House ethics Republicans reject release of Matt Gaetz report for now

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans on the House Ethics Committee voted Wednesday against releasing the panel long-term investigation in President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general, former Rep. Matt Gaetz, said the top Democrat on the panel.

Still, the result is only a temporary reprieve for Gaetz, who faces allegations of sexual misconduct as he works to personally secure his controversial nomination to be the nation’s top police official.

The House panel is expected to meet again on Dec. 5 to reconsider releasing its findings.

“There was no consensus on this issue,” said Rep. Susan Wild of Pennsylvania, the panel’s ranking Democrat, who said the vote fell along party lines on the evenly divided committee.

The showdown comes as Trump and Gaetz look to a potentially long and brutal confirmation battle ahead. Gaetz met privately for hours Wednesday with Republican senators who have heard questions about the allegations and will consider their votes on his nomination.

Trump has in Gaetz a valued ally which brings sweeping proposals to rid the Justice Department of those perceived to have “armed” their work against the president-elect, his allies, and conservatives in general.

At least one Republican senator condemned the watchdog as a “lynch mob” forming against Gaetz.

“I’m not going to legitimize the process of destroying the man because people don’t like his politics,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, RS.C., said as he left the private senators’ meeting.

“He deserves a chance to make his case for why he should be attorney general,” Graham said. “No rubber stamp, no lynching.”

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who supports Gaetz’s nomination, appeared to say, “If you have concerns, that’s fine. But don’t make up your mind yet. Let the guy testify first.”

Gaetz has long denied it increasing accusations against him.

The House Ethics Committee, however, is not done with its work.

Wild said the committee voted in a lengthy closed-door session and no Republicans joined Democrats in wanting to release the report. A vote to release only the exhibits underlying the report also failed along party lines, according to a person who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private meeting.

However, the House committee voted to complete the report, which was approved with some Republican support, the person said.

Wild said she was compelled to speak out after the committee’s Republican chairman, Rep. Michael Guest of Mississippi, characterized what happened in his session. He said no agreement had been reached on the matter.

As Gaetz kicks off his campaign for confirmation, Trump himself has told senators he hopes to “get Matt across the finish line,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer, RN.D., who was with the president chosen and others for a SpaceX rocket launch on Tuesday with billionaire Elon Musk in Texas.

Vice President-elect JD Vance, a senator from Ohio, led Gaetz through Senate discussions, mostly with members of the Judiciary Committee, which will be the first stop in the confirmation proceedings. The meeting with Senate allies was largely a strategy session in which he stressed the need to get a hearing where he can lay out his and Trump’s vision for the Justice Department.

It follows a meeting Gaetz had earlier this week with the House Freedom Caucus, whose members expressed enthusiasm for his approach to wholesale changes that have instilled a climate of anxiety and dismay at the department.

Vance reminded GOP senators that Trump’s presidential victory had tails that lifted their ranks to the majority. “He deserves a cabinet that is loyal to the agenda he was elected to implement,” the incumbent Ohio senator posted on social media.

At the same time, the lawyers involved in a civil case filed by a Gaetz associate were announced this week that an unauthorized person accessed a file shared between attorneys that included unredacted depositions in a federal investigation from a woman who said Gaetz had sex with her when she was 17 and a second woman who says she saw the encounter, according to attorney Joel Leppard. .

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee sent a letter Wednesday asking FBI Director Christopher Wray to provide the committee with the “complete evidentiary record,” including the forms memorializing interviews “in prison. investigate about former Congressman Matt Gaetz’s alleged child sex trafficking”.

Gaetz said the department investigation into allegations of sex trafficking the involvement of the minor girls, separate from the House committee’s investigation, ended without federal charges against him.

“The serious public allegations against Mr. Gaetz speak directly to his fitness to serve as the chief law enforcement officer for the federal government,” wrote Judiciary Chairman Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and others on the panel.

While House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said the committee should not release the report because Gaetz quickly resigned from his congressional seat after Trump announced the nomination, several GOP senators have indicated they want all the information before having to make a decision about how to vote.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, who also met with Gaetz, said of the committee’s report: “I didn’t go into a lot of detail about what’s expected to be there, but he expressed confidence that what’s before the committee are a series of false accusations.”

Gaetz appeared at congressional oversight hearings as he railed against what conservatives say is favoritism at the Justice Department, which has accused Trump of allegedly mishandling classified documents after he left office and his efforts to cancel the 2020 election before January 6, 2021. attack on the Capitol.

But the choice of president-elect was among the most surprising and challenging.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., a Trump ally, said she had a great meeting with Gaetz and looks forward to “a quick confirmation for our next attorney general.” She wrote on social media that Trump’s Cabinet “will shake up the DC swamp and we look forward to moving his nominees.”

Cramer went on to say that Gaetz had a “steep climb” to confirmation.

“Donald Trump is understandably, legitimately and genuinely concerned that he has an attorney general who is willing to do what he wants to do,” Cramer said. “Matt Gaetz is definitely the guy who won’t hold back.”

As soon as the new Congress convenes on January 3, 2025, when Republicans take majority control, senators are expected to begin holding hearings on Trump’s nominees, with a vote possible on Inauguration Day, January 20.

Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.