The House Ethics Committee on Wednesday did not agree to release the long-anticipated report into Matt Gaetz, and the top Democrat on the panel said members had agreed to meet again on the matter next month.
“There was not an agreement by the committee to release the report,” Chair Michael Guest (R-Miss.) told reporters after the meeting ended. Soon after, Ranking Member Susan Wild (D-Pa.) confirmed that the panel did not agree on releasing the report, but said “we did agree that we would reconvene as a committee on Dec. 5 to further consider this matter.”
Republicans in recent days have insisted the report isn’t finished yet. But two people familiar with the process, who were granted anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said the report is done.
Wild was clearly incensed with how Guest had characterized the private panel meeting. She told reporters that he “betrayed the process by disclosing our deliberations within moments after walking out of the committee.”
In response to Wild’s remarks, Guest told reporters, “That’s her choice if that’s what she feels, and you can ask her if she would like to comment further. Again, I made the only brief statement that I intend to make on the meeting today, which was we did not reach agreement.”
Other members of the panel declined to comment immediately after the meeting.
Gaetz abruptly resigned from Congress last week, hours after President-elect Donald Trump tapped him to be attorney general. The Florida firebrand told GOP leadership the abrupt resignation was meant to allow them to fill his seat more quickly, but several Republicans theorized it was actually to avoid the coming release of the Ethics Committee report. Typically, once a member resigns they are no longer considered under the panel’s jurisdiction, though the Ethics Committee has released reports on former members at least twice before.
The investigation centered on multiple allegations against Gaetz, including that he had sex with a minor. He has denied any wrongdoing.
The panel was under intense pressure heading into the vote. While multiple GOP senators said they would like to see the report as they consider Gaetz’s nomination, Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters last week that he would strongly urge the committee to not release the report. He softened that stance slightly this week, saying he wasn’t trying to — and couldn’t — dictate the committee’s decision.
Democrats have widely called for the report to be released. Many have speculated that the report could be leaked to the media, or a lawmaker could attempt to read it into the congressional record, which would give access to the public.
The vote triggered a flurry of parallel actions from Democrats, with two separate lawmakers offering privileged resolutions on the floor to try and force a full House vote to release the report on Gaetz. Both are strategically attempting to maneuver around the cumbersome and slow committee process.
Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.) made his intentions public before the outcome of today’s Ethics meeting was even clear.
But Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) beat him to the punch, introducing his own resolution Wednesday afternoon calling on the Ethics Committee “to preserve and publicly release records of the alleged violations of the house code of conduct and federal law by Matthew Lewis Gaetz of Florida.”
“This is important to the integrity of this body,” Cohen said.
Casten eventually got his turn, introducing his own resolution on the Gaetz report after a lengthy conversation with Wild on the floor.
Any lawmaker who disclosed the report could face immediate consequences, like censure or expulsion.
While Gaetz allies in the House, and some of his critics, have said they don’t believe the report should be released, that’s not a universal position among Republicans. Many have called for the report to be published or at least shared with the Senate as the chamber considers his attorney general nomination. Multiple GOP senators have said they want to see the report, as nearly a dozen have sidestepped questions about whether they would vote to confirm him.
Anthony Adragna, Mia McCarthy and Katherine Tully-McManus contributed to this report.
