WASHINGTON (AP) — Matt Gaetz may be done with the House of Representatives, but his former colleagues aren’t through with him yet.
Lawmakers on Thursday are expected to vote on whether to release the long-awaited House ethics report into sexual misconduct allegations against Gaetz, with many pressing for its release even though the Florida Republican has left Congress and withdrawn as President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for attorney general. Gaetz denies the allegations.
The House Ethics Committee met Thursday to discuss the Gaetz report but made no decision, saying in a short statement that the matter is still being discussed.
With committee action uncertain, Democrats hoped to force the committee's hand Thursday evening, teeing up votes on the House floor requiring the release of the report.
It's the culmination of weeks of pressure on the Ethics committee's five Republicans and five Democrats who mostly work in secret as they investigate allegations of misconduct against lawmakers.
The status of the Gaetz investigation became an open question last month when he abruptly resigned from Congress after Trump's announcement that he wanted his ally in the Cabinet. It is standard practice for the committee to end investigations when members of Congress depart, but the circumstances surrounding Gaetz were unusual, given his potential role in the new administration.
Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss., the committee chairman, said Wednesday that there is no longer the same urgency to release the report given that Gaetz has left Congress and stepped aside as Trump's choice to head the Justice Department. He said Thursday that he will vote against the resolutions on the floor.
“I’ve been steadfast about that. He’s no longer a member. He is no longer going to be confirmed by the Senate because he withdrew his nomination to be the attorney general,” Guest said.
Gaetz has denied any wrongdoing and said last year that the Justice Department’s separate investigation against him into sex trafficking allegations involving underage girls ended without federal charges.
His onetime political ally Joel Greenberg, a fellow Republican who served as the tax collector in Florida’s Seminole County, admitted as part of a plea deal with prosecutors in 2021 that he paid women and an underage girl to have sex with him and other men. The men were not identified in court documents when he pleaded guilty. Greenberg was sentenced in late 2022 to 11 years in prison.
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