Congress
Ethics panel to meet as pressure builds for Gaetz report release
Members of a secretive panel overseeing a long-running investigation into Matt Gaetz are set to privately meet on Friday, according to three people familiar with the matter.
The House Ethics Committee meeting was scheduled before Gaetz (R-Fla.) resigned from Congress this week, the people said. The committee doesn’t disclose its agenda — but the highly anticipated closed-door powwow would let them discuss what to do with the probe now that Gaetz is technically outside of their jurisdiction.
Speaker Mike Johnson announced that Gaetz had resigned Wednesday night, hours after President-elect Trump nominated the Florida firebrand to become attorney general. Johnson attributed the resignation to Gaetz wanting to allow his seat to be filled quickly, but House Republicans have speculated that he did so in order to avoid an Ethics Committee report that they believe was poised to be released in a matter of days.
The panel has been investigating several allegations, including that Gaetz engaged in sex with a minor. Gaetz has repeatedly denied wrongdoing.
Multiple members of the notoriously tight-lipped panel, which is evenly split between Democrats and Republicans, declined to comment to Blue Light News on the investigation or the report. And leadership on both sides largely refused to weigh in on whether the committee should release the report.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries punted a question from Blue Light News about the report to its top Democrat, Pennsylvania Rep. Susan Wild.
“That’s a question that would be best directed to Susan Wild, the top Democrat on the Ethics committee,” he said.
And Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) also dodged similar questions about the report’s release: “I’m not aware of any report. I know there are a lot of people talking about what may have happened, but the Ethics Committee doesn’t share with the rest of us what they’re working on.”
But some lawmakers, including those responsible for ultimately voting on Gaetz’s forthcoming nomination as attorney general, are making it clear that they want to see the findings.
“I want to see everything,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a member of the chamber’s Judiciary Committee, which will first consider and hold confirmation hearings on Gaetz’s nomination.
Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats, led by Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) sent a letter to the House Ethics Committee on Thursday asking them to hand over documents related to the investigation, including the report.
Some House Republicans agree they want to see the report if Gaetz is going to continue pursuing the attorney general position. Though they don’t hold any power over his confirmation or over the Ethics Committee, Gaetz had a lot of enemies among his former House colleagues.
Rep. John Duarte (R-Calif.) told reporters after Gaetz’s nomination that there were “better choices” than Gaetz and if he pursues the nomination that the report “needs to come out.”
But the chair of the House Ethics Committee, Michael Guest (R-Miss.), told reporters Wednesday before Gaetz’s resignation had been announced that the probe would end if Gaetz was no longer a member of the House.
“Once the investigation is complete, the Ethics Committee will meet as a committee. We will then return our findings. If Matt Gaetz is still a member of Congress, then that will occur. If Matt has resigned, then this ethics investigation, like many others in the past, will end again,” Guest said.
Asked Thursday if he would release the report, Guest sidestepped the question and pointed to his Wednesday remarks.
Adam Hamilton raised $10.6 million in the third quarter of 2026 across his Senate campaign and his joint fundraising committees, his campaign tells Blue Light News, a significant haul for the Kansas Democrat.
The fundraising total illustrates Democrats’ newfound bullishness about flipping a Senate seat in the deep-red state for the first time since 1932.
“This grassroots support sends a clear message: with three weeks until Election Day, Adam Hamilton is building the momentum to win,” said Hamilton campaign spokesperson Tyson Brody.
Hamilton’s third-quarter figure is nearly triple his $3.66 million second-quarter total. His campaign did not provide a current cash-on-hand total.
National Democrats began pumping money into Kansas in recent days, a sign of their growing hopes that Hamilton could win. Last week, Senate Majority PAC — Senate Democrats’ top super PAC — reserved $5 million in television ads backing Hamilton. American Bridge PAC and Lower Costs Now, a new group affiliated with former Vice President Kamala Harris’ super PAC, have spent in Kansas in recent weeks.
Republicans have also flocked to Kansas to prop up Marshall: Senate Leadership Fund, the Senate GOP’s top PAC, has spent or reserved nearly $11 million backing Marshall in the past week, according to tracking firm AdImpact.
“It took us five months to raise $15 million. [Marshall] got it in a day,” Hamilton said at a campaign event in Lawrence, Kansas on Monday. “So please help us.”
