- CNN chief legal correspondent Paula Reid posted on X about the call
- Ethics committee told there was a second sexual encounter between Gaetz and 17-year-old
- Many Republicans were in uproar at Gaetz’s nomination
Matt Gaetz has withdrawn his nomination to be Attorney General. And a call from CNN may have been influential in forcing the former Florida congressman’s hand.
Gaetz’s nomination by president-elect Donald Trump had not been a popular one on both sides of the aisle, with both Republicans and Democrats outraged that Trump would entrust a man embroiled in a scandal involving alleged sexual encounters with a minor.
While Gaetz has sternly denied any wrongdoing and a Justice Department investigation was closed last year, after prosecutors recommended that no charges should be brought against him, the House Ethics Committee revived their investigation into the 42-year-old and is facing increasing pressure to release their report.
Earlier today, Gaetz released an official statement explaining his decision to withdraw from his Attorney General nomination in a post on social media.
In his statement on X, Gaetz said, “I had excellent meetings with Senators yesterday. I appreciate their thoughtful feedback – and the incredible support of so many. While the momentum was strong, it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition.
“There is no time to waste on a needlessly protracted Washington scuffle, thus I’ll be withdrawing my name from consideration to serve as Attorney General. Trump’s DOJ must be in place and ready on Day 1. I remain fully committed to see that Donald J. Trump is the most successful President in history. I will forever be honored that President Trump nominated me to lead the Department of Justice and I’m certain he will Save America.”
However, not long after Gaetz released his statement, CNN’s chief legeal correspondant Paula Reid took to the same social media platform to reveal that the Florida lawmaker had received a call only 45 minutes earlier after CNN called to “report that ‘Ethics committee told there was a *second* sexual encounter between Gaetz and 17-year-old in 2017.'”
The woman, who was 17 at the time, testified that a second sexual encounter involved another adult woman and had not previously been reported. The woman has also testified to both sexual encounters in a civil deposition as part of a related lawsuit, as per sources close to CNN. The other woman mentioned in the deposition has subsequently denied any involvement in the second encounter according to multiple sources familiar with her ethics testimony.
Reid followed up her initial post on X with a video of an appearance she made on CNN, talking about the alleged second encounter that has now come to light.
Attached to the video, Reid included the caption, “Our reporting that the House Ethics committee heard testimony about a second sexual encounter Gaetz allegedly had with a minor is significant because it shows the kinds of evidence the committee gathered that is not yet public. I have covered Gaetz investigations for four years and never heard this before so begs questions of what else is in that report?”
Gaetz is not the only one of Trump’s nominations that has attracted a large degree of controversy, with Fox News hosts Sean Duffy and Pete Hegseth both nominated to positions in the president-elect’s upcoming government. In addition to these picks, former WWE President and CEO Linda McMahon has been selected by Trump to become Secretary of Education, despite recently being named as a defendant in a lawsuit brought against her, her estranged husband Vince McMahon and WWE with regards to the ‘Ring Boys Scandal’ of the late ’80s and early ’90s
