A woman reportedly told the House Ethics Committee that she had sexual relations with Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., when she was 17 years old.

ABC News reported on Thursday that the woman testified to the committee in its investigation into Gaetz, which has now ceased after House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., announced that Gaetz resigned from Congress on Wednesday.

Gaetz told Fox News Digital in response to the new report, ‘These allegations are invented and would constitute false testimony to Congress. This false smear following a three-year criminal investigation should be viewed with great skepticism.’

The resignation announcement came hours after President-elect Donald Trump tapped Gaetz to be his attorney general.

The chief counsel for the House Ethics Committee declined to comment when asked by Fox News Digital.

Fox News Digital also reached out to Gaetz’s congressional office for comment.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) had previously spoken to the woman, now in her twenties, according to ABC, as part of its years-long investigation into Gaetz related to accusations of sex trafficking and obstruction of justice.

The DOJ ultimately did not press charges, and Gaetz has consistently denied all wrongdoing.

The woman was subpoenaed by the House Ethics Committee over the summer, the report said.

The panel was expected to meet soon and potentially release a report on its investigation into Gaetz, but now that he resigned, the committee has lost jurisdiction over the matter.

The report could still be released, though it would break committee precedent.

But it could come out if Gaetz goes through the Senate confirmation process to lead the department that once investigated him.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, suggested he’d want to see the report.

‘I think there should not be any limitation on the Senate Judiciary Committee’s investigation, including, whatever the House ethics committee has generated,’ he told reporters.

Senate Democrats are rushing to confirm as many of President Biden’s judicial picks as possible ahead of a Trump presidency, according to reports. Several of the nominees have previously come under fire by Republicans.

Democrats so far have confirmed 215 of Biden’s judicial picks, and the Senate most recently confirmed Jonathan E. Hawley as a U.S. District Judge for the Central District of Illinois Wednesday. 

He was confirmed in a 50-46 vote. 

However, Biden’s confirmation numbers continue to trail President-elect Trump’s 234 confirmations during his first term, including three to the U.S. Supreme Court. 

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee have been vocal in recent days about prioritizing judicial confirmations during the lame-duck session, tweeting Wednesday, ‘We’re going to confirm every possible federal judge in the lame-duck session.’

Along with Hawley’s confirmation this week, the Senate also confirmed April M. Perry to be a U.S. District Court Judge for the Northern District of Illinois, while Democrats also moved Embry Kidd’s nomination process forward to serve as a circuit court judge for the 11th Circuit. 

Several of Biden’s nominees, however, have come under Republican fire during hearings. 

Kidd, a district judge in the Middle District of Florida, made headlines this summer after he failed to disclose on his questionnaire at least two child sex-related cases he ruled on and later had his rulings reversed, according to a report by the Washington Examiner.

Anthony J. Brindisi, a former Democratic representative who serves on the New York State Court of Claims in Utica, New York, and was tapped by Biden in July, was the target of various lines of questioning in which he attempted to frame himself as a jurist versus a politician. 

‘On the bench, are you a politician or a judge?’ Tennessee Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn asked him during the hearing. 

‘I’m a judge, senator,’ Brindisi responded. 

Despite Democrats’ efforts to kick judicial confirmations into high gear, Senate Democrats have expressed concern over Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin’s ability to block Trump’s judicial agenda once he takes over the Oval Office in January, according to a recent report by Axios. 

The report said multiple Democrats cited Durbin’s age as a major factor. Durbin is 79 years old. 

‘Sen. Durbin has successfully led the Judiciary Committee for the past four years as chair — leading to 215, and counting, lifetime judges confirmed during the Biden administration,’ Durbin’s office told Fox News Digital in a statement. ‘And as a senior Democratic member of the committee during the first Trump administration, Sen. Durbin served as a crucial voice pushing back against the unqualified Trump judicial nominees. Simply put, he’s been an outstanding chair and stands ready to continue to lead his colleagues as ranking member in the 119th Congress.’

Senate Minority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., who will be the new Republican Senate leader after he won in a secret ballot Wednesday, will serve a crucial role in advancing Trump’s judicial agenda in the Senate. Thune wrote in an op-ed earlier this week that Senate Republicans will work with the president-elect to confirm his nominees and pass ‘our shared agenda.’ 

‘As Congress returns to Washington, we must prepare the Senate to advance that agenda legislatively and ensure that the president-elect can hit the ground running with his appointees confirmed as soon as possible,’ Thune wrote. 

Trump took to social media Sunday to voice his opinion on the matter, writing, ‘Additionally, no Judges should be approved during this period of time because the Democrats are looking to ram through their Judges as the Republicans fight over Leadership. THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE. THANK YOU!’

