Summary
House Ethics Committee Chair Rep. Michael Guest has ended the committee’s investigation into former Rep.
Matt Gaetz after Gaetz withdrew from Trump’s attorney general nomination and announced he would not seek reelection.
Gaetz had faced allegations of paying a minor for sex and drug use, as well as federal investigations into sex trafficking and obstruction, though no charges were filed.
The committee’s report remains unreleased, with further review set for Dec. 5. Florida will hold a special election to fill Gaetz’s vacated congressional seat.
I have, actually, and until you brought it up I had never heard that any witness were refusing to talk.
When the DOJ closed the case on Gaetz, it was widely reported that a “concern about witness credibility” was the reason why charges weren’t filled, but that story was never confirmed by the DOJ (they still haven’t commented, afaik) and instead was coming from “individuals who had been in contact with the DOJ”. I think it’s pretty safe to assume those individuals were Gaetz’ layers, so… yeah, best to take that story with a huge grain of salt. And anyway, that isn’t the same as a victim refusing to cooperate.
Now last week the lawyer of one of Gaetz’ victims has publicly acknowledged that his client did not what to testify at trial against Gaetz (which is pretty reasonable considering how MAGAts react to women accusing people in Trump’s orbit), but that’s still not the same as refusing to cooperate with the DOJ, and isn’t any reason to pin blame on the victim.