Vice President-elect Sen. JD Vance (Ohio), left, and former Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) leave the United States after meeting with Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington, D.C., November 20, 2024 Capitol.
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The bipartisan House Ethics Committee was deadlocked Wednesday over whether to release a report investigating allegations of sexual misconduct and other misconduct by former Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz.
The results of the vote mean that the report by Gates, the next U.S. Attorney General nominated by President-elect Trump, will not be released for the time being.
“There has been no agreement on releasing the report,” ethics committee chairman Michael Guest, R-Miss., told reporters after a closed session on Capitol Hill.
Rep. Susan Wild, D-Pa., said the vote on the 10-member committee, which is divided between Republicans and Democrats, was along party lines.
“There is no consensus on this issue,” Wilder said.
She noted that the group did agree to reconvene on December 5 “to consider the matter further.”
Asked if she agreed with Guest’s previous statement that the panel’s report was not yet complete, Wilder paused and said, “I don’t really want to comment on the status of the report other than to say we can vote today.”
this ethical investigation The focus has been on whether Gaetz engaged in sexual misconduct or illegal drug use, and whether he accepted inappropriate gifts, gave special favors to personal contacts or attempted to hinder government investigations into his conduct.
The committee suspended its investigation in May 2023 at the request of the Justice Department, which was investigating allegations that Gates sex trafficked underage girls.
The U.S. Justice Department closed its investigation without filing charges. The committee reauthorized the investigation in May 2023.
Gates denies all wrongdoing. In September, he said he would no longer voluntarily participate in the ethics inquiry, while revealing that the committee had asked him if he had ever “had sexual intercourse with anyone under the age of 18.”
“The answer to this question is unequivocally no,” he wrote in response.
The panel had been investigating Gaetz until his resignation from Congress last week, shortly after Trump appointed him as the nation’s top law enforcement official.
Guest said Gaetz’s resignation removed him from the committee’s jurisdiction.
Trump’s decision to select Gaetz, who has made controversial remarks and feuded with other lawmakers while in Congress, for the top Cabinet post has drawn strong opposition from Democrats and surprise from Republicans.
Of all the people Trump has chosen to join the next administration, Gaetz is considered the least likely to win Senate confirmation. wall street journal Reports on Friday suggested that the number of Senate Republicans opposing Gaetz’s nomination is far greater than he can afford to lose by losing three Republican votes in the next Congress.
Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier Wednesday urged the FBI to turn over all evidence collected in its investigation of Gaetz.
“The Senate has a constitutional obligation to provide advice and consent on the President’s nominees, and as we consider Mr. Gates’ nomination, it is critical to review all information necessary to carry out that duty,” Democratic Chairman Dick Durbin said at the the letter reads.
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