Nov. 19 (UPI) — The House Ethics Committee is expected to meet Wednesday to discuss whether its ethics report on former Rep. Matt Gaetz — who is President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general — should be made public, according to reports.
The committee had been scheduled to discuss the report at its regular meeting Friday, but that was postponed after Gaetz, R-Fla., resigned from the House earlier in the week. That meeting has been rescheduled for Wednesday, two sources told CNN, NBC and Politico.
At issue is whether the committee can release the report following Gaetz’s resignation from Congress last week after Trump tapped him to become attorney general.
Gaetz, 42, who is scheduled to face the U.S. Senate for confirmation hearings next year, has denied allegations of sexual misconduct with a 17-year-old girl. He has also denied illicit drug use and accepting improper gifts.
While the details of the report have not been made public, two committee members say the report should be released.
“It absolutely should be released to the public,” said Rep. Susan Wild, D-Pa. “And, well, it should certainly be released to the Senate, and I think it should be released to the public, as we have done with many other investigative reports in the past. There is a precedent for releasing even after a member has resigned.”
Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma agrees.
“I believe the Senate should have access to that now … That should be definitely part of our decision-making,” Mullin told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday.
“Once again, I go back to Article II, Section 2 in the Constitution. The Senate has to advise and consent these individuals,” he added. “In that process, we’re going to give Matt Gaetz the same chances we’ll give all of President Trump’s nominees.”
On Friday, House Speaker Mike Johnson opposed calls to release the House Ethics Committee report on Gaetz, saying “that is not the way we do things in the House.”
“The rules of the House have always been that a former member is beyond the jurisdiction of the Ethics Committee. And so I don’t think that’s relevant,” Johnson added, saying, “I think it’s a terrible breach of protocol and tradition.”
Some are questioning the timing of Gaetz’s resignation, saying it was strategic in order to prevent the ethics panel from releasing its report.
“The sequence and timing of Mr. Gaetz’s resignation from the House raises serious questions about the contents of the House Ethics Committee report and findings,” Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee wrote in a letter sent Thursday to ranking Democrats on the House committee.
“We cannot allow this critical information from a bipartisan investigation into longstanding public allegations to be hidden from the American people,” the letter states, “given that it is directly relevant to the question of whether Mr. Gaetz is qualified and fit to be the next Attorney General of the United States.”