Marshall’s campaign has yet to release his third-quarter fundraising totals. As of mid-July, Marshall had over $5 million in the bank to $1.73 million for Hamilton.
A bipartisan Senate duo is urging Trump national security officials to “bring its full capacities to bear” to stave off threats posed by artificial intelligence — sooner rather than later.
Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell, the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee, and Republican South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds, who serves on the Senate Armed Services cybersecurity subcommittee, are calling for a full government response to a growing number of cybersecurity breaches.
“Recent AI security incidents should serve as a warning,” the senators wrote in a Tuesday letter to Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton and White House Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios. “Advanced AI agents have escaped testing environments, bypassed safeguards, and gained unauthorized access to real-world systems owned by government agencies and private organizations.”
Spokespeople for Clayton and Kratsios did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Their letter comes as lawmakers struggle to hash out what legislation on AI safety, if any, might look like. Members are currently in recess ahead of the November elections and there’s little hope progress can be made by the year’s end.
But those lawmakers who have been engaged on the topic for years now have mapped out administrative actions the Trump administration could move on now, without waiting on Congress.
The Cantwell and Rounds priorities include: strengthening federal AI safety and security standards at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST; expanding independent testing capabilities at the Center for Advancing Innovation and Standards for Super Intelligence, Department of Energy and the national labs; and working with the tech industry to develop and deploy defensive AI tools.
Specifically, the senators wrote, new NIST standards should address the risks posed by advanced AI capabilities, including the “potential misuse by malicious actors” to conduct sophisticated cyberattacks, automate attacks at scale and agents that threaten external systems and critical infrastructure.
They also said the federal government capacity should be complemented by universities and other research organizations, as well as by private sector, third-party evaluators.
Finally, they point to ways the government could use existing programs at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to work with AI labs to help detect threats and reinforce vulnerable systems.
A bipartisan group of senators urged President Donald Trump to rescind his recent diesel deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, amid bubbling anger on Capitol Hill about Trump’s announcement.
In a letter sent to the White House, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the senators warned that the president’s deal with Russia will not “achieve just ends” or benefit Americans.
“Granting Moscow the ability to sell Russian diesel freely in global markets damages American security interests and is a betrayal of the people of Ukraine, who continue to defend themselves from Putin’s murderous, illegal war,” wrote the lawmakers, led by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.). “This deal is a gift to our adversary and a betrayal of our Allies; it should be rescinded.”
On Sunday, a smaller group of senators called on the president to “immediately reverse course” on the plan in a statement. Retiring Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) — who signed on to both — said Sunday there may be “a legitimate case for saying the president’s not following the law.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump announced in a social media post on Friday that Russia would “immediately supply” diesel fuel to global markets — including potentially the U.S. — to help relieve high prices driven, in part, by the ongoing war with Iran. Though Trump has repeatedly defended the U.S.’s actions against Iran, on Saturday he demanded an end to Ukrainian drone strikes that have crippled Russian oil refineries that he argues have caused the record-high oil prices.
The senators on Tuesday argued that the deal with Russia will have a “negligible impact” on fuel prices while providing Putin with “more fuel to finance his war machine” as Russia continues its “brutal attacks on Ukrainian civilians.”
The deal with Russia is a sharp pivot from a sweeping sanctions package signed into law last month. That legislation — championed by the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) — was meant to deplete Moscow’s resources by targeting Russian officials, banks and a shadow fleet of oil tankers. It drew widespread bipartisan support in both chambers of Congress.
Senators on Tuesday referenced the package as they condemned Putin as a “tyrant.”
“For decades, America has stood as the bastion of freedom against tyranny, and American presidents have embodied our nation’s resistance to tyrants. Putin is a tyrant,” the letter reads. “Withdraw from this agreement, rescind General License No. 135, and execute the authorities provided under the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026. Maintain our legacy – and the duty America holds – as leader of the free world.”
In addition to Blumenthal and Tillis, Tuesday’s letter was signed by Democratic Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.), Dick Durbin (Ill.), Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.), Jack Reed (R.I.), and Chris Coons (Del.) and Republican Sens. Mitch McConnell (Ky.), Susan Collins (Maine), Alan Armstrong (Okla.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and John Cornyn (Texas).
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