WASHINGTON — On Thursday, members of the House are scheduled to vote on whether to require the Ethics Committee to make public the findings of a thorough, multi-year investigation into former Representative Matt Gaetz, R-Fla.
The bipartisan Ethics panel will meet in private for a second time this afternoon to decide whether to release the findings on Gaetz’s alleged sexual misbehavior with a 17-year-old girl, illegal drug usage, obstruction of the House investigation, and other charges.
Some Senate Republicans privately stated that they would not vote to approve Gaetz as President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general because he refuted the accusations.
On November 13, the day Gaetz resigned from Congress, Trump named Gaetz as his choice for attorney general. The 10-member panel was unable to reach a consensus on publishing the report on Gaetz before Thanksgiving, on November 20. However, on November 21, Gaetz resigned his bid to lead the Justice Department, a decision that Ethics Chairman Michael Guest, R-Miss., said should put a stop to the debate over the report’s release.
On Wednesday, the guest refused to respond to inquiries regarding the issue.
On Thursday, the Ethics panel will convene once more. The entire House is anticipated to vote on the issue in the evening, recording the votes of all members, if the panel is unable to come to a consensus. On Tuesday, two Democrats, Representatives Steve Cohen of Tennessee and Sean Casten of Illinois, presented resolutions centered on the Gaetz report.
While Cohen’s proposal would compel the committee to preserve and make public the records of its review of Gaetz, Casten’s resolution would order the committee to make its report publicly available. The resolutions must be voted on within two parliamentary days due to their privileged status.
It is anticipated that the votes will mostly follow party lines. With Gaetz publicly teasing a 2026 run for governor of Florida or being discussed for another possible position in the Trump White House that could not require Senate confirmation, Democrats are pushing for the report’s release.
However, no Republican has expressed a desire for the report to be made public, claiming that the Ethics Committee only has authority over current members of Congress and not former ones. Republicans are predicted to succeed in tabling or killing the Casten and Cohen resolutions despite their slim majority.
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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