Matt Gaetz

Early life and career

Matthew Louis Gaetz II was born on May 7, 1982, in Hollywood, Florida, to Victoria (née Quertermous) and Don Gaetz, who later became a prominent local politician, earning Matthew Gaetz the nickname "Baby Gaetz". He has a younger sister.

He grew up in a conservative and religious family near Fort Walton Beach, and graduated from Niceville High School. He graduated from Florida State University in 2003 with a Bachelor of Science in interdisciplinary sciences. While at FSU, he was involved in the World Affairs Program Student Government Association and was a member of the Burning Spear Society. He graduated from the William & Mary Law School in 2007 with a Juris Doctor. Gaetz was admitted to the Florida Bar on February 6, 2008.

Gaetz's father represented parts of northwest Florida as a member of the Florida State Senate from 2006 to 2016, was Senate president from 2012 to 2014, and was elected to the Florida Senate again in 2024. Gaetz's grandfather, Jerry Gaetz, was the mayor of Rugby, North Dakota, and a candidate for lieutenant governor of North Dakota at the 1964 North Dakota Republican Party state convention, where he died of a heart attack.

After graduating from law school, Gaetz worked at the law firm Keefe, Anchors & Gordon (later AnchorsGordon) in Fort Walton Beach. In October 2021, the Florida bar suspended Gaetz from practicing law due to unpaid fees. He was reinstated after the $265 fee was paid.

Florida House of Representatives

In March 2010, after Republican state representative Ray Sansom's resignation on corruption charges in February 2010, Gaetz ran in the special election to succeed Sansom in the 4th district, which included southern Santa Rosa County and Okaloosa County. In a crowded Republican primary that included Craig Barker, Kabe Woods, Jerry Melvin, and Bill Garvie, Gaetz won with 43 percent of the vote. In the special general election, Gaetz defeated Democratic nominee Jan Fernald with 66 percent of the vote. During his campaign, Gaetz received almost $480,000 in contributions, about five times more than anyone else in the field, and almost 50 times more than Fernald, including $100,000 of his own money.

Gaetz was unopposed for a full term in 2010. In 2012, following the reconfiguration of Florida House of Representatives districts, Gaetz's district no longer contained any of Santa Rosa County. He was reelected unopposed in 2012 and 2014.

While serving in the state house, Gaetz and state senator Joe Negron proposed legislation that would hasten the execution of many inmates on Florida's death row by requiring the governor to sign an execution warrant for those who had exhausted their appeals. He also joined state senator Greg Evers in proposing legislation to eliminate the federal ethanol content mandate that 10 percent of gasoline sold in Florida contain ethanol; Governor Rick Scott signed the legislation in May 2013.

In 2015, Gaetz was one of two members to vote against a Florida bill which criminalized revenge porn, due to "personal animosity". He had successfully blocked the bill previously.

Florida House speaker Will Weatherford announced that he would order hearings on the stand-your-ground law. Gaetz, the chairman of the Criminal Justice Subcommittee, was tasked with reviewing the legislation; he announced before hearings that he would not support changing "one damn comma", but said he would listen to both sides' testimony. After the hearings, he authored legislation to allow defendants who successfully used a stand-your-ground defense during trial to be able to expunge relevant information from their criminal records.

When his subcommittee was considering legislation that would keep suspects' mugshots off the Internet until their convictions, Gaetz brought up his 2008 arrest and non-conviction, arguing that his mistakes made him who he is and that publicly available mugshots "could be a problem for those unaccustomed to publicity".

U.S. House of Representatives

Elections

In 2013, Gaetz announced that, in 2016, he would run for the 1st district State Senate seat held by his father, Don Gaetz, who was term-limited in 2016. On March 21, 2016, Gaetz withdrew from the race, choosing instead to run for the U.S. House seat representing Florida's 1st congressional district; the incumbent, Jeff Miller, had announced 11 days earlier that he would not seek reelection. On August 30, 2016, Gaetz won the Republican primary with 35.7 percent of the vote to Greg Evers's 21.5 percent and Cris Dosev's 20.6 percent, along with five other candidates. This virtually assured Gaetz of victory in the general election; with a Cook Partisan Voting Index of R+22, the 1st is Florida's most Republican district, and one of the most Republican in the nation.

