Why the House Ethics Committee released its report on Matt Gaetz

There was no guarantee that a long-awaited House Ethics Committee report on former Rep. Matt Gaetz would ever see the light of day, especially after the Republican Florida lawmaker abruptly quit his congressional job last month.

On Monday, however, the public was able to read and learn the details of the allegations that contributed to Gaetz’s failure to pass the Senate confirmation process to be President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general.

In releasing the report, the committee – which is made up of an equal number of Republicans and Democrats – made Gaetz one of the few former members whose Ethics Commission investigation was made public after she left office.

The committee said it found “substantial evidence” that Gaetz engaged in “prostitution, statutory rape, illegal drug use” and obstruction of Congress, including paying for sex with a 17-year-old even though he did not know her age or that’s what time asked.

While Gaetz has faced allegations of sexual misconduct in the past, the House Ethics Committee’s investigation into his behavior came into the spotlight when Trump named him attorney general in the new administration.

Senators demanded more information about the allegations against Gaetz as they prepared to consider his nomination. Some Republican senators demanded access to the report because some details were leaked to the press. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said he would “strongly ask” the committee to keep the matter secret.

The panel met to consider whether to release the report and reached a bipartisan deadlock in November. Gaetz withdrew from consideration shortly afterwards. In a second vote earlier this month, two Republicans quietly joined their Democratic colleagues in supporting the bill’s release.

“The committee has typically not published its findings after losing jurisdiction over a matter,” the report said. “However, there are some previous cases in which the committee has determined that it is in the public interest to publish its findings even after a member has resigned from Congress. The committee does not do this lightly.”

Here’s what you should know about the committee’s decision to publish the report.

What happened in the past?

It is extremely rare for the House Ethics Committee to release a report on a former member of Congress — so much so that resignation from Congress has long been seen as a way for members plagued by ethics questions to avoid the publication of their alleged allegations to avoid misconduct.

“It’s an incentive for members to leave if the reports aren’t made public,” said Norm Eisen, a former Democratic co-counsel on the House Judiciary Committee during then-President Trump’s first impeachment. “So it promotes a natural sanction for the perpetrator to no longer work in public service.”

Only in a few cases did the committee conclude that the information was in the public interest, even though the lawmaker was no longer in Congress.

For example, the committee released a report in 1987, just months after former Rep. Bill Boner, D-Tenn., resigned from Congress to become mayor of Nashville. The report said Boner accepted bribes and misused campaign funds. In another case, the committee continued to investigate sexual harassment allegations against former Rep. Eric Massa, D-N.Y., who resigned in 2020, to determine whether other members covered up his behavior.

Why did the committee decide to publish the report?

Rep. Glenn Ivey, D-Md., is a member of the committee that voted to release the Gaetz report. He told USA TODAY it was important to release the document because “the public has a right to know something like this.”

In cases where there was a “relatively minor incident,” the committee will choose not to release the report, Ivey said, adding, “This was anything but that.”

It is also important to signal to other members of the House of Representatives what is expected of them as members of Congress, Ivey said.

“Our job as watchdogs of Congress is to let our colleagues know when there is behavior that crosses the line,” he said. “So that it gives them guidance on how they should behave in the future.”

Others argued that the panel was struggling with a different problem: much of the information in the report had already been leaked, leaving the public to speculate without having a complete picture.

Gaetz and Trump “brought these issues into the public eye” by nominating him for attorney general, Eisen said. “You’re opening Pandora’s Box, some details are coming to light, so it’s difficult to close Pandora’s Box at this point.”

What was the argument against publication?

Ethics Committee Chairman Michael Guest, R-Miss., wrote an addendum to the report explaining why several committee members voted against releasing the document.

Guest and his other like-minded GOP members “do not question the committee’s findings,” he wrote, but “we take strong issue” with the decision to deviate from “well-established standards” and release a report on someone who did not there is more in office in the house.

This was “extremely rare,” Guest argued, and could be perceived as an attempt to “weaponize” the committee’s investigative process. Publishing the report was “a dangerous step with potentially catastrophic consequences,” he added.

What does Matt Gaetz say?

Gaetz protests his innocence and attacks the credibility of the ethics committee. On Monday, he published a series of posts on

“Giving someone you’re dating money that they didn’t ask for and that isn’t ‘charged’ for sex is now prostitution?!?” he wrote. “There’s a reason they did this to me in a report on Christmas Eve and not in a courtroom where I could present evidence and challenge witnesses.”

The former Republican Florida lawmaker made a last-minute attempt in federal court on Monday to block the committee’s release of the results, claiming the committee was outside its jurisdiction. But while Gaetz sought an injunction Monday morning to prevent the report’s release, an hour later the judge in the case asked Gaetz to explain why the case was still relevant after the materials were made public.

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Why the House Ethics Committee released its report on Matt Gaetz

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