Senate Judiciary Democrats Ask FBI for Investigative Files on Matt Gaetz

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) speaks during the Turning Point Action conference in West Palm Beach, Fla., on July 15, 2023. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee asked FBI Director Christopher Wray in a Nov. 20 letter to provide investigative files on former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) as part of their review of his nomination for a key role in President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration.

Gaetz was nominated on Nov. 13 by Trump to serve as attorney general, a position that requires Senate confirmation. The president-elect said in the announcement that Gaetz is a “deeply gifted and tenacious attorney” who would carry out needed reforms at the Department of Justice (DOJ).

In response to the nomination, Democrats and other critics pointed to a House Ethics Committee probe into the former congressman over allegations of misconduct, and to a prior FBI investigation into allegations of sex trafficking an underage girl.

Gaetz has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, and the DOJ, which oversees the FBI, ended its probe on Gaetz last year without filing any charges.

A Trump transition team spokesperson said on Nov. 19 that the allegations against Gaetz are “baseless“ and ”intended to derail the second Trump administration,” adding that the DOJ “investigated Gaetz for years and cleared him of wrongdoing.”

In their Nov. 20 letter to Wray, the senators asked the FBI chief to provide a “complete evidentiary file” of the agency’s investigation of Gaetz, noting that the agency has in the past provided Congress with hundreds of thousands of pages of files related to the bureau’s probes on allegations of improper fundraising by the 1996 Clinton–Gore campaign and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server to send and store government documents.

“The Senate has a constitutional duty to provide advice and consent on presidential nominees, and it is crucial that we review all the information necessary to fulfill this duty as we consider Mr. Gaetz’s nomination,” the letter reads.

The senators said the allegations against Gaetz call into question his fitness to serve as attorney general.

“The unanswered questions regarding Mr. Gaetz’s alleged conduct are particularly significant given that his associate, Joel Greenberg, pleaded guilty to the sex trafficking charge for which Mr. Gaetz was also investigated,” the senators wrote.

Greenberg, a former Seminole County tax collector and associate of Gaetz, was arrested in 2020 on 33 felony charges, including child sex trafficking. He pleaded guilty in 2021 to six charges, including sex trafficking of a minor, stalking, wire fraud, identity theft, and bribery related to COVID-19 relief fraud. Greenberg is serving an 11-year prison sentence for his crimes.

An FBI spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement that the agency had received the letter, but would not provide further comment.

Gaetz was also the focus of an investigation by the House Ethics Committee, which involved allegations of sexual misconduct, drug use, misuse of campaign funds, and accepting improper gifts. In June, the committee said that some allegations against Gaetz, including dispensing favors and obstructing government investigations, merited further review, while others did not.

“The Committee notes that the mere fact of an investigation into these allegations does not itself indicate that any violation has occurred,” the panel said in a statement.

Gaetz has denied all the allegations.

Following Trump’s nomination of Gaetz, a number of Democrats called for the House Ethics Committee to release a report detailing its investigation. The panel voted on Nov. 20 not to release the report. Rep. Michael Guest (R-Miss.), chairman of the committee, said that members were considering transmitting the report to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has opposed the release of the panel’s report to the public, saying that Gaetz’s resignation from Congress shortly after his nomination puts him outside of the jurisdiction of the House Ethics Committee. Johnson told reporters on Nov. 15 that releasing the report would be a breach of protocol and tradition, and would set a “terrible precedent.”