In the November 8 general election, Gaetz defeated Democratic nominee Steven Specht with 69 percent of the vote. He was only the seventh person to represent this district since 1933 (the district was numbered the 3rd before 1963). Though a financial disclosure form Gaetz filed in 2016 showed a net worth of $388,000, he donated $200,000 of his own money to his congressional campaign. He also resigned from two Florida House political action committees he had started and chaired; the PACs closed down and transferred $380,000 to a federal super PAC, North Florida Neighbors, whose purpose was to support Gaetz's congressional campaign.

Tenure

Following the death of Miami Marlins pitcher José Fernández, Gaetz criticized the athletes protesting during the national anthem in a tweet on September 25, 2016. He was listed as a member of the moderate Republican Main Street Partnership from at least January to June 2017. Gaetz served as a top campaign adviser to Ron DeSantis during his 2018 gubernatorial campaign. He managed debate preparations and "drafted early administration organizational charts, helped steer early policy decisions and played a huge role in DeSantis' appointments", according to Politico.

Gaetz hired Darren Beattie as a speechwriter in April 2019. Beattie had previously been fired as a speechwriter for the Trump administration after attending a conference associated with white nationalists. He attended political rallies in 2018 and 2019 at which members of the Proud Boys were present. After the 2020 State of the Union Address, Gaetz filed an ethics complaint against speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, arguing that she had committed a "flagrant violation of decorum" and perhaps broken the law by ripping up her copy of the speech.

Gaetz announced that he would no longer accept campaign contributions from federal political action committees in February 2020. House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy complained on a January 10, 2021, phone call that Gaetz was unnecessarily "putting people in jeopardy", noting that the rioters at the U.S. Capitol on January 6 "came prepared with rope". The conversation was reported in April 2022.

Gaetz and Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene began a nationwide "America First Tour" on May 7, 2021, in The Villages, Florida. During the tour, Gaetz and Greene repeated debunked claims of fraud in the 2020 election, attacked Big Tech and, at one event, argued that the Second Amendment was for "maintaining, within the citizenry, the ability to maintain an armed rebellion against the government, if that becomes necessary." As a consequence of the controversy the speakers had generated, their appearance at a conference site at Laguna Hills, in Orange County, California, was canceled.

Gaetz was one of 21 House Republicans to vote against a resolution to give the Congressional Gold Medal to police officers who defended the U.S. Capitol on January 6 in June 2021. Gaetz invited Corey Ryan Beekman to lead the pledge of allegiance at a Judiciary Committee hearing in February 2023. Beekman was charged with murder in 2019 in Michigan, and the victim's family criticized the invitation. Gaetz apologized to the family.

Committee assignments

For the 118th Congress:

Committee on Armed Services

Subcommittee on Cyber, Information Technologies, and Innovation

Subcommittee on Military Personnel

Committee on the Judiciary

Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance

Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust

Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government

Caucus memberships

Climate Solutions Caucus

Congressional Blockchain Caucus

El Salvador Caucus

Freedom Caucus

Republican Study Committee

Nomination for attorney general

President-elect Trump announced he would nominate Gaetz to serve as United States attorney general on November 13, 2024. Gaetz resigned from the U.S. House of Representatives shortly after the announcement. His planned nomination was received negatively by multiple Senate Republicans, several of whom indicated that they would not support it due to standing allegations against him and perceived lack of qualifications.

On November 21, 2024, Gaetz announced on X that he was withdrawing his name from consideration as attorney general to avoid complicating the Trump transition. Although he had been elected to a fifth term from his district, he announced the following day that he would decline his seat in the 119th Congress, and later confirmed his resignation in writing.

Florida governor Ron DeSantis requested that an interim election be held in Gaetz's former Florida district to fill his House seat, as is the constitutional procedure when there is a resignation.

One America News Network

In January 2025, Gaetz began hosting a 9 p.m. Eastern weeknight political talk show called The Matt Gaetz Show on One America News Network.

