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.

Those are among the findings of the long-running investigation by the House Ethics Committee into Gaetz, which concluded the former Florida congressman violated multiple state laws related to sexual misconduct while in office. The full report was released by the committee Monday.

“The Committee determined there is substantial evidence that Representative Gaetz violated House Rules and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, impermissible gifts, special favors or privileges, and obstruction of Congress,” the 37-page report concludes.

On Monday, Gaetz filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to block the release of the report, saying that he is now a private citizen and not subject to the jurisdiction of the committee. The committee released it a short time later.

News of the report is raging on social media and political websites. Predictably, those who are supporting Gaetz are seemingly doing so for partisan reasons – to support their tribal political sports team. It reads like a bad pronographic novel:

Gaetz has denied any improper conduct and asserted the claims were a “smear” invented by his political enemies. The committee said the congressman refused to sit for sworn testimony, though he did submit written answers to some of the committee’s questions.

The report gives fresh voice to allegations of misconduct that have circulated around Gaetz for years, in spite of his firm denials. It draws on testimony from witnesses who told the committee they were paid to have sex with Gaetz, text messages discussing the transactions, and Venmo and PayPal receipts.

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.”

In his written responses to the committee, Gaetz denied having sex with a minor. The Department of Justice previously investigated Gaetz for violating sex trafficking laws but did not bring charges. 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.

The report noted that while all the women who testified said the sexual encounters with Gaetz were consensual, one woman told the committee the use of drugs at the parties and events they attended may have “impair[ed their] ability to really know what was going on or fully consent.”

Another woman told the committee, “When I look back on certain moments, I feel violated.”

The report also 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.