The House Ethics Committee postponed a meeting scheduled for Friday about its report into the alleged wrongdoing of Matt Gaetz, President-elect Donald Trump’s highly controversial pick for attorney general.
The committee had been due to vote at the meeting on publishing the findings of an investigation into serious claims against Gaetz, including that he had sex with a minor and used illicit drugs, according to reports.
The Florida Republican resigned from his House seat on Wednesday just hours after Trump announced his nomination for AG, bringing the committee’s investigation to an abrupt end.
ADVERTISEMENT
Ethics chairman Michael Guest (R-MS) said the key meeting had been postponed, but not canceled, according to Politico.
Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers have called for the report to be released, particularly as Gaetz’s confirmation as attorney general requires the approval of the Senate.
Multiple lawmakers have already cast doubt on the likelihood of that sign-off, with Rep. Max Miller (R-OH) telling Axios that Gaetz “has a better shot at having dinner with Queen Elizabeth II,” the late British monarch, “than being confirmed by the Senate.”
“I don’t want there to be any limitation at all on what the Senate could consider,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) said, according to Reuters, adding that he “absolutely” wants to see the ethics report.
Dick Durbin, the Democratic chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, separately called on the Ethics Committee to release the report. “We cannot allow this valuable information from a bipartisan investigation to be hidden from the American people,” the Illinois senator said in a statement. “Make no mistake: this information could be relevant to the question of Mr. Gaetz’s confirmation as the next Attorney General of the United States and our constitutional responsibility of advice and consent.”
On Friday, Guest declined to say if his panel would be prepared to share its report with the Senate Judiciary Committee, saying the Ethics members have to meet first.
“We’ve not met as a committee, and so at this point, there’s nothing that I’m sure I can’t comment about,” he said, according to Politico. He also rebuffed suggestions that he feared potential blowback from Trump’s supporters if the report was released and said leadership had not pressured him.
Some Republicans have already publicly expressed opposition to the report being made public or dismissed its potential implications.
Jim Jordan (R-OH), the House Judiciary Committee chairman, on Thursday argued against allowing the report to come to light. “It’s my understanding that it’s not supposed to go public,” he said during a Fox News interview Thursday night. “So if it’s not supposed to under the rules, it shouldn’t go public.”
He went on to praise Gaetz’s “cross-examination skills” and described what he wanted to see from the next head of the DOJ. “I want someone at the Justice Department who can tell us who planted the pipe bombs on January 6, who leaked the Dobbs opinion, who put cocaine at the White House instead of all the other stuff they seem to be focused on,” Jordan said.
Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL) also said the Ethics Committee the report shouldn’t be released.
“He’s no longer a member. It’s moot to me,” Rogers said, according to The Hill. On the question of whether or not Gaetz is qualified to be the next attorney general, Rogers said it’s “the president’s decision.”
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) was similarly dismissive of the report on Friday.
Noting that the report had been “scrapped” after Gaetz’s resignation from his House seat, Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo asked Norman for his thoughts on whether Gaetz can actually get confirmed as attorney general.
“Look, Matt Gaetz is a brilliant legal mind,” Norman answered. “Matt Gaetz will—he will be the left-wing socialists’ worst enemy. I think he will get confirmed. Matt can handle himself. He has nothing to hide—the DOJ dismissed all the charges.”
The Justice Department for years investigated allegations against Gaetz—including sex trafficking and obstruction of justice—eventually informing him in 2023 that they would not file charges.
The House Ethics Committee nevertheless launched an inquiry in 2021 into the claims of sexual misconduct and other wrongdoing. The investigation was reportedly in its final stages this week when Gaetz resigned from office.
On Thursday, sources familiar with the DOJ sex trafficking investigation told ABC News that a woman at the heart of the allegations testified to the House Ethics Committee that she had sex with Gaetz when she was 17-years-old.
The woman, who is now in her 20s, was reportedly subpoenaed by the House panel over the summer and testified that she’d had sex with the now-former congressman when she was a minor in high school, according to the report.