Political positions

Gaetz has self-identified as a "libertarian populist". Observers have described his views as far-right. In January 2018, Gaetz invited Charles C. Johnson, an alt-right activist and Holocaust denier, to attend Donald Trump's State of the Union address. Johnson previously raised money for the neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer. Gaetz defended Johnson in an interview, saying that Johnson was neither a Holocaust denier nor a white supremacist. Gaetz has endorsed the white nationalist Great Replacement theory. In 2021, he called the Anti-Defamation League a "racist organization" after it condemned Tucker Carlson's promotion of Great Replacement theory. Gaetz said that Carlson "is CORRECT about Replacement Theory as he explains what is happening to America."

Gaetz was an early supporter of Trump and his appeal to the Republican Party base, echoing his talking points. In several commercials during his 2016 congressional campaign, Gaetz promised to "kill Muslim terrorists and build the wall".

In a September 2022 episode of Steve Bannon's War Room podcast, Gaetz said that Republicans should prioritize "impeachment inquiries" against Democrats "to investigate them and to hold them accountable" if Republicans won the 2022 U.S. House of Representatives elections. He added, "it should be investigations [of Democrats] first—[and] policy, bill-making, to support the lobbyists and the PACs, as a far, far diminished priority."

Cannabis

Gaetz has introduced legislation to reclassify cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act. He has also introduced legislation to loosen federal restrictions on the cultivation of cannabis for research purposes. Gaetz has criticized the federal government for having "lied to the American people for a generation" about the medical benefits of cannabis. As a member of the Florida House, he sponsored a bill, eventually signed into law, to expand the state's Right to Try Act to include the medical use of cannabis. In September 2017, Gaetz keynoted the American Medical Marijuana Physicians Association's annual conference.

In November 2019, Gaetz was one of only two Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee to vote for the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act, which among other reforms sought to remove cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act. He was also the only Republican cosponsor of the bill (of 55 cosponsors) at the time of its passage. Gaetz introduced the STATES Act to prevent federal interference in states that have legalized cannabis for medical or recreational purposes. Gaetz said he had multiple conversations with President Trump about cannabis policy.

Nonetheless, Gaetz did not find positions on marijuana to be a dealbreaker in the 2024 Republican Speaker nominee selection, repeatedly supporting anti-cannabis candidates.

Donald Trump

Worried about protesters disrupting his appearance at his town hall in Pace, Florida, Gaetz prepared what his staffers called a nonverbal town hall on February 23, 2017. He printed out part of his speech onto giant boards that he would hold up if he was unable to speak. Gaetz arrived 30 minutes late to the meeting, where at least 500 constituents crowded into a bowling alley. At the meeting, he was questioned about his relationship with Trump, his stance on repealing the Affordable Care Act, and his proposal to abolish the Environmental Protection Agency. He said that Trump should release his tax returns, but stopped short of saying Congress should subpoena them. Gaetz closed his town hall by shouting Trump's 2016 campaign slogan, "Make America Great Again".

Gaetz is seen as a vocal ally of Trump. Politico called Gaetz "one of the most enthusiastic defenders of president Trump on cable news" and a "proud Trump protégé" in April 2018. Aaron Blake of The Washington Post called him one of Congress' "most controversial members", and one who has "unabashedly aligned himself with Trump on basically all things".

In May 2018, Gaetz was one of 18 House Republicans to vote to nominate Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in peace talks with North Korea. Appearing on The View in February 2020, shortly before Trump associate Roger Stone was sentenced, Gaetz said he would support a pardon for Stone.

Gaetz was a member of the House Judiciary Committee, but not of the Intelligence, Foreign Affairs, or Oversight and Reform Committees, and so was not allowed to join lawmakers' closed-door deposition of former White House Russia aide Fiona Hill in October 2019. He told reporters that, since his committee oversees impeachment, he should have been allowed to be part of depositions related to the Trump impeachment inquiry.

On April 6, The New York Times reported that during the final weeks of Trump's first presidency, Gaetz privately asked the White House for a blanket pardon for himself and some unknown congressional allies for any crimes they may have committed. The White House reportedly never seriously considered the request, because it was decided that issuing preemptive pardons would set a bad precedent. The Times also reported that aides had told Trump of the request. On April 7, Trump denied that Gaetz had asked him for a pardon and noted that Gaetz "totally denied the accusations against him". The same day, CNN's Maggie Haberman revealed that Trump had reportedly wanted to defend Gaetz, but that his advisors talked him out of it due to the seriousness of the allegations.

