WASHINGTON – 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 minors and illegal drug use, was abruptly closed last month after he resigned from Congress hours after President-elect Donald Trump tapped him his attorney general.

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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.

this meeting, delayed by a few daysended in dramatic fashion after House Ethics Committee Chairman Michael Guest, R-Miss., told reporters that no agreement had been reached to release the report.

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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 one.” Committee approval 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.

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

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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