A woman has testified to the House Ethics Committee that former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to serve as U.S. attorney general, paid her for sex and also had sex with a 17-year-old girl at a drug-fueled party in July 2017, her lawyer told The Washington Post. Gaetz has previously referred to LGBTQ+ people as degenerates, but Christian conservatives are also saying he shouldn’t become the next attorney general.

The woman is one of two represented by Florida lawyer Joel Leppard. She said Gaetz paid them and other women for sex using Venmo and the PayPal app of his unofficially “adopted son” Nestor Galena. They also said Gaetz was under the influence of drugs during the party and that he only learned of the minor’s age after their sexual encounter. The women said Gaetz attended between five and 10 sex parties between 2017 and 2018.

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Leppard has called on the House Ethics Committee to release the report of its investigation into sex trafficking allegations against Gaetz. Christian Nationalist House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has said he doesn’t think the committee should release it.

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The ethics committee chair, Rep. Michael Guest (R-MS), said Johnson won’t influence whether the report is released. The committee is set to meet on Wednesday to discuss the report, which has not yet been given to all committee members. Democrats and some Republicans have requested its release so that Gaetz may be questioned about the allegations during the Senate confirmation hearing for his appointment to lead the Department of Justice (DOJ). The aforementioned witnesses could be called to testify at such a hearing.

In comments given to CNN last year, Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) said of Gaetz, “There’s a reason why no one in the [Republican] conference came and defended him [when he was first accused of sex trafficking and having sex with a minor]. We had all seen the videos he was showing on the House floor … of the girls that he had slept with. He’d brag about how he would crush [erectile dysfunction] medicine and chase it with an energy drink so he could go all night.”

Gaetz denied Mullin’s accusation.

Trump has nonetheless defended Gaetz, saying he is “a deeply gifted and tenacious attorney” who will “restore Americans’ badly-shattered Faith and Confidence in the Justice Department.” In private, Trump has reportedly admitted that Gaetz may not receive Senate confirmation but has also been calling senators to whip up support.

Numerous Republicans have expressed doubt about Gaetz’s fitness for the role. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) has said she doesn’t consider Gaetz a “serious nomination” for attorney general. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) has said Gaetz will face an “uphill climb” to win Senate confirmation. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) has warned that Gaetz could become “an embarrassment to the president.” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) said, “He’s probably got some work cut out for him to get a good strong vote,” adding, “We’re not going to get a single Democrat vote” in the chamber where Republicans will only have a 3-vote majority.

Anti-LGBTQ+ Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AR), who spent last year unsuccessfully blocking the promotions of “woke” military officers, said that Republicans would work to eject any Republican senators who refuse to vote in favor of Gaetz as attorney general.

“Everybody’s got an opinion up here, but at the end of the day, President Trump was elected by an enormous vote, and he deserves a team around him that he wants, it’s not us to determine that,” Tuberville said, despite the fact that the Senate is specifically tasked with vetting the president’s Cabinet appointees in order to avoid any selections that could compromise national security.

Recently, Mat Staver, chairperson of the Liberty Counsel — a Christian nationalist legal advocacy group that opposes any expansion of LGBTQ+ rights — said that Gaetz is morally “disqualified” to be attorney general because of his involvement in “sex parties,” adding “The question is would he actually even enforce laws involving human trafficking?”

Staver suggested that Gaetz should withdraw his nomination so that Trump can choose a better nominee.

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