Support for impeaching President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas

Gaetz co-sponsored a resolution by Andy Biggs to impeach Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas in August 2021. Later that month, Gaetz co-sponsored a resolution by Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene to impeach president Biden. In September 2022, he called impeaching Biden a "priority". He expressed the belief that many Republicans in Congress were hesitant to impeach Biden, but that Republican voters would feel "betrayed" if they did not. Very early into the 118th Congress, Gaetz cosponsored another resolution to impeach Mayorkas. In May 2023, Gaetz co-sponsored resolutions by Marjorie Taylor Greene to impeach Biden and Mayorkas.

During an invitation-only video conference moderated by Steve Bannon days after a Biden impeachment inquiry was opened in September 2023, Gaetz denounced the impeachment effort as a political stunt. Gaetz said, "I don't believe that we are endeavoring upon a legitimate impeachment of Joe Biden ... I think it's for the sake of having another bad thing to say about Joe Biden."

Economy

Gaetz voted for the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. He acknowledged that the bill's pass-through tax deduction would benefit Trump, but added, "so many Americans benefit when commercial real estate becomes easier and more accessible." He was among the 71 Republicans who voted against final passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 in the House.

Environment

Gaetz acknowledged global warming in 2016 but said he disagrees with the scientific consensus on climate change that human activity is the primary cause. In April 2017, the Center for American Progress and Vice Media said Gaetz was a climate change denier, citing his 2016 statements. Gaetz proposed legislation to abolish the Environmental Protection Agency in January 2017, claiming that it hurts small businesses via the costs associated with compliance.

Gaetz joined the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus in November 2017. He said he advocated technological innovation and economic incentives that address climate change, and increased federal funds for global warming research by NASA, NOAA and universities, but remained opposed to increased environmental regulation.

Gaetz and Democratic Representative Scott Peters introduced the bipartisan Super Pollutants Act, which aimed to slow climate change by regulating greenhouses gases, especially black carbon, hydrofluorocarbons, and methane, in 2019. A press release stated, "These short-lived climate pollutants, also called super pollutants, are significantly more potent than carbon dioxide."

Foreign policy

In 2021, Gaetz was one of 14 House Republicans to vote against a measure condemning the Myanmar coup d'état that overwhelmingly passed, for reasons reported to be unclear.

On October 12, 2017, Gaetz introduced a resolution affirming the connection between the Jewish people and Jerusalem and condemning UNESCO's efforts to the contrary. In December 2017, he supported Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital and said that the move would pressure Palestine to recognize Israel. In 2019, Gaetz was one of 60 representatives to vote against condemning Trump's withdrawal from Syria.

In April 2019, after the House passed a resolution withdrawing American support for the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen, Gaetz was one of nine lawmakers to sign a letter to Trump requesting a meeting with him and urging him to sign Senate Joint Resolution 7, which invokes the War Powers Act of 1973, to end unauthorized US military participation in the Saudi-led coalition's armed conflict against Houthi forces in Yemen.

In June 2021, Gaetz was one of 49 House Republicans to vote to repeal the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002. In 2023, Gaetz was among 47 Republicans to vote in favor of H.Con.Res. 21, which directed president Joe Biden to remove U.S. troops from Syria within 180 days.

Gaetz voted to provide Israel with support following 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. After leaving office, Gaetz shifted to criticizing Israel, opposing anti-BDS laws and opposing AIPAC's influence on American politics. In 2026, Gaetz attacked other conservatives for "slavish loyalty to a country in a faraway land" in CPAC and condemned an incident where an Israeli soldier attacked a statue of Jesus in Lebanon as "horrific."

In March 2024, Niger announced it was ending its security relationship with the United States, which had been in place since 2012. In a report issued by Gaetz the following month, Gaetz stated that the United States embassy in Niger was suppressing information related to the decay of Niger-United States diplomatic relations. According to Gaetz's report, Niger has not authorized flights for United States Department of Defense efforts, including the sending of food, equipment, mail, or medical supplies.

