Pressure mounts for Matt Gaetz congressional ethics report release
PHOTO CAPTION: Republican U.S. Representative Matt Gaetz speaks at a campaign rally for Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump in Henderson, Nevada U.S. October 31, 2024. REUTERS/Mike Blake
By Sarah N. Lynch and Andrew Goudsward
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for attorney general, Matt Gaetz, came under increasing scrutiny on Thursday, as a top Republican lawmaker said he "absolutely" wants to review an unreleased report examining allegations of sexual misconduct.
A lawyer representing an alleged victim also called for the report to be made public.
Senator John Cornyn, who holds a top spot on the committee that will consider Gaetz's nomination next year, said he and other lawmakers should get access to the report by the House of Representatives Ethics Committee, which examined allegations of sexual misconduct and illicit drug use.
"I don't want there to be any limitation at all on what the Senate could consider," Cornyn told reporters. When asked if that means he wants to see the ethics report, he replied: “Absolutely.“
Gaetz resigned his House seat on Wednesday, which would end the Ethics Committee probe. He has denied wrongdoing. According to several news outlets, the panel had intended to release the report on Friday. A committee spokesperson declined to comment.
Gaetz also was investigated by the Justice Department for nearly three years over sex trafficking allegations involving a 17-year-old girl. His office said in 2023 that he had been told by prosecutors that he would not face criminal charges.
"Mr. Gaetz's likely nomination as Attorney General is a perverse development in a truly dark series of events. We would support the House Ethics Committee immediately releasing their report. She was a high school student and there were witnesses," John Clune, a lawyer representing the alleged victim, posted on X.
Gaetz, like Trump's other nominees, will need to win confirmation in the Senate next year, which Republicans will control with at least 52 members in the 100-seat chamber. "It's premature to count votes - but a lot of questions," Cornyn said of Gaetz's prospects.
Cornyn is currently the No. 2 Republican on the Judiciary Committee, which would handle Gaetz's confirmation. The panel's top Democrat, Dick Durbin, also called for the House panel to release its report.
Multiple Republican senators on Wednesday expressed skepticism at the nomination of Gaetz, 42, a provocateur who has never worked for the Justice Department or as a prosecutor at any level of government. On Wednesday, Gaetz mused about abolishing the FBI, a Justice Department unit.
Gaetz is widely disliked by his former colleagues in Congress, where he led an effort last year to force out Kevin McCarthy as speaker, which left the chamber without a leader for several chaotic weeks.
Trump's inner circle has described the attorney general, the country's top law enforcement official, as the most important member of the administration after the president, key to his plans to carry out mass deportations, pardon Jan. 6 rioters, and seek retribution against those who prosecuted him over the past four years.
Trump faced two federal criminal indictments following the end of his four-year term in 2021 and has vowed to radically reshape the Justice Department when he returns to power on Jan. 20.
(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch and Andrew Goudsward, additional reporting by Richard Cowan and Bo Erickson; writing by Andy Sullivan; Editing by Scott Malone and Jonathan Oatis)
