'It’s a crime': Former prosecutors blast Merrick Garland’s DOJ for letting Matt Gaetz 'walk'

24 December 2024

The recently unearthed House Committee on Ethics report detailing the various allegations into former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) has some veteran prosecutors scratching their heads as to why Gaetz was able to get away with so much.

In a recent Salon article, author Charles R. Davis detailed how the Gaetz report is being received by prosecutors who have handled criminal cases at the state and federal level. Many of the allegations the Republican-controlled Ethics Committee reviewed include reports of illicit drug use, payments for sex, obstruction of justice and other potential crimes, though the Department of Justice declined to formally file charges against him in 2023.

"[T]he Committee concluded there was substantial evidence that Representative Gaetz violated House Rules, state and federal laws and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, acceptance of impermissible gifts, the provision of special favors and privileges and obstruction of Congress," the report read.

Davis reported that investigators on the Ethics Committee ran into roadblocks within the DOJ itself, saying the agency was reluctant to share information with the committee based on a policy of not sharing evidence in cases where the DOJ elected to not file charges. In one instance concerning Gaetz sending $400 to a 17 year-old girl "who had just completed her junior year of high school," which she understood as payment for sex, the girl never disclosed her age and Gaetz didn't ask. Former federal prosecutor Robert Bittman told Politico earlier this week that the absence of direct coercion created a legal grey area that ultimately led to Merrick Garland's DOJ declining to indict the former congressman.

“It’s a crime, it’s a statute on the books that they can prosecute — but it’s not a high-priority thing,” Bittman said. “It’s not something that’s often prosecuted, and really would only be prosecuted if there are significant, other aggravating factors.”

In a post to Bluesky, Tristan Snell — who prosecuted President-elect Donald Trump's fraudulent Trump University while he was at the New York Attorney General's Office — posted a screenshot of the report's highlights to argue that Gaetz should have been held criminally liable. This includes allegedly paying a dozen women more than $90,000 for sex between 2017 and 2020, using and possessing illegal drugs like cocaine, ecstasy and MDMA and accepting gifts beyond permissible amounts, among others.

"Federal prosecutors knew ALL this about Matt Gaetz And yet they didn’t charge him with anything — they let him walk," Snell wrote.

Click here to read Davis' article in Salon.

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