George Floyd protests

On June 1, 2020, during the nationwide George Floyd protests, Gaetz tweeted, "Now that we clearly see antifa as terrorists, can we hunt them down like we do those in the Middle East?" In response, Twitter hid the tweet and labeled it as "[violating] the Twitter Rules about glorifying violence". Gaetz called the label a "badge of honor", accused Twitter of enabling antifa, and again said that "[o]ur government should hunt [Antifa] down".

On August 26, 2020, Gaetz tweeted "The mob wants to destroy America. We need PATRIOTS who will defend her" in support of Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old from Antioch, Illinois, who traveled to Kenosha, Wisconsin, and shot and killed two people in self-defense during the protests of the Jacob Blake shooting. Gaetz was one of three representatives to offer Rittenhouse a Congressional internship.

Gun policy

Former National Rifle Association president Marion Hammer called Gaetz "one of the most pro-gun members to have ever served in the Florida Legislature". Gaetz is a lifetime member of the NRA, and has an A+ rating from it. When Gaetz served in the Florida House of Representatives, he led an unsuccessful effort to allow Floridians with concealed-weapons permits to carry those weapons openly in public. In lobbying for the bill, he said that the open carry of weapons was a right "granted not by government but by God". Gaetz supports Florida's stand-your-ground law and supported legislation that strengthened it against legal challenges. He also supports concealed carry reciprocity.

During a May 2021 "America First" rally with Marjorie Taylor Greene, Gaetz told an audience: "We have a Second Amendment in this country, and I think we have an obligation to use it!" He then said this meant allowing Americans "the ability to maintain an armed rebellion against the government if that becomes necessary". Immediately before his remarks on the Second Amendment, Gaetz criticized Big Tech companies for trying to "suppress us, discourage us", saying, "Silicon Valley can't cancel this movement, or this rally, or this congressman". As a result, politicians including Ted Lieu accused Gaetz of inciting violence against Silicon Valley employees, which Gaetz denied.

Health care

In October 2017, Gaetz argued that the Medicaid expansion permitted by the Affordable Care Act fueled the opioid crisis. PolitiFact rated the claim "mostly false", noting that "experts were universal in saying that the evidence that Medicaid expansion is somehow fueling the opioid crisis doesn't exist."

In June 2021, Gaetz introduced the Digital Health Pass Prevention Act (DHPPA), a bill aimed at preventing the federal government from funding and enforcing any digital passes associated with COVID-19 vaccination status, with the support of representatives Louie Gohmert and Lance Gooden. The full title of the bill is "To prohibit Federal funds from being used to implement, administer, enforce, or carry out programs with respect to digital health passes, and for other purposes." It was sent to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce which referred it to the Subcommittee on Health. No further action was reported.

In early March 2020, Gaetz wore a gas mask during a House debate on funds to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. He argued that wearing the gas mask was not an act of mockery but a way of "demonstrating his concern". Several journalists characterized the decision as a stunt. A few days later, on March 9, Gaetz's office reported that he had been in contact with a Conservative Political Action Conference attendee who tested positive for COVID-19. As a result, Gaetz was placed under self-quarantine for 14 days. On March 10, he said his test was negative, but that he would stay under self-quarantine until the 14-day period ended on March 12.

On April 14, Gaetz said the Wuhan Institute of Virology "birthed a monster", a reference to the hypothesis that COVID-19 was leaked out of a Chinese research lab. He also stated that the National Institutes of Health had given the Institute a $3.7 million grant. The U.S.-based EcoHealth Alliance that worked with the Institute under a grant the Trump administration approved, eventually had that funding withdrawn. The EcoHealth Alliance later said that, under the grant, it had enhanced a bat coronavirus so it became potentially more infectious to humans, which the NIH said was an "unexpected result" of the research it had funded that was carried out in partnership with the Wuhan Institute. Nevertheless, the NIH denied it had helped create the virus that sparked the COVID-19 pandemic.

