Former US Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) was ripped by social media users over the weekend for claiming that allegations he had sex with a 17-year-old girl were “debunked,” with many citing a House Ethics Committee report that found “substantial evidence” of the tryst.
Gaetz, now a host at One America News Network, had been in an X spat with Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) on Friday and Saturday over the Republican Party’s support of Israel, which descended into accusations involving the ethics scandal.
“If your ‘conservatism’ flirts with antisemitism, it’s not conservatism. We’re defenders of truth, not blind tribalism. You can’t save Western Civilization while echoing its oldest hatreds,” Crenshaw wrote in a post.
Crenshaw’s message came after the Heritage Foundation, the largest conservative think tank in Washington, DC, was roiled by the decision of its president, Kevin Roberts, to defend Tucker Carlson after he hosted white nationalist Nick Fuentes on his podcast, which reaches millions of viewers and listeners.
Gaetz fired back at Crenshaw on X: “If your ‘conservatism’ flirts with interventionism, it’s not conservatism. We are defenders of America, not globalism. You can’t save Western Civilization while echoing the lies of [Benjamin] Netanyahu.”
“If your ‘conservatism’ flirts with underage girls it’s not conservatism,” Crenshaw responded, referencing allegations that dogged Gaetz before he resigned from Congress in November 2024.
“Rep Crenshaw — unable to defend his policy views — resorts to a debunked smear,” Gaetz returned fire, before implying that the Texan was a paid shill for pro-Israel interests: “Get that $7k bro…”
An X Community Note later appended to Gaetz’s tweet read: “Claims aren’t debunked. A bipartisan House Ethics Committee found ‘substantial evidence’ that Gaetz paid for sex and that he had sex with a 17-year-old in 2017. The committee lost jurisdiction to sanction Gaetz after he left the House, but published its findings anyway.”
The Ethics panel found “substantial evidence” that Gaetz “regularly paid women for engaging in sexual activity with him” between 2017 and 2020, including a 17-year-old girl; “used or possessed illegal
drugs, including cocaine and ecstasy”; and “knowingly and willfully sought to impede and obstruct the Committee’s investigation of his conduct.”
In a rare step, Ethics lawmakers voted to release the report the month after Gaetz left the House. The former lawmaker had filed a lawsuit against the committee in a bid to block it from publishing the findings.
Gaetz said the committee released the report “after explicitly acknowledging it lacks jurisdiction over former members, its failure to follow constitutional notions of due process, and failure to adhere to its own procedural rules and precedent represents an unprecedented overreach that threatens fundamental constitutional rights and established procedural protections.”
In the 40-page suit, Gaetz noted there would be “immediate, severe and irreversible” damage to his reputation as a result.
