Speaker Johnson Will Not Request House Ethics Committee to Release Report on Matt Gaetz
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) announced on Friday that he will not wish for the House Ethics Committee to release its report regarding former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz.
The decision comes as President-elect Donald Trump announced his nomination for Gaetz to serve as his attorney general. Since then, there have been bipartisan calls for the report to be released.
The report lays out details, accusing the former congressman of sexual misconduct and drug abuse.
Releasing the report would violate the guidelines set by the Ethics Committee since Gaetz resigned from his position following Trump’s nomination. As a result, the committee no longer holds authority over the former representative.
Those in favor of the report argue that its contents are crucial for determining whether Gaetz should be confirmed by the Senate, asserting that the public deserves access to this information to make an informed decision, according to the Daily Mail.
Despite the criticism, Johnson urged the committee to withhold the potentially damaging file and refrain from releasing it, emphasizing the need to carefully consider the potential impact before making any information public.
“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,” Johnson said Friday.
Prior to Gaetz’s resignation, the Ethics Committee was scheduled to meet on Friday to determine if the report would be released.
Gaetz was accused of having sexual contact with a woman who said that she was 17 at the time of the encounter. She said that she had sex with the politician when she was a minor in high school, as Resist the Mainstream reported in September.
The FBI also conducted an investigation on Gaetz for the same allegations; however, the Justice Department decided not to charge him over sex trafficking a minor.
As news of the allegations resurfaces, sources indicate that Republicans in the Senate oppose approving him to be the next attorney general.
At least 30 Republicans are rumored to vote against his nomination, per The Wall Street Journal.
“The President’s role is to make the nomination, but we need to have complete vetting of the nominees, not only so we know that the nominee is qualified, but also to protect the president,” Republican Texas Sen. John Cornyn said on Thursday, insisting that he “absolutely” would like to review the committee’s report, even if it means pursuing legal action.
“There’s various ways we can glean access to it, we can subpoena it. I don’t I don’t think any of us want to fly blind,” the politician told reporters.
Johnson’s announcement comes as he endorsed Gaetz as the next attorney general, calling him “one of the most intelligent members of Congress.”
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