Gaetz resigned days before ethics investigation report expected
Rep. Matt Gaetz Gaetz "categorically denied" all of the allegations to the House Ethics Committee, but the committee noted the "difficulty in obtaining relevant information" from him. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard, File)
The House Ethics Committee was set to vote this week on releasing a report about Matt Gaetz (R-Florida), who resigned from Congress on Wednesday after being picked as President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general, according to four people familiar with the matter.
The Ethics Committee is still expected to meet and could release the report as soon as Friday, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive conversations.
Gaetz has been under investigation by House Ethics, a bipartisan committee made up of an equal number of Republicans and Democrats, for allegations that he may have engaged in sexual misconduct and illegal drug use and accepted improper gifts. If a lawmaker is under investigation by the committee and resigns, is expelled or leaves Congress, the Ethics Committee immediately ceases any ongoing investigation.
While the panel no longer has jurisdiction to punish a former member, the bipartisan panel could vote to release the report publicly if a majority of committee members agree to do so, or transmit it to the Justice Department or the Senate Ethics Committee.
Gaetz did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The news that the committee was supposed to vote this week was first reported by Punchbowl News.
It is not yet clear if there is any connection between the timing of the Gaetz announcement and the possible release of the report on the investigation.
After Trump met with House Republicans in Washington on Wednesday morning, Gaetz flew back to Florida with him on his private plane, according to three people familiar with the matter, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive issues.
By the afternoon, Trump named Gaetz as his pick for attorney general, a move that stunned many Senate and House Republicans. Not long afterward, the Florida lawmaker submitted his resignation, with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) telling reporters that it was “effective immediately.”
In an update on the investigation into Gaetz, the 10-member panel, which rarely discloses information about ongoing investigations, said this summer that it had “determined that certain of the allegations merit continued review.” The committee announced that it had also identified new lines of inquiry that merited review, including whether Gaetz “dispensed special privileges and favors to individuals with whom he had a personal relationship, and sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct.”
The committee also cleared him of some allegations, saying it would “take no further action at the time on the allegations that [Gaetz] may have shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused state identification records, converted campaign funds to personal use, and/or accepted a bribe or improper gratuity.”
Gaetz “categorically denied” all of the allegations to the committee, but the committee noted the “difficulty in obtaining relevant information” from him. The unusual disclosure came in response to Gaetz’s criticism that the committee was “opening new frivolous investigations” into his activities.
“This is Soviet. Kevin McCarthy showed them the man, and they are now trying to find the crime,” he posted on X at the time, referencing the former speaker of the House.
Gaetz last year led the charge to oust McCarthy and has become widely reviled by many colleagues. Rep. Garret Graves (R-Louisiana), one of McCarthy’s closest confidants, laughed Wednesday when he was asked how he and the former speaker feel about Gaetz.
Several House Republican lawmakers and aides, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to express their shock at the pick, joked that Gaetz’s appointment to attorney general was one way for him to no longer be investigated by the House Ethics Committee.
Typically, a committee would inform a member’s defense lawyer of the timing of an investigation—and whether a report is forthcoming, often offering the opportunity to provide a rebuttal or a statement.
Gaetz was cleared in a federal sex-trafficking investigation in 2022 by the department he has now been tapped to lead after career prosecutors recommended against charging him. The investigation, started in late 2020, examined whether he paid for sex in violation of federal sex-trafficking laws and his dealings with a then-17-year-old girl.
