Feds have a 'trail of payments' from Gaetz to women: report

Federal investigators established a "trail of payments" from former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) to women he is accused of paying for sex, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

This comes amid a steady trickle of leaks about a House Ethics Committee report into Gaetz, who has been accused by two women of having engaged in sexual misconduct with a high school student, along with several other offenses such as accepting improper gifts and engaging in illicit drug use at sex parties.

"The document, assembled by investigators during a three-year sex-trafficking investigation into Mr. Gaetz, is a chart that shows a web of thousands of dollars in Venmo payments between Mr. Gaetz and a group of his friends, associates and women who had drug-fueled sex parties between 2017 and 2020, according to testimony that participants are said to have given to federal and congressional investigators," reported Michael Schmidt. "At the parties, women, and a girl who was 17 at the time, were paid for sex, according to accounts of the participants’ testimony from people briefed on what they said."

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Gaetz, who resigned from the House shortly after Donald Trump nominated him for attorney general, denies all the allegations and claims they were part of a $25 million extortion racket against him and his father.

The document created by investigators, titled “VENMO TRANSACTIONS BETWEEN ALL INDIVIDUALS AS OF 09/14/20,” includes "thumbnail photos of Mr. Gaetz, dozens of women and several other men to show how payments flowed between them. Lines with arrows connect the men and the women, showing, among other things, how much Mr. Gaetz and his associates paid the women," according to the report.

All of this comes as pressure mounts, including from some Republican senators, for the House Ethics Committee to release the report into Gaetz, which House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has urged them not to do. A vote was set to take place Wednesday afternoon, though committee chair Michael Guest (R-MS) said there was no agreement on how to proceed.