Washington — Home Speaker Mike Johnson mentioned Friday that he would “strongly request” that the Home Ethics Committee withhold a probably damaging report on its investigation into whether or not former Rep. Matt Gaetz engaged in sexual misconduct, illicit drug use and bribery.
Gaetz resigned from Congress on Wednesday after President-elect Donald Trump introduced he meant to appoint the Florida Republican as legal professional basic. The timing got here days earlier than a Home panel was set to vote on releasing a report on the allegations towards Gaetz. The Home Ethics Committee deliberate to take its vote Friday however canceled late Thursday.
Gaetz was additionally the topic of a earlier Justice Division investigation that sought to find out if he violated intercourse trafficking and obstruction of justice legal guidelines. No expenses had been filed, and Gaetz has denied any wrongdoing.
“The foundations of the Home have all the time been {that a} former member is past the jurisdiction of the Ethics Committee,” Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, informed reporters.
Johnson mentioned releasing the report would set a “horrible precedent” and “open up Pandora’s field.”
“I imagine it is extremely necessary to take care of the home’s custom of not issuing ethics experiences on people who find themselves not members of Congress,” he mentioned. “The Home Ethics Committee’s jurisdiction is over sitting members of Congress. That is an necessary rule.”
Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has referred to as on the Home panel to share the report and “all related documentation” on Gaetz along with his committee. The Senate Judiciary Committee is chargeable for conducting affirmation hearings for the legal professional basic nominee.
“The sequence and timing of Mr. Gaetz’s resignation from the Home raises severe questions in regards to the contents of the Home Ethics Committee report,” Durbin mentioned in a press release Thursday. “We can not permit this worthwhile data from a bipartisan investigation to be hidden from the American individuals. Make no mistake: this data might be related to the query of Mr. Gaetz’s affirmation as the following legal professional basic of the USA and our constitutional accountability of recommendation and consent.”
Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, additionally mentioned he desires to see the report. GOP Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota is not on the Judiciary Committee however mentioned in an interview on CNN, “We should always have the ability to come up with [the report], and we must always have entry to it a method or one other, based mostly on the best way we do all of those nominations.”
contributed to this report.
