The House Ethics Committee is scheduled to meet Wednesday. And if members vote on whether to share their investigative findings about attorney general nominee Matt Gaetz, it would only take one Republican to trigger the release of the report.
The panel is evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats, and it only requires a majority vote in the private meeting to release the report. A tie would defer to the party that controls the House — meaning if all Republicans voted against releasing it, the report would not be published.
But it would only take one, combined with all Democrats, to share the report, either with senators or publicly.
Republicans on the committee have largely declined to comment on the upcoming meeting at all, let alone whether they would vote to release the report. But Democrats have made it clear they want to share the investigative findings, at least with senators who will consider confirming Gaetz to the powerful post atop the Justice Department.
“I think the Senate should have a chance to take a look at any evidence they think is relevant to the decision they have to make,” said panel member Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-Md.). “They’ve got a constitutional obligation to have advice and consent on this nomination. It’s an important one.”
He said he’d also be open to letting the general public see the report.
Pennsylvania Rep. Susan Wild, the top Democrat on the House Ethics Committee, indicated Monday night that she believes the report should be published. Other Democrats on the panel pointed to her comments, indicating they agreed with her. Two Democrats did not respond to a request for comment.
Republicans on the committee are still keeping quiet, however, on what should happen to the report. Chair Michael Guest (R-Miss.) told POLITICO after GOP members met privately on Monday that he and Speaker Mike Johnson spoke over the weekend. The speaker shared his viewpoint on not releasing the report, according to Guest. He declined to discuss the subject of the Monday meeting, as did other members.
Asked about Wild’s belief that the report should be made public, Johnson said Tuesday: “I’ve made my position very clear.” In addition to his call with Guest, Johnson has said publicly that he doesn’t think it would be proper for the panel to release a report about a person who is no longer a member of the House.
Johnson also indicated he would not support giving the Senate Judiciary Committee access to the report.
“I have no idea about the contents of the report,” he added, when pressed on reported allegations, including that Gaetz had sex with a minor. “My job is to protect the institution. And I’ve made very clear that I think it’s an important guardrail for our institution that we not use the House Ethics Committee to investigate and report on persons who are not members of this body. Matt Gaetz is not a member of the body anymore.” Gaetz has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing amid the investigations.
Lawmakers have hotly debated releasing the report after Gaetz resigned from Congress last week. There is precedent for Ethics releasing reports about former members, though typically the panel ends investigations and does not release reports about former members.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries declined to comment on the report Tuesday morning. But other Democrats who aren’t on the panel are pushing for its release, too. A group of nearly a hundred House Democrats, led by Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.), sent a letter to the Ethics panel calling for the report’s public release.