‘In his first term, President Trump appointed constitutionalist judges who interpret the law as written. He will do so again,’ Brian Hughes, Trump-Vance transition spokesperson, told Fox News Digital in a statement. 

President-elect Trump selected Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). 

‘I am thrilled to announce Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as The United States Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to Public Health,’ Trump said in his annoucment Thursday. 

‘The Safety and Health of all Americans is the most important role of any Administration, and HHS will play a big role in helping ensure that everybody will be protected from harmful chemicals, pollutants, pesticides, pharmaceutical products, and food additives that have contributed to the overwhelming Health Crisis in this Country.’ 

The announcement comes just over a week after Trump won back the presidency.

RFK Jr. joined the 2024 campaign cycle as a candidate for the Oval Office. Kennedy, who is the son of former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, dropped out of the presidential election in August after initially running as a Democrat, before he switched to an independent run. 

Kennedy endorsed Trump shortly after suspending his campaign, and has since hit the campaign trail while touting his plans to ‘Make America Healthy Again’ under a potential Trump presidency. 

Kennedy has joined a bevy of Trump campaign events in the lead up to Nov. 5, including speaking at Trump’s historic Madison Square Garden rally last month, where he unleashed on the current state of the Democratic Party. 

‘The Democratic Party is the party of war. It’s the party of the CIA. You had Kamala Harris giving a speech at the Democratic convention that was written by neocons. It was belligerent, pugnacious. It talked about domination of the world by the United States through our weapons of war. It’s the party today that wants to divide Americans. It’s a party that is dismantling women’s sports by letting men play women’s sports,’ he said. 

‘It’s the party of Wall Street. It’s the party of Bill Gates, who just gave $50 million to Harris. It’s the party, and the Harris campaign is very proud that it received the endorsement of 50 former CIA agents and officers and of John Bolton and of Dick Cheney.’ 

Kennedy, who has been a key figure in the Trump campaign since endorsing him, was asked about his potential role in the next White House and whether he would begin ‘clearing out the top level federal service workers that are currently at the FDA and the CDC.’

He continued, ‘In some categories, their entire departments, like the nutrition department in the FDA, they have to go. They’re not doing their job. They’re not protecting our kids. Why do we have Froot Loops in this country that have 18 or 19 ingredients, and you go to Canada, and it’s got two or three?’ 

‘Mr. Kennedy will restore these Agencies to the traditions of Gold Standard Scientific Research, and beacons of Transparency, to end the Chronic Disease epidemic, and to Make America Great and Healthy Again!’ Trump added. 

Some Democratic lawmakers blasted former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard after President-elect Donald Trump tapped her to serve as Director of National Intelligence, a cabinet-level post.

Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., declared in a post on X that she was ‘appalled’ by the selection of Gabbard for the role. 

‘Not only is she ill-prepared and unqualified, but she traffics in conspiracy theories and cozies up to dictators like Bashar-al Assad and Vladimir Putin,’ Spanberger claimed in a post on X.

Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., called the choice of Gabbard as DNI ‘incredibly reckless,’ declaring in a tweet, ‘Putting someone with known sympathies for foreign adversaries is not putting America’s interests first – it’s putting our security at risk.’

Rep. Seth Magaziner, D-R.I., seemed to suggest that having Gabbard serve as DNI would place national secrets at risk.

‘Tulsi Gabbard’s deep ties to some of our nation’s most dangerous adversaries, including Bashar al-Assad of Syria and Vladimir Putin of Russia, make her an untrustworthy guardian of our nation’s most closely held secrets,’ Magaziner said in the statement. 

‘As the highest-ranking intelligence official in the federal government, she would have access to information spanning everything from our nation’s nuclear weapons program to the location and activities of our military service members, and we cannot risk this information falling into the hands of our adversaries,’ he asserted.

Gabbard served in the U.S. House of Representatives from early 2013 through early 2021 as a Democrat. She mounted a presidential bid in 2019 but ultimately dropped out in 2020 and backed Joe Biden.

The former lawmaker supported Trump during the 2024 election and announced that she was joining the Republican Party.

‘I’ve been a soldier for over 21 years, and currently serve as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army Reserve,’ she noted in a post on Veterans Day this week. 

‘The best way for us to honor our veterans, not just on #VeteransDay, but every day, is to make sure that our men and women in uniform are only sent into harms’ way as a last resort when all diplomatic measures have been exhausted, and actually take care of them and their families, if and when they return home,’ she noted.

Fox News Digital attempted to reach out to Gabbard for comment on Thursday.