The House on Thursday rejected Democratic efforts to release a long-awaited ethics report detailing allegations of sexual misconduct against former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), prolonging uncertainty over the case’s final outcome.
The nearly party-line votes halted a push by Democrats who argued that the report should be made public, even though Gaetz resigned from Congress and withdrew as President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general.
READ: Political Shifts In Florida: State CFO Jimmy Patronis Seeks To Replace Matt Gaetz
In contrast, Republican leaders maintained that the congressional probe effectively ended when Gaetz left office. Speaker Mike Johnson voiced concern that releasing the report would set what he called a dangerous new precedent.
While there have been instances in the past where ethics reports were released post-resignation, such occurrences are exceedingly rare. The move to block publication highlights the contentious nature of the allegations and the House’s reluctance to wade into them further.
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Shortly before the vote, Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.), who introduced one of the measures to force the report’s release, criticized the potential blockade. He argued that by withholding the findings, Republicans would be “succeeding in sweeping credible allegations of sexual misconduct under the rug.”
Gaetz has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, and the decision not to release the report leaves both the public and lawmakers without clarity on the years-long investigation’s conclusions.
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