John Rutherford won’t comment on Matt Gaetz, House Ethics report

A North Florida Congressman has nothing to say about a former colleague and a committee investigation into alleged misdeeds.

But one can read between the lines based on a fractious past history.

U.S. Rep. John Rutherford of Jacksonville, who represents Florida’s 5th Congressional District, did not engage questions about former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz and a House Ethics report that won’t be released as expected this week.

The committee was to vote Friday on making the report public, but Gaetz’s resignation blocked the move to transparency.

Asked if he was “surprised” by Gaetz’s nomination for Attorney General, the former Sheriff hedged.

“I’m not making any comments on that. I’m on the Ethics Committee, so I’m staying clear of that one,” Rutherford said.

Rutherford was an ally of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and he memorably objected to the coup Gaetz led against the California Republican.

He accused Gaetz of having “led House Democrats and a handful of dissenters in handing the House back to the Far Left,” adding that it was “a lie to characterize this as anything but a personal vendetta.”

The House Ethics Committee inquiry was still probing whether Gaetz engaged in sexual misconduct or illegal drug use, and whether he granted special favors to romantic interests.

In June, Gaetz proclaimed his innocence in matters declared resolved.

“The House Ethics Committee has closed four probes into me, which emerged from lies intended solely to smear me,“ Gaetz posted on X. “Instead of working with me to ban Congressional stock trading, the Ethics Committee is now opening new frivolous investigations. They are doing this to avoid the obvious fact that every investigation into me ends the same way: my exoneration.”

In June, the committee lamented the “difficulty in obtaining relevant information from Representative Gaetz and others,” but suggested an exhaustive review of evidence, including conversations “with more than a dozen witnesses … 25 subpoenas and (review of) thousands of pages of documents in this matter.”

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Jacob Ogles of Florida Politics contributed to this report.