House Ethics Committee Matt Gaetz report is released

House Ethics Committee Matt Gaetz report is released

The House Ethics Committee decided to turn over its report to former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla.

MPs on the secret panel voted to publish the report after this year’s final votes – scheduled for Thursday.

The House Ethics Committee’s multiyear investigation into Gaetz, which included allegations of sex with a minor and illegal drug use, was abruptly closed last month after it ended hours after President-elect Donald Trump named him his attorney general resigned from Congress.

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Matt Gaetz

Former Rep. Matt Gaetz resigned from Congress last month. (Aaron Schwartz/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Gaetz retired, calm but calm GOP oppositionbut the committee still lost jurisdiction over the investigation when Gaetz left the House.

Gaetz has consistently denied all allegations of wrongdoing, and a previous federal investigation into the allegations ended with no charges against him.

His resignation came shortly before the committee was due to meet to consider publishing the report.

That meeting, delayed for several days, ended in 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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Rep. Wild at the committee hearing

Rep. Susan Wild is the top Democrat on the House Ethics Committee (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

That prompted Rep. Susan Wild, D-Pa., the top Democrat on the committee, to return after leaving the chamber without comment to criticize her Republican colleague.

Wild said Guest “betrayed the process by revealing our deliberations just moments after leaving the committee, and he implied that there was an agreement by the committee not to disclose the report.”

She said that conclusion was “untrue.”

“I would say that a vote has taken place. As many of you know, this committee is made up of an equal number of Democrats and Republicans, five Democrats and five Republicans, which means that in order to advance something in a positive way, someone has to cross party lines and vote with the other side – which happens a lot, by the way , and we often don’t vote unanimously in today’s vote,” Wild said.

President-elect Donald Trump had previously nominated Gaetz to be attorney general.

President-elect Donald Trump had previously nominated Gaetz to be attorney general. (AP/Evan Vucci)

The recent decision to release the report suggests that at least one Republican lawmaker crossed the aisle and voted with Democrats.

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It is rare – but not unheard of – for the House Ethics Committee to release a report to a lawmaker after he or she has left Congress.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters last month he opposed making the Gaetz ethics report public, arguing: “It doesn’t conform to our rules and traditions, and there’s a reason for that.” That would reveal “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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