House Speaker Mike Johnson doubled down Sunday on his opposition to releasing an Ethics Committee report on former Rep. Matt Gaetz, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general.
“No. 1, my understanding is that the report is not finished. It’s in a rough draft form, was not yet ready to be released. And since Matt Gaetz left the Congress, I don’t think it’s appropriate to do so,” Johnson told CNN’s “State of the Union.”
The Louisiana Republican acknowledged that he didn’t “have the authority to stop the release of a report by the Ethics Committee” but said that “we don’t want to go down that road.”
“I think that would be a Pandora’s box. I don’t think we want the House Ethics Committee using all of its vast resources and powers to go after private citizens,” he said.
The committee has been investigating Gaetz, a firebrand Florida Republican, since 2021 over allegations that include sexual misconduct and illicit drug use. It was reportedly set to vote Friday on whether to release a report of its findings.
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But Gaetz — who last year dodged a federal sex trafficking indictment when prosecutors declined to pursue allegations that he had sex with a 17-year-old girl — abruptly quit his seat in Congress on Thursday following his nomination by Trump to be the nation’s top law enforcement official.
Gaetz has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
On Friday, Johnson said he would “strongly request” that the committee not release its report, saying, “The rules of the House has always been that a former member is beyond the jurisdiction of the ethics committee, NBC News reported.
In 1987 and 1990, the Ethics Committee released reports on former House members Bill Boner, D-Tenn., and Donald “Buz” Lukens, R-Ohio, respectively.
Also Sunday, Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., said the committee should “absolutely” release its report on Gaetz, telling NBC’s “Meet the Press” that it “should be definitely part of our decision making” to confirm or reject presidential nominees.
“I have no doubt that President Trump believes that Matt Gaetz is the right person to do the right job,” Mullin said. “But at the same time, the background of Matt Gaetz does matter.”
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Last year, Mullin, a former House member, accused Gaetz of having displayed videos “on the House floor…of all the girls that he had slept with.”
“He would brag about how he would crush E.D. (erectile dysfunction) medicine and chase it with an energy drink so he could go all night. This was obviously before he got married,” Mullin said.
Gaetz denied those allegations at the time, calling them “a lie from someone who doesn’t know me” and accusing Mullin of smearing him for having spearheaded the ouster of Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
