House Shuts Down Democrat Efforst to Publish Gaetz Ethics Report

When Matt Gaetz was nominated for Attorney General, he was still a member of the House.

There was an active Ethics Committee investigation on him that was just about to come to a vote regarding making the report public.

Gaetz resigned his seat, but there was still talk about publicizing the report since he had been nominated as the AG. That report, however, has officially been killed, and rightfully so.

No Need

When Gaetz was still in the running for Attorney General, I led the effort to have the Ethics Committee given to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which would be responsible for vetting Gaetz.

I could care less if the report was openly published, but as the Attorney General nominee, I felt it was important for the Senate committee to have all relevant information about him.

My reasoning was that if there was something bad in that report, it would come out sooner or later, and I would rather the committee have that information and disqualify him before he could hurt the Trump administration.

Now that he has withdrawn from consideration, we no longer need that information, so there is absolutely no need to publish that report.

Democrats, however, were hoping to ruin Gaetz forever, so they made a motion to have the report published even though Gaetz is no longer in the House and out of consideration for a government post.

The effort was being led by Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL), who stated, “If this is a referendum on, are Republicans willing to stand up to sexual assault when committed by Republicans, I have a very low confidence that any Republicans will break on that vote.

“If this is a referendum on: do Republicans like Matt Gaetz, I have a very high degree of confidence. I don't know how they're thinking about this.”

That statement, however, is loaded because the same allegations that the committee was investigating were investigated by law enforcement, and no charges were ever filed against Gaetz.

I am sure there is some seedy information in that report that would ruin Gaetz, which is why I believe he resigned as soon as Trump announced the appointment.

However, since no charges were filed, I no longer think this is relevant in terms of public information. Had he been charged, my stance on this would have been completely different.

And I say this without being a fan of Gaetz. I am glad he is out of our government, and I am glad he withdrew his name as AG, but the fact of the matter is that Gaetz is now a private citizen, and the House Ethics Committee no longer has standing on this issue.

Now, if Gaetz comes back into public service, or if Trump appoints him to a role that does not need Senate approval, that door gets kicked right back open, in my opinion. But until then, that report is irrelevant.