House Ethics Republicans Vote To Bury Gaetz Report As Senate Gears Up For ‘Kavanaugh On Steroids’

After a closed-door meeting that lasted almost two and half hours, House Ethics Committee Chairman Michael Guest (R-MS) on Wednesday said that the members did not come to an agreement to release the report on its investigation of now-former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL).

“There was not an agreement by the committee to release the report,” Guest said to a crowd of reporters waiting outside the committee room as he left the meeting.

He declined to say whether there’d been a vote, saying that members are not allowed to discuss internal Ethics Committee meetings. Most committee members ignored the volley of questions launched by assembled reporters both on their way into and out of the meeting. 

President-elect Donald Trump nominated Gaetz for Attorney General last Wednesday, triggering a flood of outcry.

A simple majority of the 10 person, five Democrat and five Republican, committee needs to agree for the report to be released, meaning at least one Republican member would have to break party ranks and join the Democrats.

In a statement released separately after the meeting, Rep. Susan Wild (D-PA), the ranking Democrat on the committee, said “in order to affirmatively move something forward, somebody has to cross party lines and vote with the other side,” noting that, Wednesday’s vote was not bipartisan, according to the statement first obtained by the New York Times.

A person familiar with the meeting told the Times that the vote was split along party lines: all five Republicans voted against releasing the report and all five Democrats voted to release it.

A reporter asked Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), who was walking by the cramped hallway and has been accused of his own coverup of misconduct, if he wished he was in the Ethics Committee meeting. He chuckled and shook his head.  

The Ethics Committee’s investigation into Gaetz started in April 2021 amid allegations that the Florida congressman “may have engaged in sexual misconduct and/or illicit drug use, shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused state identification records, converted campaign funds to personal use, and/or accepted a bribe, improper gratuity, or impermissible gift, in violation of House Rules, laws, or other standards of conduct,” according to the panel’s description of its inquiry.

Gaetz was also investigated by the FBI for allegedly sex trafficking an underage girl. But the Department of Justice ended that probe last year without filing charges against Gaetz. 

The ethics report — and House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) public attempt to keep it buried — has made what’s usually a Senate problem into a House one too. The upper chamber alone confirms or denies presidential nominees.  

Senate Democrats, especially those on the Senate Judiciary Committee, have been vocal about wanting to see the Ethics Committee’s report. On Wednesday, Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Democrats on the committee sent a letter to the FBI requesting the “complete evidentiary file” they have on Gaetz. Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL) also announced after the Ethics Committee meeting that he would introduce a privileged resolution to require that the full House vote on the release of the report.  

Senate Republicans on Wednesday attempted to balance their traditional insistence on due process with Trump’s demands that they support his controversial nominee. 

“We’ve got a good reputation and the Judiciary Committee will be getting every bit of information we need,” Grassley told reporters huddled in the Senate basement Wednesday.

The Iowa senator also mentioned “false statements” made during Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings, implying that the accusations against Gaetz are still unsubstantiated.

Gaetz and his sherpa, Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, meanwhile, were on the Hill Wednesday courting Republican votes.

Senators emerging from those meetings largely coalesced around the need for a hearing. Embattled Republican nominees have been given such process before; in at least the most high profile cases of Kavanaugh and Justice Clarence Thomas, accused of sexual assault and harrassment respectively, both were confirmed anyway.

Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) told reporters that a Gaetz hearing would be “Kavanaugh on steroids.”