WASHINGTON—A report by the Ethics Committee on a thorough, multi-year investigation of former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., a close ally and confidant of President-elect Donald Trump, was not released by House members on Thursday.
Republicans voted to send the issue back to the Ethics Committee after Democrats pushed the votes, temporarily putting an end to the dispute over the report’s release. It’s unclear if the report will ever be made public.
The votes followed the nonpartisan Ethics panel’s second private meeting in as many months regarding whether to release the findings on Gaetz’s alleged sexual misconduct with a 17-year-old girl, illegal drug usage, obstruction of the House investigation, and other charges.
However, the panel did not make the report public after two and a half hours, stating in a statement that it was “continuing to discuss the matter.” Michael Guest, R-Miss., the Ethics Chairman, assured reporters that his committee will reconvene before the year’s conclusion.
Guest responded, “I’m not going to speculate on future action that the committee may take,” when asked if the committee would still vote to make the findings public.
As they departed the gathering, other panelists from both major parties remained silent. Rep. Susan Wild of Pennsylvania, the leading Democrat on the committee, did not attend the meeting and her office did not respond.
Some Senate Republicans privately stated that they would not vote to approve Gaetz as Trump’s attorney general because he refuted the accusations.
The 10-member Ethics panel was unable to reach a consensus on publishing the findings on Gaetz before Thanksgiving on November 20. On November 13, the day Gaetz resigned from Congress, Trump named Gaetz as his choice to head the Justice Department.
However, on November 21, Gaetz pulled his name from consideration, a move that Guest said at the time should put a stop to the conversation about making the findings public.
The Ethics Committee would not proceed, so the entire House took action Thursday night, recording every legislator. With resolutions centered on the Gaetz report, two Democrats, Representatives Steve Cohen of Tennessee and Sean Casten of Illinois, compelled the votes.
While Cohen’s resolution would have compelled the committee to preserve and make public the records of its review of Gaetz, Casten’s resolution would have instructed the committee to make its report publicly available. The resolutions have to be voted on within two legislative days because they were introduced on Tuesday as privileged.
However, the resolutions were blocked by Republicans who voted to refer them to the Ethics panel. Only one Republican, Rep. Tom McClintock of California, voted against the House’s 206-198 decision to send the Casten resolution to the committee.
McClintock was the only Republican to join with Democrats once more as the chamber voted 204-198 to move the Cohen resolution to the committee.
With Gaetz publicly teasing a 2026 run for governor of Florida or being named for another possible position in the Trump White House that might not require Senate confirmation, Democrats have pushed for the report’s release.
Republicans, on the other hand, opposed the report’s release, claiming that the Ethics Committee only had authority over current members of Congress and not former ones.
In September 1996, House Democrats attempted to accomplish the same goal by pressuring the Ethics Committee to publish a report conducted by an outside counsel regarding their investigation of then-Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga. However, in a floor vote, the House rejected the measure.
This time, Democrats are retaliating against the GOP’s claim that the Ethics panel is not permitted to release a report on a recently resigned member. The Ethics panel has published reports on former politicians on several occasions, according to Casten’s resolution.
For instance, Rep. Bill Boner, a Democrat from Tennessee, resigned on October 5, 1987, to take a position as mayor of Nashville. The following December, the Ethics Committee issued a preliminary staff report that looked into claims that Boner took bribes, misappropriated campaign funds, and concealed gifts.
Additionally, the Ethics panel published its report on the subject in 2006, following the resignation of Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., due to allegations that she had sent explicit electronic communications to at least one adolescent former congressional page.
Given the gravity of the accusations made against Representative Gaetz, Casten’s resolution declares that the House of Representatives’ Committee on Ethics’ failure to make its report on its investigation publicly available damages the committee’s reputation and jeopardizes the integrity, safety, and dignity of the House’s legislative process.
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