Gaetz 'has a real problem here,' former Ethics chairman says after report released

A former Republican chairman of the House Ethics Committee said "Matt Gaetz has a real problem here" after the committee on Monday released a scathing report on its investigation into the former Florida GOP congressman who was President-elect Donald Trump's initial pick to be attorney general.

The bipartisan House Ethics Committee's report found "substantial evidence" that Gaetz violated statutory rape law and engaged in a broader pattern of paying women for sex, and found evidence of Illegal drug use, acceptance of improper gifts, granting special favors to personal associates, and obstruction of the investigation.

"There's clearly issues here of sex, money, and drugs. And really, these are big issues, big problems," Dent told ABC News' Diane Macedo. "Boy, this is really powerful stuff."

Dent added that "given the magnitude of what they're alleging over Matt Gaetz, there could have been an expulsion recommendation."

"I can't see any members of the Republican Party in Washington, D.C., in Congress coming to his defense in this matter," he said of Gaetz's political future. "He's made his own bed, they're going to let him lie in it."

After Gaetz resigned from his seat, there were calls to release the report given that Gaetz was being considered to be the country's top law enforcement official. House Speaker Mike Johnson was opposed to its release, citing a longstanding practice of concluding ethics investigations after a member had left Congress.

Johnson has not responded to ABC News' request for comment.

GOP House Ethics Committee Chairman Rep. Michael Guest of Mississippi said Monday that the "decision to publish a report after [Gaetz's] resignation breaks from the Committee's long-standing practice and is a dangerous departure with potentially catastrophic consequences."

Guest added that he did not vote to support the release of the report, and that "the majority deviated from the Committee's well-established standards and voted to release a report on an individual no longer under the Committee's jurisdiction."

However, he said that he "do[es] not challenge the Committee's findings."

California Democratic Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, one of seven members of the House Ethics Committee who voted to release the report, believes the content "disqualifies Mr. Gaetz from being entrusted to hold public office ever again."

"I believe strongly in the public's right to the findings of a bipartisan, taxpayer funded investigation, and that transparency and accountability are crucial for good governance and restoring trust in our institutions," DeSaulnier said in a statement Monday, adding that the report "speaks for itself."

Another Democratic committee member, Maryland Rep. Glenn Ivey, told ABC News' Kyra Phillips that "there's certainly precedent for doing exactly what we've done here."

"The committee has had previous scenarios -- at least four that we've identified -- where a member of Congress has been under investigation, left for one reason or another ... The committee still released the report to the public," he explained, adding that this has happened for both Democratic and Republican representatives.

Ivey also said that the claims against Gaetz were "sufficiently serious," and he agreed that his colleagues on both sides of the political spectrum had strong reactions to the allegations.

Earlier Monday, Gaetz filed a lawsuit against the Ethics Committee in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to try to prevent the report's release. Judge Amit Mehta ordered Gaetz to show why the case shouldn't be dismissed with prejudice for lack of jurisdiction by 5 p.m., given "this case appears to be moot in light of the House Ethics Committee's public disclosure of the report."

Gaetz's attorneys filed a brief Monday afternoon acknowledging his lawsuit was "mooted" after the report was released, which they said has caused Gaetz "irreversible and irreparable harm."

Gaetz questioned the allegation that he sent money to women in exchange for sex, writing on X, "giving funds to someone you are dating -- that they didn't ask for -- and that isn't 'charged' for sex is now prostitution?!?"

He also criticized the timing of the report's release, saying "there is a reason they did this to me in a Christmas Eve-Eve report and not in a courtroom of any kind where I could present evidence and challenge witnesses."

Gaetz had been vocal in defending himself over the past week, denying wrongdoing and repeatedly emphasizing that he was not charged in a Department of Justice probe that investigated similar allegations.

"I was charged with nothing: FULLY EXONERATED," he wrote on X last week.

"My 30's were an era of working very hard -- and playing hard too," he added. "It's embarrassing, though not criminal, that I probably partied, womanized, drank and smoked more than I should have earlier in life. I live a different life now."

Dent pushed back on Gaetz's defense that he is a changed man.

"This whole issue is about his conduct while in office, not things that he may have done when he was younger," he told ABC News.

Gaetz resigned from his congressional seat representing Florida's 1st District after Trump selected him to be AG but later withdrew from consideration amid reports that the Ethics Committee had been preparing to release its report.

Gaetz was reelected to his seat in the next Congress but said he would not return after withdrawing from consideration for attorney general. But last week he posted that someone suggested that he return to Congress to vote in the speaker election and to "File a privileged motion to expose every "me too" settlement paid using public funds (even of former members."

Dent said he suspected that there would be "an immediate motion to expel him" if Gaetz were to join the next Congress.

Former Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., who was expelled from the House in 2023 after the Ethics Committee found "a complex web of unlawful activity involving Representative Santos' campaign, personal, and business finances," jumped to Gaetz's defense.

"The report on Matt Gaetz reads like an opposition report... want to know why? Because the "ethics" committee is staffed by a bunch of political HACKS!" he said Monday.

Like Santos after leaving Congress, Gaetz started selling videos on Cameo -- a website where users can purchase personalized video messages from celebrities -- after withdrawing from AG consideration.

Gaetz also recently joined One America News Network where he is scheduled to host a one-hour weeknight show starting in January, in addition to co-hosting a weekly video podcast with OAN's Dan Ball.

OAN did not immediately reply to a request for comment from ABC.