More trouble for Matt Gaetz: A lawyer says two of his clients testified to the House Ethics Committee that Gaetz, President-elect Trump's pick for attorney general, paid them for sex—and one of them said they witnessed Gaetz having sex with a 17-year-old. The woman told the committee that "in July of 2017, at this house party, she was walking out to the pool area, and she looked to her right, and she saw Rep. Gaetz having sex with her friend, who was 17," attorney Joel Leppard tells ABC News.
Leppard says the House panel saw evidence that Gaetz had paid the women. "They essentially put the Venmo payments on the screen and asked about them," he says. "And my clients repeatedly testified, 'What was this payment for?' 'That was for sex.'" Leppard says one of his clients testified that Gaetz was unaware her friend was 17 "and that when he learned that she was a minor, he broke off things and did not continue a sexual relationship until she turned 18." Last week, sources told ABC News that the woman, now in her 20s, testified to the Ethics Committee about the underage sex.
In a statement, Trump transition spokesman Alex Pfeiffer signaled that Trump is standing by Gaetz, the Washington Post reports. "He's the right man for the job and will end the weaponization of our justice system," Pfeiffer said of Gaetz. "These are baseless allegations intended to derail the second Trump administration." Leppard is among those calling for the release of the committee's report on Gaetz, which House Speaker Mike Johnson says would be a "terrible breach of protocol." House Ethics Chair Michael Guest said Monday that the panel will make its own decision on releasing the report, Politico reports. There are five Democrats and five Republicans, including Guest, on the committee, which is due to meet Wednesday. (More Matt Gaetz stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
