April 9, 2021

The House Ethics Committee Is Investigating Matt Gaetz

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The House Ethics Committee has opened an investigation into Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who is reportedly also the subject of a Justice Department inquiry into whether he had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old and paid for her travel, potentially violating federal sex trafficking laws.

In a statement, the committee listed a litany of allegations for which it would be investigating Gaetz: that he may have “engaged in sexual misconduct and/or illicit drug use, shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused state identification records, converted campaign funds to personal use, and/or accepted a bribe, improper gratuity, or impermissible gift, in violation of House Rules, laws, or other standards of conduct.”

Still, the representative’s legal troubles—and his lack of support from fellow Republicans—haven’t kept him from trying to make a buck:

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We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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