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The House Committee on Ethics announced two separate probes into Reps. Matt Gaetz and Tom Reed Friday over allegations of sexual misconduct Friday.
The allegations against Gaetz, R-Fla., include campaign finance violations as well as claims of taking bribes and using drugs, according to the committee 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," Gaetz’s office said in a statement.
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Gaetz has been at the center of growing scrutiny following news that the Justice Department had launched a probe into sex trafficking allegations involving an underage girl.
The House Committee on Ethics announced two separate probes into Reps. Matt Gaetz and Tom Reed Friday over allegations of sexual misconduct Friday. (Getty Images)
He has vehemently disputed the accusations and no charges have been filed against him.
Gaetz suggested an ex-Justice Department official leaked the criminal investigation because the congressman and his wealthy family would not participate in a $25 million extortion plot.
"It is a horrible allegation and it is a lie," Gaetz recently told Fox News' Tucker Carlson. "The New York Times is running a story that I have traveled with a 17-year-old woman, and that is verifiably false. People can look at my travel records and see that that is not the case. What is happening is an extortion of me and my family."
In addition to the DOJ probe, Gaetz has subsequently been accused of bragging about past sexual encounters, showing colleagues nude photos of women and playing a sex-based game with state lawmakers when he was in the Florida House of Representatives.
Reed is accused of unhooking a lobbyist's bra and touching her thigh in a Minneapolis bar in 2017.
That woman, Nicolette Davis, told the Washington Post in March that Reed was drunk at the time, and it happened after a day of ice fishing with lawmakers and lobbyists.
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Davis, who told the paper she was a lifelong Democrat, came forward with her claims after Reed emerged as a prominent critic of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo amid an avalanche of his own sexual misconduct allegations and a scandal over his administration’s alleged cover-up of the coronavirus death toll in nursing homes.
Reed disputed her allegations but also apologized, revealed that he is a recovering alcoholic and said he would not seek reelection next year – although his retirement was foreshadowed in 2010, when he was first elected and pledged to serve no more than six two-year terms.
"We have already publicly addressed this situation and consistent with that are cooperating with the House Ethics Committee to bring this matter to conclusion," Reed said in a statement Friday.
Fox News’ Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
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