House Speaker Mike Johnson is coming to the rescue of former Representative Matt Gaetz over an ethics report that could derail his nomination as the next U.S. attorney general.
Gaetz resigned from Congress on Wednesday, shortly after President-elect Donald Trump announced that he had been chosen as his attorney general. Trump's nomination immediately brought a backlash, with some legal experts and lawmakers arguing that Gaetz was "unqualified" and could face an uphill battle getting the Senate to confirm him.
The pick was also controversial because Gaetz, a Republican, is the subject of a bipartisan investigation by the House Ethics Committee over alleged sexual misconduct and illegal drug use. His resignation scuttled plans for the release of a report revealing the results of the investigation, which was expected to be made public as soon as Friday.
Pressure has been mounting on the committee to release the report regardless of Gaetz's resignation, with proponents arguing that it could contain information vital in determining whether he should be confirmed as attorney general. Johnson said that "the speaker is not involved with what happens in ethics" when asked Thursday about the potential release of the report.
By Friday, Johnson had changed his position and indicated that he was intervening in an attempt to block the potential release of the report, arguing that releasing the document "would open a Pandora's box" and that not releasing it would "make sense to everybody" if they "think about it."
"I'm going to strongly request that the Ethics Committee not issue the report because that is not the way we do things in the House, and I think that would be a terrible precedent to set," Johnson said on Friday, according to CNN.
"If someone is no longer a member of Congress, we are not in the business of investigating and publishing reports about people who are not part of this institution," he continued. "The House Ethics Committee's jurisdiction is over sitting members of Congress."
Johnson went on to insist that Gaetz's nomination for a Cabinet position by Trump was not "relevant" to whether the report should be released.
Newsweek reached out for comment to Johnson's office via email on Friday.
It is not clear that Johnson's attempt to seemingly protect Gaetz from Senate scrutiny will succeed, with some Republican senators calling for the release of the report regardless of his wishes.
Senator John Cornyn, a GOP member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told reporters on Friday that he "absolutely" wants to see the report before considering whether to confirm Gaetz. He said there should "not be any limitation" on information concerning the former congressman.
In a CNN interview on Friday, GOP Senator Mike Rounds agreed with Cornyn and said a subpoena could be used to compel the release of the document while predicting that the Senate would review the report "one way or another."
The House ethics investigation was not the only probe of Gaetz concerning alleged sexual misconduct. A years-long criminal investigation by the Justice Department that ended without charges in 2023 also looked into allegations that the then-congressman had sex with a minor and participated in child sex trafficking.
:quality(85):upscale()/2024/04/24/878/n/3019466/36c5693c662965c5d1ce91.72473705_.jpg)
English (US) ·