Florida Bar won’t discipline former Rep. Gaetz for alleged sexual misconduct
The Florida Bar will not consider taking disciplinary action against former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican and President Donald Trump’s initial choice to be the U.S. attorney general in his second term. (Photo by Tom Brenner for the Washington Post)
The Florida Bar will not consider taking disciplinary action against former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican and President Donald Trump’s initial choice to be the U.S. attorney general in his second term.
Gaetz was accused in 2024 by the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Ethics of soliciting a minor for sex in 2017.
The Ethics Committee’s 70-page report cited “substantial evidence” of Gaetz allegedly paying for sex from at least 2017 to 2020, including an incident involving a 17-year-old, identified as “Victim A.”
According to the report, the former Republican congressman also allegedly used cocaine and ecstasy, accepted gifts exceeding the permissible amounts, and tried to interfere with the committee’s investigation of his behavior.
Casey Pless Waterhouse, the Florida Bar’s Grievance Committee chair, said the committee found no probable cause for an investigation, according to coverage by Legal Newsline, the Florida Bulldog and Law360.
Her Aug. 15 letter to Gaetz referenced professional misconduct rules drawing “a distinction between offenses of personal morality or alleged crimes, which do not have a connection to fitness for the practice of law or otherwise indicate characteristics relevant to law practice.”
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