WASHINGTON: The Democratic-controlled US House of Representatives Ethics Committee said on Friday it has opened an investigation into Republican congressman Matt Gaetz involving allegations including possible sexual misconduct and illicit drug use.
The panel’s Democratic chairman and top Republican said in a joint statement they had become “aware of public allegations” that Gaetz, one of former President Donald Trump’s most prominent supporters in Congress, may have violated “House rules, laws or other standards of conduct.”
Gaetz is being investigated by the US Justice Department for possibly violating sex-trafficking laws by paying travel expenses for a 17-year-old female with whom he was romantically involved, according to a US law enforcement source who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Florida congressman has not been charged with any crimes and has repeatedly denied wrongdoing.
The ethics committee leaders said the allegations included whether Gaetz “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.”
Gaetz’s office responded in a statement: “Once again, the office will reiterate, these allegations are blatantly false and have not been validated by a single human being willing to put their name behind them.”
Speaking at a “Save America Summit” at the Trump National Doral resort in Miami on Friday, Gaetz said that “wild conspiracy theories” were being used to smear him.
“I’m built for the battle, and I’m not going anywhere,” Gaetz said.
The summit was organized by a pro-Trump group called Women for America First. That group also organized a Jan. 6 rally near the White House that preceded the deadly rampage by a pro-Trump mob at the US Capitol.
Earlier, Representative Adam Kinzinger became the first congressional Republican to call for Gaetz to quit his post.
“Matt Gaetz needs to resign,” Kinzinger, an outspoken critic of Trump, said in a Twitter post on Thursday night.
A friend of Gaetz, a former Florida county tax collector named Joel Greenberg, is expected to plead guilty in a sex trafficking and fraud case in a Florida federal court, officials said on Thursday.
Greenberg’s attorney Fritz Scheller told reporters on Thursday, “I’m sure Matt Gaetz is not feeling very comfortable today.” Scheller may have been referring to media reports that Greenberg could cooperate with federal investigators in their probe of Gaetz.
Two New York criminal defense lawyers on Friday confirmed they had been hired by Gaetz.
“Matt has always been a fighter ... and he’s going to fight back against the unfounded allegations against him. His legal team, led by Marc Mukasey and Isabelle Kirshner, will take the fight to those trying to smear his name with falsehoods,” said a statement on the lawyers’ behalf by Erin Elmore of the Logan Circle Group.
US House ethics panel launches investigation into Republican Gaetz
https://arab.news/4f3d5
US House ethics panel launches investigation into Republican Gaetz
Russia says captured Ukraine’s Siversk in key eastern region
- The Russian army in Ukraine is “confidently advancing along the entire front,” Putin said
- He said last month his troops were advancing on Siversk, home to around 11,000 residents
MOSCOW: Russia said Thursday its troops had seized full control of Siversk, a Ukrainian city in the eastern Donetsk region where fighting has intensified in recent weeks, though Ukraine denied the key settlement had been lost.
The Russian army has been slowly but steadily grinding through eastern Ukraine and taking ground from outnumbered and outgunned Ukrainian forces, with some of the fiercest battles taking place in Donetsk.
Russia’s military chief of staff, Valery Gerasimov, said Moscow’s forces had captured Siversk in a report to President Vladimir Putin during a televised meeting with army commanders.
The Russian army in Ukraine is “confidently advancing along the entire front,” Putin said, thanking the commanders and soldiers “for their combat work.”
Putin said last month his troops were advancing on Siversk, home to around 11,000 residents before the war, claiming that the Russian offensive was “practically impossible to hold back.”
The Ukrainian army’s eastern command denied Russian claims it had taken Siversk, saying that it “remains under the control of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.”
“The enemy is trying to infiltrate Siversk in small groups, taking advantage of unfavorable weather conditions but most of these units are being destroyed on the approaches,” it added in a Facebook post.
Siversk is located about 30 kilometers (18 miles) east of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, the last two major cities still under Ukrainian control in the Donbas — an industrial and mining region in Moscow’s sights.
Moscow earlier this month said it had captured Pokrovsk, a former road and rail hub also in Donetsk, but Kyiv claims fighting in the city is still ongoing.
Putin has said that Moscow is ready to fight on to seize the rest of the land it claims in eastern Ukraine if Kyiv does not give it up as part of a peace deal.
Eastern Ukraine has been ravaged since Russia launched its assault in February 2022, with tens of thousands of people killed and millions forced to flee their homes.
