House Dem moves to force vote on releas­ing Gaetz ethics report

A Demo­c­ra­t­ic law­mak­er is mov­ing to force a vote on releas­ing the results of the House Ethics Com­mit­tee’s report into for­mer Rep. Matt Gaetz, R‑Fla.

Rep. Sean Cas­ten, D‑Ill., intro­duced leg­is­la­tion on Tues­day after­noon aimed at man­dat­ing a House-wide vote on whether to make the Gaetz report pub­lic. 

He intro­duced it as a “priv­i­leged res­o­lu­tion,” a mech­a­nism that forces House lead­ers to con­sid­er it with­in two leg­isla­tive days – putting the dead­line on Thurs­day.

HACKER OBTAINS HOUSE ETHICS TESTIMONY ON MATT GAETZ AS TRUMP MAKES CALLS FOR AG NOMINEE

The House Ethics Com­mit­tee’s mul­ti-year inves­ti­ga­tion into Gaetz, involv­ing alle­ga­tions of sex with a minor and illic­it drug use, came to an abrupt halt last month after he resigned from Con­gress hours after Pres­i­dent-elect Don­ald Trump tapped him to be his attor­ney gen­er­al.

Gaetz dropped out of con­sid­er­a­tion amid qui­et but steady GOP oppo­si­tion, but the com­mit­tee nev­er­the­less lost juris­dic­tion over the probe when Gaetz left the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives.

His res­ig­na­tion came just before the com­mit­tee was expect­ed to meet to con­sid­er releas­ing the report.

Gaetz has con­sis­tent­ly denied any accu­sa­tions of wrong­do­ing.

An ear­li­er fed­er­al inves­ti­ga­tion into the alle­ga­tions end­ed with­out charges against Gaetz.

GET TO KNOW DONALD TRUMP’S CABINET: WHO HAS THE PRESIDENT-ELECT PICKED SO FAR?

It’s high­ly unusu­al for the House Ethics Com­mit­tee, a pan­el nor­mal­ly shroud­ed in secre­cy, to release reports on law­mak­ers who have left office. It’s a detail House Speak­er Mike John­son, R‑La., raised when telling reporters last month that he was against releas­ing the report.

But it’s not unheard of, as Cas­ten point­ed out on Tues­day.

“The Com­mit­tee on Ethics has, on many occa­sions, released its reports on for­mer mem­bers,” Cas­ten said in a state­ment. “Resign­ing from Con­gress should not allow Mem­bers to avoid account­abil­i­ty for alle­ga­tions as seri­ous as those faced by Matt Gaetz. With­hold­ing this report from the Amer­i­can peo­ple would impede the dig­ni­ty and integri­ty of the leg­isla­tive pro­ceed­ings of the House.”

Cas­ten intro­duced a sim­i­lar res­o­lu­tion last month, but his office said it was allowed to expire by House GOP lead­ers over the Thanks­giv­ing break. 

The new res­o­lu­tion will like­ly not be side­lined so eas­i­ly, with the House expect­ed in ses­sion from now until Fri­day. 

The last day to con­sid­er the res­o­lu­tion will be Thurs­day, the same day the Ethics Com­mit­tee will meet after pre­vi­ous­ly fail­ing to come to an agree­ment on releas­ing the Gaetz report.

Rep. Susan Wild, D‑Pa., the top Demo­c­rat on the pan­el, hint­ed that the vote to do so fell along par­ty lines.

“I’d say that a vote was tak­en. As many of you know, this com­mit­tee is even­ly divid­ed between Democ­rats and Repub­li­cans, five Dems, five Repub­li­cans, which means that in order to affir­ma­tive­ly move some­thing for­ward, some­body has to cross par­ty lines and vote with the oth­er side – which hap­pens a lot, by the way, and we often vote unan­i­mous­ly,” Wild told reporters after the last meet­ing. “That did not hap­pen in today’s vote.”