WASHINGTON — Members of the House Ethics Committee will meet behind closed doors Wednesday afternoon. release a public report detailing their extensive investigation into former Rep. Matt GaetzPresident-elect Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general.
Several Senate Republicans and Democrats have said they want it Review the House report Ahead of a Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing for Gaetz next year. But the House speaker, R-La., a close Trump ally, pointed out that the Ethics Committee has jurisdiction only over sitting members, and Gaetz resigned last week after Trump tapped him to lead the Justice Department.
“I have made it very clear that our failure to use the House Ethics Committee to investigate and report individuals who are not members of that institution is a significant impediment to our institution,” Johnson told reporters Tuesday. “Matt Gaetz is no longer a member of the body.”
Bipartisan Ethics Committee — Chairman Michael Guest, R-Miss. and Rep. Susan Wild, D-Pa. – over the past three years, Gaetz, R-Fla., has investigated allegations that he engaged in sexual misconduct and illegal drug use, accepted illegal gifts, gave special favors to people he had personal relationships with, and obstructed. prob.
The committee met with two women testified that Gaetz paid them for sex Joel Leppard, a lawyer for women at a small party in Florida where prostitution is illegal, told NBC News this week. One of the women also testified that she witnessed Gaetz having sex with her friend, who was 17 at the time, Leppard said, adding that she did not believe Gaetz knew her friend’s age at the time.
Leppard added that his clients want the Chamber report made public. “They want the American people to know the truth, and they are telling the truth.”
Gaetz denied all allegations by Trump’s transition team, calling them “baseless,” according to the Justice Department closed An investigation that lasted years without charging Gaetz with a crime.
Trump said Tuesday that he is not reconsidering Gaetz as his attorney general, despite reservations from Republican senators who would oversee his confirmation once Gaetz is formally nominated. Trump wasphones work a lotAnd Vice President JD Vance will be on Capitol Hill Wednesday to discuss Trump’s Cabinet picks with GOP senators, including arranging meetings between key senators and Gaetz, a transition official said. Pete Hegseth, Trump’s pick for defense the secretary.
The Ethics Committee has several options at its private meeting scheduled for Wednesday at 1 p.m. He could vote to make the report public or not to release it, take the exit ramp by sending it to the Senate, or choose to take no action.
The spokesperson of the committee did not comment on the meeting.
Wild, the top Democrat on the committee, said a House report is needed this week “must” be made public and should at least be sent to the Senate. He argued that there is precedent for the Ethics Committee to release reports after members of Congress have resigned.
This happened in the case of Rep. Bill Boehner, D-Tenn., who resigned on Oct. 5, 1987, to become mayor of Nashville. The Ethics Committee issued information preliminary employee report the following December, investigated allegations that Boehner misused campaign funds, failed to disclose gifts, and accepted bribes. The report made no recommendations to the full committee.
“In the Committee’s view, the general policy against reporting in cases such as those here outweighs the Committee’s responsibility to fully inform the public of the status and results of Representative Boehner’s efforts up to the date of his departure from Congress. The Ethics Committee said at the time.
Three years later, the committee a brief personnel report Soon after, Rep. Buz Lukens, R-Ohio, resigned amid allegations that a congressional staffer made unwanted and offensive sexual advances.
If the committee refuses to make the Gaetz report public, any member of the House can force a vote to release it.
In September 1996, House Democrats tdrove to force The Ethics Committee must release an outside consultant’s report on its investigation into then-Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga. The resolution was not adopted during the voting in the House of Representatives.
Catherine Doyle and Jake Traylor contributed.