Report: Mike Johnson warns against releasing House Ethics probe on Matt Gaetz
Mike Johnson. Image via AP.

Mike Johnson - 2024-04-19T035017.785
'That is not the way we do things in the House.'

Potentially good news is closing the week regarding former Rep. Matt Gaetz’s next move.

The Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives is trying to put the brakes on a document that could harm Donald Trump’s pick for Attorney General.

“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,” Rep. Mike Johnson told POLITICO. “And I think that would be a terrible precedent to set.”

Ethics Chair Michael Guest isn’t saying yet whether a draft document will be shared with the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The Committee will examine the Panhandle Republican’s job qualifications and personal history.

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn said he “absolutely” wants full disclosure on the House probe, insisting “there should not be any limitations on the Senate Judiciary Committee’s investigation, including whatever the House Ethics Committee generates.”

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.”

The allegations go back to a widely reported sex scandal involving Gaetz that stemmed from a probe of crimes by former Seminole County Tax Collector and Gaetz associate Joel Greenberg.

The New York Times in March 2021 first reported on a Justice Department investigation into whether Gaetz had ever illegally sex-trafficked a minor across state lines. However, federal prosecutors in February of 2023 ultimately decided not to charge Gaetz with any crime.

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Jacob Ogles of Florida Politics contributed to this report.

A.G. Gancarski

A.G. Gancarski has been the Northeast Florida correspondent for Florida Politics since 2014. His work also can be seen in the Washington Post, the New York Post, the Washington Times, and National Review, among other publications. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter: @AGGancarski


15 comments

  • PeterH

    November 15, 2024 at 12:17 pm

    The ethics committee has a responsibility to tell the American people their findings. Leak the document if necessary.

    The Speaker is fully aware that if Matt Gaetz applied for ANY JOB at the FBI he would be turned away.

    • EARL PITTS AMERICAN

      November 15, 2024 at 2:26 pm

      The “DOOK 4 BRAINS ETHICS REPORT” is full of Dook 4 Brains Leftist lies because it was banged together “BACK IN THE DAY” when the DOOKS thought they would beat the “GOOD GUYS”
      IN CLOSING:
      Mike Johnson is trying to do The DOOKS a favor by not releasing this “REPORT OF LIES”
      THIS SAGE WISDOM HAS BEEN BROUGHT TO YOU COURTSEY OF THE EARL PITTS AMERICAN FAN CLUB.

  • FLPatriot

    November 15, 2024 at 12:28 pm

    GOP hiding the truth.

    • A Day without MAGA

      November 15, 2024 at 12:31 pm

      GOP cannot handle the truth

  • CW

    November 15, 2024 at 12:28 pm

    If releasing the results of the House Ethics Committee investigation show no impropriety by Rep. Gaetz it should be a non issue. I suspect there is a lot of damaging information being kept from the American public. The political games being played are quite disgusting.

  • A Day without MAGA Rapist

    November 15, 2024 at 12:30 pm

    You can scratch Hegseth Kennedy and Gaetz Making Rape Great Again Google Hegseth Sexual Assaults Google RFK Jr Sexual Assaults Gaetz

  • JD

    November 15, 2024 at 1:20 pm

    If he has nothing to hide, release the f@cking report. Puss!es.

    They know Gaetz is dead to rights. This feels like Hitler is in control.

    Tell me how it would not benefits the American people to release the report? How does it square? You all got nothing. Circle the wagons around the rest of the crooks like the mafia.

  • Cat 5 Sara

    November 15, 2024 at 1:40 pm

    They have a Cuban help Trump with his deportation scheme, when 10 of thousands of Cuban are being deported back to Cuba,where Rubio outrage, Mexican are not like Cuban,they travel back and forth to Mexico Google Cuban Deportation

  • Skeptic

    November 15, 2024 at 1:40 pm

    Releasing a report that displays the unethical conduct of a nominee to be Attorney General of the U.S. is not the way things are done in the Republican controlled people’s house. Sounds about right.

    • White Spiteful Demon

      November 16, 2024 at 11:43 am

      Democrats are striking distance in California,in taking 3 Republican seat and one in Alaska, giving them the majority Google California US House Seat Google Alaska House Seat

    • MH/Duuuval

      November 16, 2024 at 12:43 pm

      There was a recent example of the ethics committee releasing their report on a retired Democrat from Tennessee that came out this week. Not that that matters to Johnson, Trump, or any of the diehard MAGAs, who simply intend to wear down their political opponents.

  • MarvinM

    November 15, 2024 at 3:54 pm

    Well, all that did not convince me there is any good reason the report should not be released before the Senate has to vote whether or not to let Gaetz become the Attorney General.

    Again everybody, the committee is a House committee which is headed by a Republican and has a Republican majority. This is not anywhere near “weaponization” territory.

    If transparency is what you believe in, you believe the report should be released.

    • MH/Duuuval

      November 17, 2024 at 10:21 am

      Here’s the present lineup for the ethics panel, which is equally divided:
      Republicans
      Chairman Michael Guest, Mississippi
      David P. Joyce, Ohio
      John H. Rutherford, Florida (Will he or won’t he?)
      Andrew R. Garbarino, New York
      Michelle Fischbach, Minnesota

      Democrats
      Ranking Member Susan Wild, Pennsylvania
      Veronica Escobar, Texas
      Mark DeSaulnier, California
      Deborah K. Ross, North Carolina
      Glenn F. Ivey, Maryland

  • MH/Duuuval

    November 15, 2024 at 5:22 pm

    Heisenberg would enjoy the political situation here in the US today: Everything is in motion, and the First Principle is a faithless, sexual predator.

  • Along for the Ride

    November 16, 2024 at 6:12 pm

    Release the report! Release the report!!

Comments are closed.


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