Fate of Matt Gaetz ethics report up in the air as his ex-colleagues debate its release

Matt Gaetz may be done with the House of Representatives, but his former colleagues aren’t through with him yet.

Lawmakers on Thursday are expected to decide the fate of the long-awaited House ethics report into sexual misconduct allegations against Gaetz, with many pressing for its release even though the Florida Republican has left Congress and withdrawn as President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Attorney General. Gaetz denies the allegations.

The bipartisan committee planned to vote in the afternoon on whether to make public the findings of their yearslong inquiry. If they decide against that disclosure, Democrats are poised to force votes on the House floor requiring the committee to publish the full report.

It’s the culmination of weeks of pressure on the committee’s five Republicans and five Democrats who mostly work in secret as they investigate allegations of misconduct against lawmakers.

The status of the Gaetz investigation became an open question last month when he abruptly resigned from Congress after Trump’s announcement that he wanted his ally in the Cabinet. It is standard practice for the committee to end investigations when members of Congress depart, but the circumstances surrounding Gaetz were unusual, given his potential role in the new administration.

Rep. Michael Guest, a Mississippi Republican and the committee Chairman, said Wednesday that there is no longer the same urgency to release the report given that Gaetz has left Congress and stepped aside as Trump’s choice to head the Justice Department. Guest said he will not vote to make the report public.

“I’ve been steadfast about that. He’s no longer a member. He is no longer going to be confirmed by the Senate because he withdrew his nomination to be the attorney general,” Guest said. “But I am only a single vote of 10. I don’t control the remainder of the committee. We have nine other members who have the ability to continue to weigh in on this issue.”

Gaetz has denied any wrongdoing and said last year that the Justice Department’s separate investigation against him into sex trafficking allegations involving underage girls ended without federal charges.

His onetime political ally Joel Greenberg, a fellow Republican who served as the Tax Collector in Florida’s Seminole County, admitted as part of a plea deal with prosecutors in 2021 that he paid women and an underage girl to have sex with him and other men. The men were not identified in court documents when he pleaded guilty. Greenberg was sentenced in late 2022 to 11 years in prison.

___

Republished with permission of The Associated Press.