Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is urging the House Ethics Committee not to release its yearslong investigation into Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), reversing course from earlier this week when he told reporters he would not get involved.
“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 Friday. “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’s response is a change in tune from earlier this week when the speaker told reporters he “is not involved” in the committee’s decision to release the report, even going so far as to say he “can’t be involved in that.”
Questions began to swirl about whether the committee should release its findings into Gaetz after President-elect Donald Trump nominated the Florida Republican for attorney general, prompting him to resign from his House seat right away. The Ethics Committee was reportedly scheduled to meet this week to vote on releasing the report, raising eyebrows about whether the timing of Gaetz’s departure is suspicious.
House GOP leaders were quick to distance themselves from that decision, telling reporters they have nothing to do with the Ethics Committee’s decisions or timing on its reports. However, it is not clear if Johnson shifted his tone because of private conversations with Trump.
“I’m not talking to anybody about what I’ve said to Trump,” Johnson told reporters when asked if the president-elect played a role in his comments.
To be sure, lawmakers on the Ethics Committee have maintained they would not break precedent to release the report. Because Gaetz resigned, the committee no longer has jurisdiction over the investigation.
“What happens in ethics is confidential,” Committee Chairman Michael Guest (R-MS) told reporters on Thursday. “We’re going to maintain that confidentiality.”
However, it remains unclear if the report will eventually be made public if it is handed over to the Senate, which must hold a confirmation hearing for Gaetz before he can be elevated to the position of attorney general.
Since April 2021, the House Ethics Committee has been investigating allegations the Florida lawmaker may have “engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, accepted improper gifts, dispensed special privileges and favors to individuals with whom he had a personal relationship, and sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct.”
ABC News reported that a woman who was part of a yearslong Justice Department investigation into sex trafficking allegations testified to the ethics committee that Gaetz had sex with her when she was 17 years old. Gaetz has denied all the allegations and the the federal investigation resulted in no charges against the attorney general nominee.
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Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-MD), who sits on the House Ethics Committee, told the Washington Examiner that he was not sure what the precedent for that would be, but he noted that “typically for confirmation hearings, the Senate has gotten whatever it’s wanted.”
“In fact, I think it’s essential for them to get that kind of information before they make a decision of this magnitude,” Ivey said.