕僚长协助一名与他发生性关系的女性办理护照，并向美国国务院谎称该女性是他的选民；他还蓄意阻挠委员会对他的调查，其行为有损众议院的声誉。
关于2017年与未成年人的一节，委员会表示，它收到了「受害人 A」本人的可信证词以及多名证人的佐证，认定有充分证据显示，Gaetz 于2017年7月与当时17岁的受害人 A 发生性行为，当时他35岁，此举违反了佛罗里达州的法定强奸法。报告同时记载，Gaetz 否认这一指控，并曾公开表示受害人 A「并不存在」、称自己「自17岁以来没有与17岁的人发生过性行为」，委员会认为这一说法不实。在毒品方面，委员会认定有充分证据显示 Gaetz 使用过可卡因、摇头丸与大麻，而 Gaetz 在给委员会的书面回复中否认使用非法药物。
关于2018年9月的巴哈马之旅，委员会认定，Gaetz 接受了他人提供的私人飞机返程、住宿及其他旅行费用，金额远超「私人友谊」礼物的门槛，且未事先申请委员会批准，也未在财务披露表中申报。与此同时，委员会明确表示，没有找到充分证据证明 Gaetz 违反了联邦性贩运法：虽然他曾安排女性跨州旅行以从事商业性行为，但没有证据显示旅行时有女性未满18岁，也没有充分证据显示相关行为系以武力、欺诈或胁迫促成。
这项调查始于2021年4月，其间应美国司法部的要求一度暂缓，委员会在第118届国会重新授权调查。2024年11月14日，Gaetz 在当选总统宣布拟提名他出任司法部长后辞去众议员职务，委员会随之失去了对他的管辖权；报告于2024年12月10日由委员会表决通过。委员会主席 Michael Guest 代表持异议的委员在报告后附具意见，称委员会在 Gaetz 辞职后已失去向公众公布其实质调查成果的管辖权，此次公开背离了委员会的既定惯例，可能使委员会的程序被「武器化」；异议意见同时表示，他们并不质疑委员会的调查结论本身。
报告发布时，Gaetz 已不是众议员，也已经退出司法部长提名。他否认全部不当行为指控，美国司法部此前对他的相关调查未对他提起刑事指控。（来源：美国众议院道德委员会）
House Ethics Committee Finds Substantial Evidence Against Matt Gaetz: Prostitution, Drugs and Obstruction
On December 23, 2024, the U.S. House Committee on Ethics released in Washington its investigative report on former Representative Matt Gaetz. The committee concluded there was "substantial evidence" that Gaetz, while serving in the House, had violated House Rules and state and federal laws, in conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, acceptance of impermissible gifts, the provision of special favors and privileges, and obstruction of Congress. Gaetz denied the report's allegations, and he was never criminally charged in the matter.
The committee's principal findings were that, from at least 2017 to 2020, Gaetz regularly paid women for engaging in sexual activity with him; that in 2017 he engaged in sexual activity with a 17-year-old girl; that during 2017 to 2019 he used or possessed illegal drugs, including cocaine and ecstasy, on multiple occasions; that he accepted gifts, including transportation and lodging in connection with a 2018 trip to the Bahamas, in excess of permissible amounts; that in 2018 he arranged for his chief of staff to assist a woman with whom he engaged in sexual activity in obtaining a passport, falsely indicating to the U.S. Department of State that she was a constituent; and that he knowingly and willfully sought to impede and obstruct the committee's investigation, acting in a manner that reflects discreditably upon the House.
On the 2017 allegation, the committee said it received credible testimony from "Victim A" herself and from multiple corroborating witnesses, and determined there was substantial evidence that Gaetz had sex with Victim A in July 2017, when she was 17 and he was 35, in violation of Florida's statutory rape law. The report also records that Gaetz denied the allegation and had publicly stated that Victim A "doesn't exist" and that he had not "had sex with a 17-year-old since I was 17," statements the committee found to be untrue. On drugs, the committee found substantial evidence that Gaetz used cocaine, ecstasy and marijuana, while Gaetz denied using illicit drugs in written correspondence to the committee.
On the September 2018 Bahamas trip, the committee found that Gaetz accepted a return flight on a private plane, lodging and other travel costs provided by an associate, well in excess of the personal-friendship gift threshold, without first seeking the committee's approval and without disclosing the gifts on his financial disclosure forms. At the same time, the committee stated expressly that it did not find sufficient evidence to conclude that Gaetz violated the federal sex trafficking statute: although he did cause the transportation of women across state lines for purposes of commercial sex, the committee found no evidence that any of those women were under 18 at the time of travel, nor sufficient evidence that the commercial sex acts were induced by force, fraud or coercion.
The investigation began in April 2021, was deferred for a time at the request of the Department of Justice, and was reauthorized in the 118th Congress. On November 14, 2024, Gaetz resigned from the House after the President-elect announced his intention to nominate him for U.S. Attorney General, and the committee lost jurisdiction over him; the report was adopted by the committee on December 10, 2024. Chairman Michael Guest, writing on behalf of the dissenting members, argued in views appended to the report that the committee had lost jurisdiction to release any substantive work product regarding Gaetz after his resignation, that publishing the report departed from the committee's well-established standards and could be viewed as an attempt to weaponize its process, while stating that the dissenters did not challenge the committee's findings themselves.
Related: Attorney General Nominee Matt Gaetz Withdraws From Consideration
By the time the report was released, Gaetz was no longer a member of the House and had withdrawn from consideration for Attorney General. He denied all allegations of wrongdoing, and the Department of Justice's earlier investigation of him ended without criminal charges against him. (Source: U.S. House Committee on Ethics)
来源：美国众议院道德委员会
发布：GSM·美国（发布链接）
图片来源：图：位于华盛顿的美国国会大厦西侧全景近景。Gryffindor 摄，公共领域，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The west front of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., in a closer ground-level view. By Gryffindor, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
GSM Global · 本篇英文版 English edition of this story
- 2024-11-21 04:25司法部长提名人 Matt Gaetz 宣布退出提名
- 2024-12-23 18:46众议院道德委员会：有充分证据显示 Matt Gaetz 涉卖淫、与未成年人性行为及非法药物本篇
