A growing chorus of voices are calling for the release of a much-hyped House Ethics report on Rep. Matt Gaetz, who resigned Wednesday shortly after earning President-elect Donald Trump’s nod for attorney general.
House Ethics had been investigating the Florida Republican for sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, among other allegations. The committee was set to vote Friday on the release of a damaging report, Punchbowl News first reported, but then came his surprise resignation.
“The sequence and timing of Mr. Gaetz’s resignation from the House raises serious questions about the contents of the House Ethics Committee report. We cannot allow this valuable information from a bipartisan investigation to be hidden from the American people,” Senate Judiciary Chair Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., said in a statement Thursday.
“Make no mistake: this information could be relevant to the question of Mr. Gaetz’s confirmation as the next Attorney General of the United States and our constitutional responsibility of advice and consent,” Durbin continued, calling on House Ethics to preserve and share the report and all relevant documentation.
Speaker Mike Johnson said Wednesday that the Ethics Committee would no longer have jurisdiction over a former member, effectively ending the investigation into Gaetz. And House Ethics Chairman Michael Guest, R-Miss., told reporters that once Gaetz resigned, no report would be issued, according to Fox News. Tom Rust, the committee staff director and chief counsel, declined to comment.
But that doesn’t necessarily have to be the case. While Durbin is calling for the House committee to share its findings with Senate Judiciary members, ethics experts and others want a public airing.
Several Judiciary Committee Democrats echoed Durbin’s calls on Thursday. Sen. Richard Blumenthal described the Ethics report as “essential to the nomination.”
“I also think the Department of Justice investigation materials should be provided, perhaps privately, since the investigation is closed and no charges have been brought. But we have a duty to examine all those materials,” said Blumenthal, D-Conn.
Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., said seeing the report was “absolutely critical if there’s going to be a genuine consideration hearing in the Judiciary Committee.”
GOP Sen. John Cornyn of Texas also told reporters he wanted to see the report, but other Republicans on the panel were less interested.
“I’ll leave that up to them,” said Judiciary ranking member Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., when asked if House Ethics should release the report. Asked about the Gaetz report as he was entering an elevator, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, smiled and said nothing as the doors closed. Republicans will control the chamber next year.
Gaetz has been hostile to the House Ethics investigation, declaring in a letter to the committee in September, which he posted on X, that he would “no longer voluntarily participate in this regrettable use of the Committee,” which he described as a “political payback exercise” that was “uncomfortably nosey.”
Gaetz has not been charged with any crime. The Justice Department last year concluded a yearslong sex trafficking investigation without charging Gaetz.
A lawsuit brought by Gaetz’s friend and former member of the Florida House of Representatives Chris Dorworth, which alleges defamation, has produced a trove of documents, including a deposition of a woman with whom Gaetz allegedly had sex with while she was still a minor. ABC News reported in October that the House Ethics Committee had subpoenaed documents from the lawsuit. John Clune, an attorney representing the woman, weighed in on X Thursday morning.
“Mr. Gaetz’s likely nomination as Attorney General is a perverse development in a truly dark series of events,” Clune wrote. “We would support the House Ethics Committee immediately releasing their report. She was a high school student and there were witnesses.”
Gaetz has publicly denied having sex with a minor, writing in his letter to the Ethics Committee, “Your correspondence … asks whether I have engaged in sexual activity with any individual under 18. The answer to this question is unequivocally NO.”
Continuing an investigation after the resignation of a member is rare but not unprecedented, according to Donald K. Sherman, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and a former counsel for the House Ethics Committee.
In a thread posted to X Wednesday night, Sherman said during his time on the committee, allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced involving former Rep. Eric Massa. The New York Democrat resigned in March 2010, but a month later the Ethics Committee voted to launch an investigation of the matter. A year later, they voted to reauthorize the probe.
“While the Committee lost their jurisdiction to sanction Gaetz for misconduct due to his resignation, they do have the authority to vote their investigative report out of Committee and make it public,” Sherman wrote. “They should use this power and release the Gaetz report, exhibits & findings.”
Kedric Payne, vice president and general counsel at Campaign Legal Center, said often the goal or effect of releasing an Ethics report showing wrongdoing is to push a member out of Congress. With Gaetz already headed for the exits, there may be less incentive in this case to air out any findings, though Payne said given his nomination nod from Trump, fellow lawmakers may feel a responsibility to inform the public.
“The very important part here is that Gaetz could end up having a higher office in the administration, which means you need to have as much transparency as possible before he is confirmed,” Payne said.
Gaetz came to Congress in 2017 and became a polarizing figure within the House GOP conference. He helped lead the ouster of former Rep. Kevin McCarthy as speaker last October and has feuded with the California Republican since.
Earlier this year during an interview at Georgetown University, McCarthy said Gaetz wanted him out of the speakership because he refused to stop or influence the Ethics investigation into Gaetz.
Craig Holman, a government affairs lobbyist at Public Citizen, said while normally the Ethics Committee would shut everything down once a member left office, the odd circumstances surrounding Gaetz’s exit and his mixed reputation on the Hill could produce a different result.
“I think many members of the House Ethics Committee are really disgusted with Matt Gaetz for blocking and not participating with the investigation, and then the nature of the [alleged] crime itself,” Holman said. “Plus, I do know many members of the House are just elated that Matt Gaetz is finally leaving. It’s rather unique.”
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