House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said on Sunday “of course” the House Ethics Committee should release its report on the misconduct allegations against former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who resigned from Congress last week when President-elect Trump tapped him to be attorney general.
“Of course it should be released,” Jeffries said on NBC News’s “Meet the Press,” when Kristen Welker asked about Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) saying that the report should not be released.
“And that’s not just Democrats saying that,” Jeffries continued. “You have repeatedly seen Senate Republicans make clear, who are on the Senate Judiciary Committee or throughout that chamber, say that they want access to all available information so they can make a decision about whether the nominee for attorney general is qualified to serve in that office.”
“The Senate has a clear responsibility to serve as a separate and coequal branch of government and a check and balance. That’s as America as baseball, motherhood and apple pie,” Jeffries said.
The Ethics panel has for years been investigating Gaetz, exploring whether he engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, among other allegations. He has vigorously denied allegations of wrongdoing, and the Department of Justice, which previously investigated whether he had sex with a 17-year-old, declined to charge him with a crime.
That Ethics Committee investigation came to an abrupt end Wednesday, when Gaetz resigned from the House. The Ethics panel postponed a vote on Friday on whether to release the report. The Ethics panel does not have jurisdiction over former members of Congress.
It remains unknown what path the panel will follow with its Gaetz report. Some Republican senators have pushed for the Senate Judiciary panel to be granted access to the report and the probe’s findings as they go through the vetting process.
Johnson has said it’s not within the Ethics Committee’s power to release the report because Gaetz is a former member, not a current one.
