From the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal, this is Potomac Watch.

The House Ethics Committee releases its report in the investigation of alleged misconduct by former Congressman Matt Gates, finding, quote, substantial evidence, unquote, of drug use, prostitution, and statutory

rape. Meantime, Donald Trump wades into the debate over daylight savings time. Welcome, I'm

Kyle Peterson with the Wall Street Journal. We are joined today by my colleagues, columnist Kim Strassel,

and editorial board member, Manet Uquay Barua. About a month after Matt Gates

formerly withdrew from his nomination as Donald Trump's next Attorney General of the United States,

the House Ethics Committee has released its long-running investigation to alleged misconduct by

the former congressman. And Kim, this 37-page report from the

Ethics Committee is a pretty ugly document. It goes through allegations that Gates and one of his

associates would find women on this sugar dating website and initiate contact with them, hold parties with them,

where there was drug use and then payments for sexual conduct, sexual activity.

It says that Mr. Gates did not appear to have negotiated specific payment amounts, but then goes

on to say the women had a general expectation that they would typically receive some amount of money after each sexual encounter.

Committee obtained the text messages with lines like Matt also mentioned he is going to be a bit generous, unquote, before one of these liaisons.

Kim, what do you make of this report and the credibility of these

allegations? So the allegations come down to three buckets as I read the report. One is that

he regularly paid for sex. That particular allegation includes the detail that supposedly, in one instance, with a

17-year-old and the committee went out of its way to note that under Florida law, this would

amount to statutory rape, which makes it a crime for someone over a certain age to have sexual intercourse

with someone who is 16 or 17 years old. The report notes that under that law, it is no defense

to say that you do not know how old the person was. By the way, we should note that Mr. Gates

has denied any criminal wrongdoing as part of this.

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