After Politico reported on November 7 that Gaetz had tested positive for COVID-19, he texted Politico "I have tested positive for antibodies" and "I have no live virus". He said he had no symptoms and was not sure when he had contracted the disease. On December 4, 2020, Gaetz attended an indoor New York Young Republicans Club conference in Jersey City, New Jersey, during a period of surging COVID-19 cases throughout the state and the country. He was seen posing for photos in a crowd of unmasked attendees, prompting New Jersey governor Phil Murphy and Jersey City mayor Steven Fulop to publicly condemn him. Gaetz and other GOP members mocked Democrats and their COVID-19 regulations on social media. Murphy also said state officials were investigating whether the event violated the state's COVID-19 regulations.

Human trafficking

On December 19, 2017, Gaetz was the only representative to vote against the Combating Human Trafficking in Commercial Vehicles Act, a bill allocating additional government resources to help combat human trafficking. Gaetz later explained that his vote was due to his small government principles and his belief that existing federal agencies could adequately combat human trafficking.

On February 27, 2018, Gaetz voted against the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, which had by then been combined with the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act. It passed, 388–25. On July 26, 2022, Gaetz voted against the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act, which passed 401–20.

Immigration

Gaetz opposes sanctuary cities, which limit or deny their cooperation with the national government in enforcing immigration law. Upon announcing his run for Congress in 2016, he said that undocumented immigrants were "sucking us dry". In January 2018, Gaetz defended a statement by Trump that reportedly said Haiti and African nations were "shithole" countries, saying that Haiti was covered by "sheet metal and garbage" and in "disgusting" condition.

In October 2018, Gaetz falsely stated that George Soros paid for a caravan of migrants from Central America to the United States. Gaetz voted against the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2020 which authorizes DHS to nearly double the available H-2B visas for the remainder of FY 2020. Gaetz voted against Consolidated Appropriations Act (H.R. 1158), an act which effectively prohibits ICE from cooperating with Health and Human Services to detain or remove illegal alien sponsors of unaccompanied alien children (UACs).

Law enforcement

Gaetz tweeted on June 23, 2021, that the FBI should be defunded. At that time, it was investigating him for alleged sex trafficking and having sex with a minor. He wrote, "If Democrats want to defund the police, they should start with the FBI." Gaetz later deleted the tweet. The week before, he claimed without evidence that "FBI operatives organized and participated in the January 6th Capitol riot." As of 2024, there is still no evidence for such a claim.

LGBTQ rights

As a Florida state representative in 2015, Gaetz and Representative David Richardson sponsored an amendment to repeal the state ban on same-sex adoptions. He also persuaded his father, in the Florida State Senate, to support the repeal. In 2015, after the U.S. Supreme Court decided Obergefell v. Hodges, which established the legal recognition of same-sex marriage in the United States, Gaetz said he disagreed with the court's ruling, saying that each state should have the right to decide for itself whether to allow same-sex marriage. He argued that the decision was an example of "judicial activism" that posed "a threat to our democracy".

During the 116th Congress, Gaetz voted against the Equality Act, which would ban discrimination on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity in federal law. In 2022, Gaetz voted against the Respect for Marriage Act, which repealed the Defense of Marriage Act, which restricted legal recognition of marriage to opposite-sex marriage in federal law. In 2024, Gaetz condemned schools for promoting what he described as "degenerate LGBT and anti-White propaganda" as he introduced his "National Prayer In School Act".

Big tech

Gaetz was one of 39 Republicans to vote for the Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act of 2022, an antitrust package that would crack down on corporations for anti-competitive behavior.

Legal issues and controversies

Gaetz's tenure as congressman was widely criticized and controversial, with The New York Times noting accusations of: sexual misconduct and illicit drug use; sharing inappropriate images or videos on the House floor; misusing state identification records; converting campaign funds to personal use; and accepting impermissible gifts under House rules.Gaetz routinely conflicted with members of Republican leadership. In October 2023, Gaetz filed a motion to vacate which led to the removal of Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson wrote in her memoir that, during a trip to Camp David in 2020, Gaetz made "repeated passes" at her and asked her to "escort" him to his room. Gaetz has denied these actions.

