Will the House Ethics Report on Matt Gaetz Be Released?

11/21/2024 11:02 AM

Donald Trump has been steadily rolling out the names in his new administration, featuring a mix of typical Republican politicians such as Representative Elise Stefanik and Senator Marco Rubio as well as more wild-card choices like Fox News commentator Pete Hegseth and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. But no nomination has sparked as much fervor on both sides of the aisle as Trump naming Florida representative Matt Gaetz as his U.S. attorney general.

Gaetz, a loyal Trump ally, was an immediately contentious pick, due to his significant lack of legal experience compared to past attorneys general as well as his penchant for antagonizing his congressional colleagues, regardless of party affiliation. The Florida congressman has long been embroiled in numerous ethics investigations including a Justice Department probe into whether he had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old and traveled out of state with her, which could constitute sex trafficking. Though the federal government ultimately ended its inquiry without bringing any charges against Gaetz, the House Ethics Committee revived its investigation in 2023 after deferring to the agency.

The committee's probe, which also looked into whether Gaetz used illegal drugs or misused campaign funds, was set to vote November 15 on whether to publicize its report on the congressman. But that decision was quickly disrupted as Gaetz officially submitted his immediate resignation from the House last week, removing himself from the panel's jurisdiction. The rescheduled meeting for Wednesday left more answers about the report's fate than it answered. The Associated Press reports that the Republicans on the committee voted against releasing the report, pushing the issue back to future meeting in December.

Though the committee can no longer enforce penalties on the now former member, many in Congress have urged the group to move forward with releasing the report, citing its increased importance now that Gaetz is Trump's attorney general pick. "The sequence and timing of Mr. Gaetz's resignation from the House raises serious questions about the contents of the House Ethics Committee report. We cannot allow this valuable information from a bipartisan investigation to be hidden from the American people," Senator Dick Durbin, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a statement.

Others argue that the committee's findings are no longer relevant now that Gaetz has left the House. "The Ethics Committee is not a judicial body; there's not due process there. It's just a committee. Mr. Gaetz is apparently no longer in Congress anymore, so it seems to me that that's nobody's business," said Representative Scott Perry, per Politico.

House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Friday that he's not in favor of releasing the report and he intends to relay his stance to the committee. "I'm going to strongly request that the Ethics Committee not issue the report because that is not the way we do things in the House, and I think that would be a terrible precedent to set," he said, per CNN.

Johnson has also denied discussing the report with Trump and insisted that his comments against the report's release aren't at odds with his earlier refusal to discuss the report because the panel works independently of the speaker.

"The Speaker of the House is not involved in Ethics Committee work. Can't be, shouldn't be, because the speaker can't put a thumb on the scale or have anything to do with that," he said, per Politico. "What I have said with regard to the report is that it should not come out. And why? Because Matt Gaetz resigned from Congress. He is no longer a member."

While the committee's final decision remains unclear, there is no official rule barring the release of an ethics report on a member that has resigned. Previously, the committee publicized reports on former representative William Boner in 1987, as well as Representative Donald Lukens in 1990. It's also possible that the report will be leaked if the committee decides not to release it.