Rep. Susan Wilde (D-Pa.), the top Democrat on the House Ethics Committee, believes the committee's report on former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) should be made public. said.
Asked if the committee should release its report on Gaetz, whom President-elect Trump nominated for attorney general last week, Wilde said “yes.”
“There's a meeting scheduled for Wednesday, and I don't know yet what the chair's agenda is for that, but I think there should be a vote on whether or not to make it public,” Wilde said.
Wilde, who lost to Republican challenger Ryan McKenzie and plans to leave Congress at the end of the year, said he expected all Democrats to vote in favor of releasing the report. The committee, split evenly between five Republicans and five Democrats, would need at least one Republican to side with Democrats in order to vote in favor of releasing the report.
“Now that all members of the committee have the report, they have an opportunity to consider it,” Wilde said.
Asked about the possibility of releasing the report only to the Senate, Wilde said: “Either we're going to release it or we're not going to release it.”
Rep. Michael Guest (R-Mississippi), chairman of the Ethics Committee, declined to confirm details of Wednesday's scheduled meeting.
Guest said he had read the report on Gaetz and said other members of the panel were “capable of reading the report.” He declined to express his thoughts on the contents of the Gates report.
The Ethics Committee investigated Gates for years on charges including sexual misconduct and illegal drug use. Gates has strongly denied any wrongdoing, although the Justice Department declined to indict him after investigating similar issues.
Gaetz abruptly resigned on the same day President Trump's pick for attorney general was announced. His resignation came just two days before the committee was scheduled to meet to vote on the report, which was later canceled, a person familiar with the matter told The Hill. It is said that
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) has publicly argued against releasing the report because Gates is no longer a member of Congress and the committee traditionally does not investigate former members. are.
“I think it's a Pandora's box. We don't want the House Ethics Committee to use all of its vast resources and authority to go after civilians,” Johnson said Sunday on CNN's “General He said this in the “Kyosho.''
Although such moves are extremely rare, there is precedent for a committee releasing a report after a member has resigned. In 1987, the committee released a report on former Rep. William Bonner (D-Tenn.) after he resigned from the House.
Senators on both sides of the aisle have said they want to see the report.
