House panel report released on sexual misconduct allegations ...

15 hours ago

NPR

House panel report released on sexual misconduct allegations against Matt Gaetz

NPR's Asma Khalid talks to Democratic Rep. Glenn Ivey of Maryland about the newly released findings from an ethics investigation into former congressman Matt Gaetz.

ASMA KHALID, HOST:

The House Ethics Committee says it believes former Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz, a Republican, violated the chamber's rules and federal and state law. The panel released its report yesterday, and we're going to dig into it now with one of the committee's members, Democrat Glenn Ivey of Maryland. Good morning, Congressman.

GLENN IVEY: Good morning.

KHALID: What are the most serious findings in this report?

IVEY: Well, I think the overall finding that there's substantial evidence that he committed - broke the rules of the House, committed acts that violate state and federal laws. And those include prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, acceptance of impermissible gifts, et cetera. So I thought that those were the most significant ones, and those have certainly been the ones that the media and the public have focused their most attention on.

KHALID: The former congressman has consistently denied these allegations. Matt Gaetz is also pointing to a Justice Department investigation that ended without any charges. So why, in your view, was that DOJ investigation not sufficient?

IVEY: The Department of Justice does not review ethics violations with respect to the House of Representatives. They focus on, in this instance, criminal investigations. And it's a separate track. They do whatever they think is appropriate in their sphere. We do what's appropriate in ours. We work together in some instances, although there wasn't as much cooperation from the Department of Justice as I would have liked here. But that's how we move forward, and that's why we released a report.

KHALID: The committee's GOP chairman opposed releasing this report, as you know. He said it, quote, "deviated from the committee's well-established standards," since former Congressman Gaetz is no longer a member of Congress. How do you respond to that criticism?

IVEY: Yeah, I think it's pretty clear. We addressed this, a number of members, on the House floor when there were debates about this, that there's at least four instances where the House Ethics Committee has released a report after a member has left service, either by resignation or retirement or some other means. And so there's certainly a precedent for it. And I think - given the serious nature of the findings here and the misconduct here, I think it was definitely appropriate. I think this is something that the public should know. And also the House members should know, as well, because part of what the Ethics Committee does is let other members know what the standards are and what lines should not be crossed. And I think the report helps to do that here, as well.

KHALID: So this was an Ethics Committee report. We were speaking just a moment ago about this DOJ investigation around possible criminal actions there. You - is there anything that you have seen in this report that justifies any sort of legal action against Gaetz, say in Florida or on the federal level?

IVEY: I'll have to defer to, you know, whether it's a civil action or, you know, state prosecutors, federal prosecutors. I'll defer to them to, you know, draw their own conclusions. But that's another reason it made sense to release this report publicly. Now whoever wants to investigate this further or, you know, pursue other litigation in court, they can do that using the information that's out there now.

KHALID: All right. Well, thank you very much. And I'm sure we'll all be following this story, because the former congressman has also floated the idea of running, possibly, for a Senate seat. Congressman Glenn Ivey, a Democrat of Maryland, thanks so much for speaking with us this morning.

IVEY: Thanks for having me.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.