House Ethics Committee Chairman Michael Guest (R-Mississippi) said the committee would withhold its investigation into Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) after House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) ) recommendations are likely to be ignored.
Matt Gaetz, who resigned after President-elect Donald Trump announced his nomination for attorney general, is not currently a member of the House of Representatives and therefore does not fall under the committee's jurisdiction. Mr Johnson has publicly opposed the publication of the report, asking the committee to withhold it, and privately communicated his feelings to Guest, the committee chair, over the weekend. said politiko.
“I’m grateful that Mike reached out,” Guest said. politiko. “I don’t think that will influence our final decision as a committee.”
The committee is scheduled to meet Wednesday to discuss whether to release a report on Gaetz.
Ethics commissions have no legislative jurisdiction, giving them no authority to extract campaign funds from the donor base, but they are not highly sought after by members of Congress and are generally considered a chore. are. Its members usually serve at the behest of their respective party's leaders and are appointed out of loyalty to the leader, often in exchange for other favors secretly granted by the leader. Masu.
The hot-headed Gates has been a thorn in Washington's leadership ever since he arrived, consistently targeting deep-rooted interests and corruption in Washington. Most notably, Gaetz led the ouster of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Mr. Gaetz has denied any wrongdoing and says the ethics investigation was retaliation for stealing the gavel from Mr. McCarthy.
At a CPAC event in early 2024, Gaetz lambasted Congress' stock trading practices and singled out Guest for his trading records.
“For the same reason that referees shouldn't be allowed to bet on games, members of Congress shouldn't be allowed to trade individual stocks,” he said. “How about the Ethics Commission take up that reform?”
Gaetz specifically mentioned the Ethics Committee chair, noting that Guest had voted in favor of creating a Jan. 6 commission to target President Trump.
“He became an excellent stock trader during his tenure, and I admire his obvious genius,” Gates said of his guest. “He knew exactly when was the best time to buy online gambling stocks. His purchase of Evolution Gaming Securities allowed him to make a massive 36 percent profit, but nothing as bad as that. “I'm not saying this is insider trading, but this financial matter is probably the most suspicious I've seen since Fani Willis and Nathan Wade.” mentioned the top prosecutor who was reported to have done so. Lawsuit against Trump.
Mr. Wade was forced by a judge to resign from the case after allegations of an affair with Mr. Willis came to light before he was appointed to the case.
Gaetz may have been the only Republican in Congress during his tenure. swear President Trump has said he will accept campaign contributions from PACs and stressed the importance of rooting out public corruption while in Congress, a focus that Gates wants to bring to the Justice Department.
As attorney general, Gaetz will oversee federal investigations into insider trading and other corruption charges against members of Congress, including Guest.
Gates also criticized Guest for an incident in 2021 in which he alerted the Ethics Commission to failure to disclose family stock. guest paid $200 fine if stock disclosure is delayed by 8 months.
As guests braced for the report's release, President Trump made it clear that he was prioritizing Gates' confirmation and personally pressured senators to approve Gates and Axios. There is. reported Monday.
“He obviously wants Matt Gaetz,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-North Dakota), who received a call from President Trump, told the outlet. “He believes that Matt Gaetz is the only person in the Department of Justice with the fearless ferocity to do what needs to be done.”
Mr. Guest has defied Mr. Trump in the past, most notably in his committee vote on January 6, but it is unusual for Mr. Guest to openly defy the House speaker. (Guests said Monday they had not heard anything from members of the Trump administration, and Trump did not specifically say whether the report should be made public.) Still, before Johnson's speech began, the committee's All members of the Republican Party were seated — especially before Mr. McCarthy's speech began. , who was ousted by Gaetz but led the House Republicans.
The commission is evenly split between Republicans and Democrats, and only a majority vote is required to release the report. Democrats are almost certain to vote in favor of releasing a report that would embarrass President Trump's preferred nominee (Rep. Susan Wilde, D-Pennsylvania, the committee's top Democrat). State) said: Good feeling ), only one Republican vote is needed.
In addition to the guest, Republican members of the committee include Rep. David Joyce (R-Ohio), Rep. John Rutherford (R-Fla.), Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-New York), and Rep. Michelle Representative Fischbach (R-Minnesota) is on the list.
The release of the report is not the first time a Republican-chaired committee has disadvantaged Republicans this Congress.
In 2023, the committee broke decades of precedent and announced an investigation into Republican Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.), even though he had not yet appeared in court on criminal charges. . The report led to Santos' expulsion from Congress after previous attempts failed.
The last time the House expelled a member, Rep. Jim Traficant (D-Ohio), was in 2002, after Traficant was convicted in court. After that, the Ethics Commission didn't even begin an investigation until after Traficant's case was over.
The loss of Mr. Santos' reliable conservative vote was a huge loss for the Republican Party. Most notably, the House embarrassingly failed to impeach Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas by one vote.
Meanwhile, in this Congress, a Republican-chaired committee accused Democratic Congressman Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) of setting off a fire alarm in a House office building to prevent the House from voting. Despite pleading guilty to obstruction, he chose not to take action against the deputy. Blocking House Republicans from passing a spending bill while Senate Democrats prepare their own bill could be a felony.
Guest has served as the committee's top Republican since August 2022, replacing former Representative Jackie Walorski after her death, and has served as committee chair since January 2023.
He is eligible to continue leading the committee in the next Congress. The powerful Republican Steering Committee, whose chairman holds the most votes and has great influence, is scheduled to meet in early December to elect the chair and members of the Ethics Committee and other committees.
Johnson said that after Gaetz resigned, Florida law gave him “an eight-week period to select and fill the vacancy.”
“If we start the clock now and do the math, we might be able to fill that seat as early as January 3, when the new Congress takes its new oath of office,” he said of Gaetz's reasoning. Ta.
With some races yet to be called, Republicans are expected to hold a slim majority and will need every vote to advance President Trump's legislative agenda.
Bradley Jay is Breitbart News' Capitol Hill correspondent. Follow him on X/Twitter. @BradleyAJay.
