House Republicans kill effort to force the release of Gaetz's ethics report
House Republicans were successful on Thursday in their effort to kill a Democratic effort to release the Ethics Committee report on its investigation of former Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz.
The House voted 206-198 to refer Democratic Rep. Sean Casten’s resolution -- which sought to make the Gaetz report public -- back to the Ethics Committee, which voted two weeks ago against releasing the report.
Casten‘s privileged resolution attempted to force the Ethics Committee to release its report. Casten introduced an updated version of his resolution on Tuesday which included several examples of the committee releasing reports on former members of Congress. Republicans had used Gaetz's resignation from the House as grounds for fighting its release.
Another from Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen that sought to make the report public and preserve all documents related to the investigation was also referred to the Ethics Committee on a 204-198 vote.
After the vote, Casten said in a statement that Republicans "took the easy way out.
"They could have ensured a vote on whether or not former Members should be held accountable when they face serious and credible allegations of sexual misconduct, including having sex with minors. Instead, the House voted to sweep these allegations under the rug and set an unfortunate precedent that, if you are ever facing scrutiny, resigning from Congress can make your problems go away," he said.
The committee met on the report for two hours Thursday afternoon before the vote, but members wouldn't disclose what was discussed. A statement from the committee after the meeting said it is "continuing to discuss the matter."
It would taken only a handful of Republicans to cross party lines and vote with Democrats to defeat the measure to send the resolutions to the committee or to force it to release the report. Rep. Tom McClintock was the only Republican to vote with Democrats on the Casten resolution.
The Ethics Committee was investigating allegations that Gaetz engaged in sexual misconduct, 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.
The floor vote came after the bipartisan Ethics Committee met Thursday afternoon to discuss the report. During its last meeting in November, Republican committee members blocked the report's release.
Johnson has consistently said the Gaetz ethics report should not be released to the public, citing a longstanding tradition of dropping investigations after a member leaves Congress. Gaetz resigned abruptly last month after President-elect Donald Trump announced him as his selection for attorney general. He later withdrew from consideration after it became clear he was facing an uphill climb from both Democrats and Republicans in the Senate, which would vote whether to confirm his nomination.
Democrats pushed for the report's release after Trump's announcement, saying it was relevant to the Senate's consideration of him for attorney general. Even though Gaetz withdrew, Democrats decided to continue their effort.
Gaetz was reelected to the 119th Congress before Trump picked him for AG, but he announced after his withdrawal that he would not serve another term. He pledged that he remains "fully committed" to assisting the president-elect.
Gaetz has since been selling private videos on Cameo, a website where users can purchase a personalized video message from from celebrities.
