House ethics committee postpones meeting as Congress argues whether Gaetz report should be released

The House Ethics Committee postponed its plans to vote Friday on whether to release its report on Matt Gaetz despite mounting calls to publicize it after Donald Trump nominated the former Florida Congressman as his attorney general.

The meeting, which had been scheduled before Gaetz resigned from the House on Wednesday, was postponed, Committee Chair Michael Guest told Politico on Friday, putting to rest rumors that the meeting had been abruptly canceled. It’s not immediately clear when the meeting will be held.

Democrats and Republicans alike have aired their concerns around Gaetz in the new post, with many pointing to the sexual misconduct allegations at the heart of the ethics panel’s probe.

The committee was looking into wide-ranging claims that he had engaged in sexual misconduct, illicit drug use, shared inappropriate images on the House floor, misused state identification records, converted campaign funds to personal use, and accepted a bribe.

Republican Senator John Cornyn said he “absolutely” wants to see the report’s findings while Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin called it “absolutely essential” to have access to the full report while investigating his background and qualifications for the AG role.

North Carolina Republican Rep Greg Murphy said “most people” in the House believe Gaetz resigned to prevent the report from being released.

“It’s very suspicious that he all of a sudden resigned because other members who are being nominated for posts have not resigned,” Murphy told The Hill. “I do know that if he continues to persist with this appointment, it will all come out.”

Before Gaetz resigned on Wednesday, House Ethics Committee Chair Michael Guest laid out the panel’s plans: “Once the investigation is complete, the Ethics Committee will meet as a committee. We will then return our findings. If Matt Gaetz is still a member of Congress, then that will occur. If Matt has resigned, then this ethics investigation, like many others in the past, will end again.”

On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee sent a letter to Guest, pressing him to release the report: “We cannot allow this critical information from a bipartisan investigation into longstanding public allegations to be hidden from the American people, 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.”

If confirmed by the Senate, Gaetz would be leading the very department that had been investigating him.

The Justice Department ended its multi-year probe into whether the Florida Republican broke any laws after allegations emerged that he had paid for sex with minors. In 2023, the DOJ announced it would not press charges against Gaetz, a year after his associate Joel Greenberg pleaded guilty to sex trafficking of a minor and other crimes. He is serving an 11-year prison sentence.

Amid widespread bipartisan calls for the report’s release, MAGA Republican Rep Jim Jordan disagreed, saying it went against House rules. The Ohio Congressman told Fox News host Laura Ingraham on Thursday: “Well, it’s my understanding that it’s not supposed to go public. So, if it’s not supposed to under the rules, it shouldn’t go public.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson also said he plans to “strongly request” that the committee not publicize the report. When asked if he though the report should come out, he told reporters on Friday: “I do not. No, I think it’s a terrible breach of protocol.”

Johnson added: “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.”

Meanwhile, a lawyer representing the woman that Gaetz allegedly had sex with when she was underage, voiced his support for the release of the report.

“Mr Gaetz’s likely nomination as Attorney General is a perverse development in a truly dark series of events,” John Clune wrote Thursday on X. “We would support the House Ethics Committee immediately releasing their report. She was a high school student and there were witnesses.”