Good evening. I'm William Brangham. Jeff Bennett and Omna Nawaz are away. On the news hour tonight,

the House Ethics Committee report on former Congressman Matt Gates, President-elect Trump's first

pick for Attorney General, reveals alleged rampant illegal sexual misconduct and drug use.

President Biden commutes the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row to life without parole, just weeks before Trump is set to take office.

And China's foreign adoption ban leaves hundreds of children and families in limbo and brings into focus the effects of China's long-time policies.

I still struggle with a lot of aspects of my adoption and the grief and the trauma that comes with being separated from your birth country, from your birth family.

Welcome to the News Hour. A highly anticipated House Ethics Committee report details a litany of allegations against the former Republican representative from Florida, Matt Gates.

Prosecutors previously declined to charge him, but Gates's former peers found evidence that he paid several young women for sex, including an underage girl, and partook in numerous drug-fueled sex parties.

Lisa Desjardin spent the day combing through this report about the one-time Trump nominee

for Attorney General, and she joins us now.

Lisa, this is a very explicit report, and we should just alert our viewers that this is,

what we're going to talk about in the next few minutes is somewhat graphic.

In this report, what really stood out to you?

Right. Well, this contains very serious allegations and conclusions, very direct conclusions,

according to the committee, that Gates violated law in a criminal way.

So let's look at some of the main conclusions here.

First of all, they found that over the course of nearly four years, the committee found that

Gates paid tens of thousands of dollars to women, likely they write, in connection with or

for sex and drugs.

They found that he had sex with a 17-year-old girl, and according to the

committee that fits Florida's definition, where this activity was alleged to happen, of statutory

rape. Now, I also want to point out that the committee concluded that there is not evidence

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