On the Report of Matt Gaetz, the House Committee on Ethics, and a Democrat/Republican Case for a Major-Peculiar Attorney General

Joel Leppard, an attorney who represents two women who testified before the House Committee on Ethics, told NPR that his clients were among a group of four or five young women in the Orlando area who knew Gaetz and met up with him in 2017 and 2018. He said they testified that they attended sex and drug parties with Gaetz, who was then a sitting member of the House.

Gaetz, who led the charge to oust former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, alienated many of his fellow House Republicans for launching the chamber into weeks of chaos as they sorted out whom to elect speaker. McCarthy openly said Gaetz was trying to end the ethics probe and that the committee needed to complete its work.

One of Leppard’s clients told the committee that she witnessed Gaetz having sex with a minor at a party in July 2017. The woman explained how Gaetz paid them using Venmo and PayPal and how they calculated the dates for each occasion.

The U.S. House Committee on Ethics is deadlocked on whether to release its report into former Rep. Matt Gaetz, whose nomination to serve as President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general has been plagued by controversy.

Michael Guest, the panel chair said after the meeting that there was not an agreement to release the report.

Ranking Member Susan Wild, D-Pa., said shortly after that there was “no consensus” on the issue, and that the committee will revisit the matter in a meeting on Dec. 5.

Wild said that a vote was taken. The Democrats and Republicans on the committee are evenly divided, therefore in order to affirmatively move something forward you have to cross party lines and vote with the other side.

Reply to “Comment on ‘An Ethics Panel in the House of Representatives to the Second Committee on Integral Conducting Investigations”

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., warned that releasing the report violated the panel’s practice of not publicly revealing any information about probes of lawmakers who were no longer House members, saying it would open “Pandora’s box.”

But ethics Chair Guest previously told NPR that the speaker “will not be influencing the decision of the committee. We will meet and make a decision as a committee.

Rep. Susan Wild, the top Democrat on the panel, told reporters about the report, “it should certainly be released to the Senate, and I think it should be released to the public, as we have done with many other investigative reports in the past.”

Kedric Payne — a former House ethics attorney and currently with the Campaign Legal Center — told NPR there are examples of the panel releasing their reports after members have left, “they absolutely can release it. They just typically don’t.”

South Carolina GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham, a member of the Judiciary pane, said he had a “very good meeting” with both Gaetz and Vance. He added, “I fear the process surrounding the Gaetz nomination is turning into an angry mob, and unverified allegations are being treated as if they are true. I have seen a movie before. He didn’t explicity say he would vote for Gaetz, but urged his colleagues to “join the lynch mob” and give him the chance to make his case.

I’m thankful for the recent efforts of Matt Gaetz in seeking approval to be Attorney General. While he was doing well, he did not want to distract the administration or be a distraction to them. Matt has a wonderful future, and I look forward to watching all of the great things he will do!” Trump posted after Gaetz dropped out.

Gaetz, a former congressman from Florida, is dropping his candidacy for attorney general of the United States because of sex trafficking and drug use allegations.

There is no time to waste on a lengthy tussle in Washington, so I’ll be withdrawing my name from consideration to be Attorney General.

The Senate Way Took a Leave: Sen. Lindsey Graham, Rep. J. Paul Gaetz, and Sen. Joni Lummis

It’s unclear if Gaetz can return to Congress, since he resigned from the current session but was already voted into the next session for his district, or whether Trump will give him another spot in his administration.

News of his withdrawal broke as senators were shuffling between a vote and lunch meetings. Several GOP lawmakers ignored reporters’ questions in the hallways, including Sen. Lindsey Graham, S.C., who met with Gaetz a day earlier.

Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who previously said she “was shocked” by Gaetz’s nomination, said by withdrawing, “he put country first,” and noted, “certainly there were a lot of red flags.”

Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said he would not second-guess Trump’s decision to tap Gaetz, but that the president needed an attorney general that both he and the senate “can have confidence in.”

He said that the president has the right to make nominations. “But the Senate also has a responsibility for advice and consent. In this particular case, it seems that there was advice that wasn’t consent.

It appears that Gaetz’s nomination will be a major distraction according to Sen. Cynthia Lummis.

“Good on him to recognize that and be self-aware and provide President Trump with an opportunity to choose someone who’s equally tenacious about addressing the Department of Justice in its direction…and do it with someone who is going to have fewer headwinds in the Senate,” she said.

Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, told NPR she was “grateful that the president has plenty of time to find a new nominee.” Ernst did not elaborate on who may be other options for the nomination.

Asked about who might replace Gaetz as the nominee, Sen. Chuck Grassley, the incoming chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he did not “have the slightest idea who they might be.”