Vice President-elect Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH) (L) and former Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-FL) leave the US Capitol after meeting with Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee on November 20, 2024 in Washington, DC. .
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The bipartisan House Ethics Committee deadlocked Wednesday over whether to issue a report on its investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct and other wrongdoing by former Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz.
The result of the vote means that the report on Gaetz, chosen by President-elect Donald Trump to be the next Attorney General of the United States, will not be published for the time being.
“There was no agreement to release the report,” Ethics Committee Chairman Michael Guest, Republican of Missouri, told reporters after the closed meeting on Capitol Hill.
Representative Susan Wild of Pennsylvania said that the vote in the 10-member committee, divided equally between Republicans and Democrats, came along partisan lines.
“There was no consensus on this issue,” Wilde said.
She noted that the committee agreed to meet again on December 5 to “continue consideration of this issue.”
Asked whether she agreed with Guest's earlier remark that the committee's report was incomplete, Wild paused before saying: “I really don't care to comment on the status of the report, other than to say that we're in a position to vote today.”
The ethics investigation focused on whether Gaetz engaged in sexual misconduct or illegal drug use, as well as whether he accepted inappropriate gifts, provided special favors to personal contacts or sought to obstruct government investigations into his conduct.
The committee had paused its investigation in May 2023 at the request of the Justice Department, which was conducting its own investigation into allegations that Gaetz sexually trafficked an underage girl.
The Department of Justice ended this investigation without filing charges. The committee reauthorized the investigation in May 2023.
Gaetz denied all wrongdoing. In September, he said he would no longer voluntarily participate in the ethics investigation, while revealing that the panel had asked him whether he had “engaged in sexual activity with anyone under the age of 18”.
“The answer to this question is an unequivocal no,” he wrote in response.
The committee was investigating Gaetz until he resigned from Congress last week, shortly after Trump appointed him to become the nation's top law enforcement official.
Guest said that Gaetz's resignation removes him from the committee's jurisdiction.
Trump's decision to select Gaetz, whose time in Congress was filled with controversial statements and disagreements with other lawmakers, for a high-level Cabinet position, sparked strong opposition from Democrats and surprise from Republicans.
Of all the people Trump has chosen to join his next administration, Gaetz is seen as the least likely to be confirmed by the Senate. The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that the number of Senate Republicans who oppose Gaetz's nomination is far greater than the three GOP votes he can afford to lose in the next Congress.
Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee urged the FBI earlier Wednesday to hand over all evidence it has collected from its investigation into Gaetz.
“The Senate has a constitutional duty to advise and approve presidential nominees, and it is important that we review all information necessary to fulfill that duty as we consider Mr. Gaetz’s nomination,” the letter from Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Md., said. Illinois, and nine other Democrats.
