JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
President-elect Donald Trump's pick to lead the Justice Department, Matt Gaetz, is continuing to generate controversy and headlines. Now an attorney who represents two women who testified before a House committee investigating Gaetz is revealing what his clients told the panel about Gaetz allegedly attending sex and drug parties. NPR justice correspondent Ryan Lucas is here in the studio with more. Hey, Ryan.
RYAN LUCAS, BYLINE: Hi there.
SUMMERS: So, Ryan, the House Ethics Committee was investigating Gaetz over allegations of sexual misconduct and illicit drug use. And I understand that you spoke with the attorney whose clients talked to that panel. What did they tell lawmakers?
LUCAS: Well, this attorney's name is Joel Leppard. He represents, as you said, two women who testified before the House Ethics Committee as part of the panel's investigation into Gaetz. And Leppard says his clients were among a group of four or five young women in the Orlando area who knew Gaetz and met up with him in 2017 and 2018. So Gaetz was a member of the House at that time. And Leppard says his clients were over 18 at this time period, but they went to sex and drug parties with Gaetz.
There were more than five of these parties in all, he says. And one of Leppard's clients, he says, told the committee that she witnessed Gaetz having sex with a minor at a party in July of 2017. Leppard also says his clients went over with members of the committee individual Venmo and PayPal transactions and what each one was for, and they testified, Leppard says, that Gaetz paid them for sex.
SUMMERS: I mean, I might imagine, Ryan, that this would put some additional pressure on the House panel to release its report about that investigation into Gaetz, right?
LUCAS: That's absolutely right. Pressure has been building on that front for a long time now. And that's despite the fact that Gaetz resigned from Congress after Trump picked him for attorney general, which effectively ended the committee's investigation. Now, Leppard is speaking out at this point, he says, to protect his clients. He says these investigations have taken a toll on them. He said his clients are not politically minded people, but they're worried about their own well-being and about potentially having to testify about this again. Leppard also said this.
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JOEL LEPPARD: There is a little bit of anxiety about someone as powerful as Mr. Gaetz coming into power and what that might look like for people that have spoken out. But it does also speak to a larger concern that there are things that people should know that they know when they make their decision.
LUCAS: And just to be clear here, Leppard is calling for the Ethics Committee to release its report on Gaetz so that the public and members of the Senate have all of the necessary information about these allegations when they consider Gaetz as a potential attorney general.
SUMMERS: Right, got it. OK, so has Gaetz or the Trump transition team responded to the allegations?
LUCAS: Well, Gaetz has repeatedly denied wrongdoing. A spokesman for the Trump transition team, Alex Pfeiffer, said that these allegations are baseless. He said that they're designed to derail the second Trump administration. He also said the Biden administration investigated Gaetz for possible sex trafficking, and in that case, prosecutors decided not to bring charges. Pfeiffer also said Gaetz is the right man to lead the Justice Department, that he will end what he called the weaponization of the justice system. And he said emphatically that Gaetz will be the next attorney general.
SUMMERS: Really seems like Trump is all in with Gaetz for now. So tell us, Ryan. Where does this all go from here?
LUCAS: Well, our colleague Deirdre Walsh has confirmed that the Ethics Committee is expected to meet on Wednesday to consider the Gaetz report and whether to release it. House Speaker Mike Johnson said last week that he doesn't think it should be made public. He says doing so would set a bad precedent. But senators, including senior Republican senators on the judiciary committee, who would have, of course, first crack at Gaetz' nomination - they've made clear that they want to see what is in the House Ethics Committee's report, what they have learned in its investigation. So there may be more to come on this in the days ahead.
SUMMERS: NPR's Ryan Lucas. Thank you.
LUCAS: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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