Breaking: House Ethics Committee Holds Off on Releasing Gaetz Report

novembre 20, 2024

The bipartisan House Ethics Committee did not come to an agreement during a Wednesday meeting on releasing a highly-anticipated investigative report about allegations against former Representative Matt Gaetz (R., Fla.), whom president-elect Donald Trump has tapped to become the next U.S. attorney general.

"There was not an agreement by the committee to release the report," Representative Michael Guest (R., Miss.), who chairs the committee, told reporters after the two-hour, closed-door meeting ended Wednesday afternoon. Guest noted he would not be discussing internal deliberations with reporters.

The House Ethics Committee held votes on whether it should release the unfinished report and whether it should complete the report, according to Punchbowl News. The former vote was deadlocked along partisan lines, while the latter vote was supported by a majority but wasn’t unanimous.

Representative Susan Wild of Pennsylvania, the ranking Democrat on the committee, suggested all Democrats voted in favor of releasing the report to the public while Republicans were wholly opposed to the move. “There was no consensus on this issue,” she told reporters. The committee will reconvene on December 5.

Wild criticized Guest for giving a brief statement to the press after committee members agreed they would not be discussing internal deliberations.

“We had agreed that we were not going to discuss what had transpired at the meeting, but it has come to my attention that the chairman has since betrayed the process by disclosing our deliberations within moments after walking out of the committee,” she said. “He has implied that there was an agreement of the committee not to disclose the report.”

Unlike other House committees, the ten-member Ethics panel is equally divided between Republicans and Democrats. Only one Republican vote was needed to make the report public.

The report could have also been sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is expected to consider Gaetz’s nomination to lead the Department of Justice once Republicans retake control of Congress in January. It appears there was no vote on passing the report along to the Senate committee.

Gaetz resigned from the House last week after Trump picked him for the high-ranking position.

Senator John Cornyn (R., Texas) said Tuesday that if House Ethics chooses to withhold the Gaetz report after the meeting, the Senate Judiciary will call forward witnesses who know about Gaetz’s alleged misconduct to testify.

The House Ethics Committee has been investigating allegations that Gaetz took illicit drugs, committed statutory rape by paying for sex with a 17-year-old girl, misused campaign funds, and accepted bribes or gifts — actions that would have violated congressional rules.

One of the two women who testified to House Ethics observed Gaetz having sex with her 17-year-old friend, according to a lawyer for the witness. Gaetz did not know about his companion’s age until after the sexual encounter. It allegedly occurred in 2017 when Gaetz was a freshman lawmaker.

The Justice Department initially investigated Gaetz for sexually abusing the minor and taking her across state lines, but later dropped that probe without filing any charges. The former Florida congressman has denied the allegations.