House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (R-N.Y.) said Sunday that the House Ethics Committee “certainly” will issue a report on allegations of misconduct against former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida), who resigned from Congress last week. He said it should be announced. President-elect Trump nominated him to be attorney general.
When asked by Kristen Welker on NBC News' “Meet the Press” about House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) saying the report should not be made public, Jeffries said, Of course, it should be made public.”
“And it's not just Democrats saying that,” Jeffries continued. “Senate Republicans, members of the Senate Judiciary Committee and members of the entire chamber, have made it clear that they want access to all available information so they can decide whether a nominee for attorney general is qualified to serve as attorney general. I've seen it many times in the office.
“The Senate has a clear responsibility to serve as an independent and equal branch of government and to provide checks and balances. That's as American as baseball, motherhood, and apple pie,” Jeffries said.
The Ethics Commission has investigated Gaetz for years, investigating allegations of sexual misconduct and illegal drug use. He has strongly denied allegations of wrongdoing, and the Justice Department, which previously investigated whether he had sex with a 17-year-old, declined to charge him with the crime.
That Ethics Committee investigation ended abruptly on Wednesday when Gaetz resigned from the House of Representatives. The Ethics Commission postponed a vote on Friday on whether to make the report public. The Ethics Commission has no jurisdiction over former members of Congress.
It remains unclear what path the committee will take with the Gates report. Some Republican senators have called for the Senate Judiciary Committee to be granted access to the report and findings as it moves forward with its scrutiny process.
Johnson said it was not within the Ethics Commission's authority to release the report because Gates is a former commissioner and not a current one.
