Late last month, after the House Ethics Committee voted not to release the results of its investigation into lawmaker turned Trump attorney general nominee turned Newsmax host Matt Gaetz, who faces sexual misconduct allegations, among others, the ex-GOP congressman likely breathed several sighs of relief. But apparently he shouldn’t have, because the House panel giveth and the House panel taketh away. Which is another way of saying that on Wednesday, it emerged that the committee decided the report would indeed be made public.
CNN and numerous other outlets reported today that the ethics group “secretly voted earlier this month to release its report into the conduct of former rep. Matt Gaetz before the end of this Congress, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the matter. The report is now expected to be made public after the House’s final day of votes this year as lawmakers leave Washington for the holidays, those sources said.” According to CNN, it is extremely rare for an ethics report to be released once a lawmaker has left Congress, “though it has happened on a couple of occasions in the past.” The committee reportedly “revisited the issue” after “a feud over the report spilled into public view before Thanksgiving.”
The congressional probe into Gaetz initially began under former Speaker Nancy Pelosi; it was then paused at the request of the Justice Department, which was conducting its own investigation into allegations that the Florida congressman had paid for sex with a minor and broken federal sex trafficking laws. (Gaetz has repeatedly denied all allegations of wrongdoing.) In February 2023, prosecutors decided not to charge the Florida lawmaker, and shortly after that, the House reopened its probe, reportedly contacting witnesses as early as June 2023. In June of this year, the committee released a statement confirming the probe and saying it was “reviewing allegations pursuant to Committee Rules 14(a)(3) and 18(a) that Representative Gaetz may have: engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, accepted improper gifts, dispensed special privileges and favors to individuals with whom he had a personal relationship, and sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct.”
Gaetz was one of the first people Donald Trump nominated to serve in his second-term Cabinet, with the incoming president selecting him for attorney general. Just over a week later, Gaetz withdrew from consideration for the job, saying that his “confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance Transition.” After the news emerged Wednesday that the ethics report would be released, he wrote on X that he had been “FULLY EXONERATED” by the Department of Justice probe and that he “NEVER had sexual contact with someone under 18.” He added: “My 30’s were an era of working very hard – and playing hard too. It’s embarrassing, though not criminal, that I probably partied, womanized, drank and smoked more than I should have earlier in life. I live a different life now.”
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