Federal investigations into child sex trafficking and statutory rape

In January 2020, the U.S. Secret Service reportedly received a tip that, in April 2018, Gaetz had accompanied Seminole County tax collector Joel Greenberg to a government office where Greenberg was producing fake IDs. Greenberg was indicted in August 2020 on an array of charges, including sex trafficking a 17-year-old girl in 2017 and creating fake IDs to facilitate sex trafficking. The investigation of Greenberg led federal officials to look into some of Gaetz's related activities. In late 2020, the Justice Department opened its investigation of Gaetz for allegedly sex trafficking the same 17-year-old girl in 2017 and whether he had violated federal sex trafficking laws by paying her to travel with him across state lines. As part of his plea bargain, Greenberg cooperated with the investigation of Gaetz and others.

Axios reported that Gaetz was "seriously considering not seeking re-election and possibly leaving Congress early for a job at Newsmax" on March 30, 2021. The same day, The New York Times reported the Justice Department's investigation of Gaetz. According to CNN, a person briefed on the matter said investigators also examined whether Gaetz used campaign money in his relationships with young women for travel and expenses and whether cash and drugs were involved. By April 2, the Justice Department was examining whether Gaetz asked women to recruit others for sex.

According to the 2021 reports, federal investigators were looking into Gaetz's September 2018 trip to the Bahamas. Gaetz was reportedly joined by marijuana entrepreneur and hand surgeon Jason Pirozzolo, who allegedly paid trip accommodations, traveling expenses, and escort services. Investigators were reportedly exploring whether the escorts were sexually trafficked for Gaetz and whether Gaetz accepted paid escorts in exchange for political access or legislative favors for Pirozzolo, who at the time chaired the board of the Medical Marijuana Physicians Association. Gaetz made two speeches for the organization while in Congress, and Pirozzolo gave two separate donations of $1,000 to Gaetz's campaign arm, "Friends of Matt Gaetz", in March 2016 and May 2017. A spokeswoman for Gaetz denied the new allegations. A woman on the Bahamas trip—a Capitol Hill intern who did not work in Gaetz's office but who was dating him—reportedly agreed in May 2021 to cooperate with investigators, who believed she had information about Gaetz's financial transactions on the trip.

Driving offenses

Gaetz was arrested for driving under the influence on his way back from a nightclub on Okaloosa Island, Florida, in 2008. Police recorded him driving 48 mph (77 km/h) in a 35 mph (56 km/h) zone and noted that he showed physical signs of intoxication. Gaetz initially denied that he had consumed alcohol, but later admitted to drinking two beers. He failed an eye test twice, then declined field sobriety tests. After Gaetz was arrested, he refused to take a breathalyzer test.

Shortly after Gaetz's case was referred to state attorney Steve Meadows, Gaetz's driver license was reinstated. Though Florida law requires a year's suspension when a driver refuses a breathalyzer test, Gaetz's suspension was less than a year. His refusal also did not lead to a criminal prosecution, during which it could have been used against him in court. A field officer for the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles declared there was no evidence that Gaetz refused a breathalyzer test, despite the arresting police officer having documented it in an affidavit and the arrest report and Gaetz's own attorney also having documented it. Gaetz's attorney also argued that an unnamed witness who knew Gaetz "observed no indication of impairment". The charges against Gaetz were dismissed.

Firebrand book and podcast

In 2020, Gaetz published a book and in 2021 a podcast, both titled Firebrand. In both, he criticizes former House speaker Paul Ryan for joining the board of Fox News's parent company and blames him for canceling Lou Dobbs Tonight. In the book, while discussing dating in Washington, he writes, "I knew going in how many people had been brought down by sexual missteps in this town, so I set some rules to help me err on the safe(r) side ... [including] no dating your staff members, [etc.]."

Personal life

In December 2020, Gaetz announced his engagement to his girlfriend, Ginger Luckey, the sister of Anduril Industries founder and major Republican donor Palmer Luckey. They married in August 2021. Gaetz is a Baptist.

On several occasions he has mentioned that he had regarded his ex-girlfriend's younger brother, Nestor Galbán, as his family. Though Gaetz has referred to Galbán as his son in the past, the two are not related genetically or legally.