House Speaker Mike Johnson wants Ethics panel to keep Matt Gaetz report secret
Washington — House Speaker Mike Johnson said Friday that he would "strongly request" that the House Ethics Committee withhold a potentially damaging report on its investigation into whether former Rep. Matt Gaetz engaged in sexual misconduct, illicit drug use and bribery.
Gaetz resigned from Congress on Wednesday after President-elect Donald Trump announced he intended to nominate the Florida Republican as attorney general. The timing came days before a House panel was set to vote on releasing a report on the allegations against Gaetz. The House Ethics Committee planned to take its vote Friday but canceled late Thursday.
Gaetz was also the subject of a previous Justice Department investigation that sought to determine if he violated sex trafficking and obstruction of justice laws. No charges were filed, and Gaetz has denied any wrongdoing.
"The rules of the House have always been that a former member is beyond the jurisdiction of the Ethics Committee," Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, told reporters.
Johnson said releasing the report would set a "terrible precedent" and "open up Pandora's box."
"I believe it is very important to maintain the house's tradition of not issuing ethics reports on people who are no longer members of Congress," he said. "The House Ethics Committee's jurisdiction is over sitting members of Congress. That's an important rule."
Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has called on the House panel to share the report and "all relevant documentation" on Gaetz with his committee. The Senate Judiciary Committee is responsible for conducting confirmation hearings for the attorney general nominee.
"The sequence and timing of Mr. Gaetz's resignation from the House raises serious questions about the contents of the House Ethics Committee report," Durbin said in a statement Thursday. "We cannot allow this valuable information from a bipartisan investigation to be hidden from the American people. Make no mistake: this information could be relevant to the question of Mr. Gaetz's confirmation as the next attorney general of the United States and our constitutional responsibility of advice and consent."
Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, also said he wants to see the report. Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota isn't on the Judiciary Committee but said in an interview on CNN, "We should be able to get a hold of [the report], and we should have access to it one way or another, based on the way we do all of these nominations."
A spokesperson for Durbin responded to Johnson's remarks in a statement Friday that argued there is "longstanding precedent" in both chambers for releasing ethics investigation materials after a member resigns.
"The now former Congressman shouldn't be able to resign away an ethics investigation involving allegations of grave misconduct, especially when he will be nominated to be our country's top law enforcement officer. There is bipartisan support for the Senate Judiciary Committee having access to this information," Durbin spokesperson Josh Sorbe said.