The House Ethics Committee has decided to release its report into former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla.
Lawmakers on the secretive panel voted to make the report public after the final votes of this year – which are slated for Thursday.
The House Ethics Committee’s multi-year investigation into Gaetz, involving allegations of sex with a minor and illicit drug use, came to an abrupt halt last month after he resigned from Congress hours after President-elect Donald Trump tapped him to be his attorney general.
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Gaetz dropped out of consideration amid quiet but steady GOP opposition, but the committee nevertheless lost jurisdiction over the probe when Gaetz left the House of Representatives.
Gaetz has consistently denied any accusations of wrongdoing, and an earlier federal investigation into the allegations ended without charges against him.
His resignation came just before the committee was expected to meet to consider releasing the report.
That meeting, delayed by a few days, ended in a dramatic fashion after House Ethics Committee Chairman Michael Guest, R-Miss., told reporters that no agreement had been reached on releasing the report.
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It prompted Rep. Susan Wild, D-Pa., the top Democrat on the committee, to return after leaving the meeting room without comment to criticize her Republican colleague.
Wild said Guest “betrayed the process by disclosing our deliberations within moments after walking out of the committee, and he has implied that there was an agreement of the committee not to disclose the report.”
She said that conclusion was “untrue.”
“I’d say that a vote was taken. As many of you know, this committee is evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, five Dems, five Republicans, which means that in order to affirmatively move something forward, somebody has to cross party lines and vote with the other side – which happens a lot, by the way, and we often vote unanimously. That did not happen in today’s vote,” Wild said.
The latest decision to release the report indicates at least one Republican lawmaker crossed the aisle and voted with Democrats.
It is rare – but not unheard of – for the House Ethics Committee to release a report into a lawmaker after they left Congress.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters last month he was opposed to letting the Gaetz ethics report go public, arguing, “It doesn’t follow our rules and traditions and there is a reason for that. That would open up Pandora’s box and I don’t think that’s a healthy thing for the institution, so that’s my position.”
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