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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
Speaker Johnson says he’s going to request Ethics Committee not
release Gaetz report
By Ali Main, Annie Grayer and Sarah Ferris, CNN
Updated:
1:45 PM EST, Fri November 15, 2024
Source: CNN
House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Friday that he does not think a
House Ethics Committee report on allegations related to Matt Gaetz
should be released and is “going to strongly request that the Ethics
Committee not issue the report.”
Johnson called on the ethics panel to withhold the report shortly after
returning from visiting with President-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago
on Thursday, and said he plans to speak with the panel’s chairman,
GOP Rep. Michael Guest. Gaetz, who resigned from Congress this week
after Trump him to serve as attorney general, has repeatedly denied any
wrongdoing.
“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 told
reporters on Friday. The comments are a significant move by the House
GOP leader to push to block the release of a report from a probe that
is supposed to be separate from the speaker’s office.
Johnson’s comments also mark a reversal after he said on Thursday,
“the speaker is not involved with what happens in ethics. Lots of
important reasons for that.”
Since Gaetz has resigned, the probe has ended as the panel only has
jurisdiction over a member when they are serving in Congress. Lawmakers
have been deliberating whether the panel still has the power to release
the report, even if Gaetz is no longer a member of Congress.
Speaking again to reporters again on Friday after saying he would ask
the Ethics Committee not to release the report, Johnson refused to say
if he had spoken to Trump about the issue and sought to clarify his
position on the committee not issuing the report.
“I’m not talking to anybody about what I’ve said to Trump,”
Johnson said, emphasizing that the speaker’s office has “no
involvement or understanding” of the ethics committee’s inner
workings.
“Let me say this. I believe it is very important to maintain the
House’s traditions of not issuing ethics reports on people who are no
longer (a) member of Congress,” Johnson said. “I think it would
open a Pandora’s box. It’s a very important rule that should be
maintained. It has been broken once or twice, it should not have
been.”
Johnson continued, “What I’m saying is, 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 institutions.
The House Ethics Committee’s jurisdiction is over sitting members of
Congress. I think if you think about it, this will make sense to
everybody.”
A spokesman for the Senate Judiciary Committee pushed back on
Johnson’s comments in a statement to CNN.
“There is longstanding precedent for releasing ethics investigation
materials after a Member resigns, whether in the House or Senate. The
now former Congressman shouldn’t be able to resign away an ethics
investigation involving allegations of grave misconduct, especially
when he will be nominated to be our country’s top law enforcement
officer,” said Josh Sorbe, spokesperson for Senate Majority Whip Dick
Durbin, a Democrat who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“There is bipartisan support for the Senate Judiciary Committee
having access to this information. Chair Durbin will continue pursuing
it so members of the Committee can fulfill their constitutional
obligation of advice and consent on this deeply problematic nominee.”
The ethics panel had been due to meet this week to vote on releasing a
report addressing numerous allegations about Gaetz, according to
multiple sources familiar with the discussions. But committee
Republicans canceled a scheduled meeting on Friday with Democrats after
meeting privately Thursday night.
The Senate Judiciary Committee requested on Thursday that the House
Ethics Committee immediately preserve and “transmit all relevant
documentation on Mr. Gaetz, including the report” as the Senate gears
up to vet the nomination during what is expected to be a contentious
confirmation process.
“The Senate certainly had a right to request (the Gaetz report). I
can’t talk about our internal deliberations, but the information that
they’ve requested, I think it’s totally reasonable for them to
have, and in fact, I think it’s essential for them to get that kind
of information before they make a decision of this magnitude,” said
Democratic Rep. Glenn Ivey, who serves on the Ethics Committee.
The Ethics Committee that it had been probing allegations that Gaetz
may have “engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, accepted
improper gifts, dispensed special privileges and favors to individuals
with whom he had a personal relationship, and sought to obstruct
government investigations of his conduct.”
At that time, the panel said that Gaetz “has categorically denied all
of the allegations before the Committee.”
Democrats are beginning to openly question the timing of Gaetz’s
resignation, and if it was tied to the impending report release.
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who served on the ethics panel for
seven years, told reporters, “One would suspect the timing is
suspicious because it was a matter of hours before the committee was
going to release their report. And I don’t know what the tradition is
of the committee to say we can’t let somebody exploit the timing of
the report because there is a lot of work that goes into it.”
“It defies belief that anyone could become the chief law enforcement
officer of the United States of America with an outstanding House
Ethics Committee investigative report that doesn’t get released
relating to potential misconduct,” Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin told
CNN.
Pressed about whether the public had the right to more information
about the allegations now that Trump has picked Gaetz to serve as his
attorney general, Johnson responded, “The rules of the House have
always been that a former member is beyond the jurisdiction of the
ethics committee, and so I don’t think that’s relevant.”
CNN’s Lauren Fox contributed to this report.
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