House Ethics Committee declines to release report on Matt Gaetz investigation

The House Ethics Committee declined Wednesday to release a report on a yearslong investigation of former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz.

“There has been no agreement to release the report,” U.S. Rep. Michael Guest, House Ethics Committee Chair, told reporters after a two-hour closed-door meeting.

Guest, a Mississippi Republican, ahead of the meeting suggested reservations about a release after calling the report a “working product.” That conflicts with reporting, however, that the committee expected to release the report last week, days after Gaetz resigned his seat in Congress.

Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Susan Wild, a Pennsylvania Democrat, disputed Guest’s characterization and told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins there was no consensus on the vote, and that the committee will again meet on Dec. 5.

Gaetz, a Fort Walton Beach Republican, resigned after President-elect Donald Trump announced the four-term Congressman as his choice for Attorney General. But other members of Congress nominated for administration posts have not left their current position yet, and word of the potential Ethics Committee report sparked questions about why Gaetz took that step.

A House announcement after Gaetz’s resignation made clear he did not intend to take the oath of office for a fifth term, to which he was elected in November.

Members of the Senate, including some Republicans, have said they want to see the report before a confirmation vote on Gaetz as Attorney General.

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, said he would support subpoenaing the report from the House if necessary, according to NBC News.

“We need to have a complete vetting of the nominees, not only so we know that the nominee is qualified, but also to protect the President,” Cornyn said.

But House Speaker Mike Johnson has publicly opposed the release of the report in the wake of Gaetz’s resignation, saying the House only investigated members of Congress.

“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,” Johnson told reporters last week. “And I think that would be a terrible precedent to set.”

But the decision ultimately falls to the Ethics Committee, not the Speaker’s Office. Democrats have said the report should be released.

In June, the Committee announced it was expanding its investigation into sexual misconduct or illegal drug use allegations, and whether he granted special favors to romantic interests. The panel also announced it would not take any action on a number of other accusations leveled against the Fort Walton Beach Republican.

“Representative Gaetz has categorically denied all of the allegations before the Committee,” a statement released at the time stated. “Notwithstanding the difficulty in obtaining relevant information from Representative Gaetz and others, the Committee has spoken with more than a dozen witnesses, issued 25 subpoenas and reviewed thousands of pages of documents in this matter.”

Interest in the report stepped up since Trump said he wants Gaetz to head the Justice Department, which earlier this year ended its own investigation into Gaetz over allegations of sex trafficking a minor.

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. But federal prosecutors in February of 2023 ultimately decided not to charge Gaetz with any crime.

Since Gaetz’s nomination as Attorney General, an attorney for a witness who spoke to the House Ethics Committee told ABC News she witnessed Gaetz have sex with a minor at an Orlando house party.

Those allegations were consistent with accusations in a court filing in September accusing Gaetz of attending a party at a Lake Mary lobbyist in 2017. Those allege a woman identified as A.B. was recruited to attend the party and have sex with men while she was still a minor.

Gaetz has repeatedly denied all accusations of wrongdoing.