Congress
How the Gaetz Ethics report could still come out if the panel blocks it
House Ethics Committee members are set to meet privately Wednesday as debate rages over whether the panel should release its report on its investigation into former Rep. Matt Gaetz. But even if they elect not to release it, that might not be the end of the road.
The committee doesn’t disclose its agenda. But Ethics members are under intense scrutiny as they figure out how to address the report, which lawmakers in both chambers have said they would like to review, particularly given Gaetz’s attorney general nomination.
The committee could vote to adopt or release a report during its closed-door meeting. If the vote is along party lines — the same number of Democrats and Republicans sit on the committee — a tie means the motion fails and defers to the majority, which is Republican. (Reminder: There is precedent for Ethics releasing reports about former members.)
It’s also possible that they postpone that vote, dragging this out further.
Here’s a breakdown of what could happen if members vote not to release the report, and other ways the investigative findings could see the light of day.
Someone leaks it to the press: Ethics Committee members and staff don’t take the prospect of a leak lightly, if the panel votes to keep the report under wraps.
Part of that is wanting to protect the credibility of the panel, but members also take an oath, pledging: “I will not disclose, to any person or entity outside the Committee on Ethics, any information received in the course of my service with the Committee, except as authorized by the Committee or in accordance with its rules.”
So even if Democrats want this to come out, many don’t want to be responsible for breaking that oath — or the potential consequences, like censure or expulsion at the hands of their colleagues.
Using the House floor: Some lawmakers are privately theorizing that, should the committee block the release of the report, a lawmaker could go to the House or Senate floor and read it into the congressional record rather than leak it to the media.
That’s what happened when The New York Times and The Washington Post were waiting for a Supreme Court decision on whether they could leak the Pentagon Papers — so then-Sen. Mike Gravel (D-Alaska) read the papers on the Senate floor on June 29, 1971. He made it through 4,100 pages of the 7,000-page leaked document before submitting the rest into the record. (It resulted in a Supreme Court case, Gravel vs. USA.)
Any member who dares to take this step could face near-immediate consequences, including censure or expulsion. Republicans could quickly bring up a privileged resolution, bypassing Ethics and Rules, to punish whoever comes to the floor with the report.
“Let’s say a Democrat chose to go ahead and do that on the floor, the downside would be that it would blow up the Ethics process. Now that may not be the world’s biggest loss, because in the House it’s been pretty weak, but you would then simply be saying: ‘We’re no longer gonna abide by the rules, because we don’t believe in the rules,’” said Meredith McGehee, an independent expert in government ethics.
Sharing it with senators: Even if the Ethics panel doesn’t want to make the report public, they can vote to share it with the Senate Judiciary Committee ahead of potential confirmation hearings. Some Republican senators have called to see the report, including Texas Sen. John Cornyn.
McGehee pointed to another option: Instead of handing over the report, House members could make the report available in a secure room where senators could — gulp — venture to the House to read it. That, of course, would cut down on some leak risks associated with distributing copies of the report to the entire Judiciary staff.
Sober warning: Staff-driven leaks have happened before, but typically not in a situation with so much at stake. In addition to losing a job, there are also real concerns of political violence if a staff leaker’s name became public.
Matt Gaetz is out of the running for attorney general. He’s also out of a job on Capitol Hill. In Washington and Tallahassee, the question now is: Could he be back in the House in January?
The Florida Republican resigned both from his current term and preemptively from his term in the next Congress, which he just won in the November election.
“I do not intend to take the oath of office for the same office in the 119th Congress,” he wrote in a letter to Speaker Mike Johnson that was also transmitted to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
One thing’s clear: He can’t come back for this Congress. But if Gaetz would like to return to Capitol Hill in January and serve in the seat his Florida constituents elected him to in November, Blue Light News seems prepared to punt that decision to DeSantis and Florida’s secretary of state, Cord Byrd.
A congressional aide indicated that Gaetz’s membership status for the 119th Congress is effectively up to his home state, telling Blue Light News: “The official roll for the 119th Congress will be prepared with the Certificates of Election received from the States.”
The names provided by Florida of candidates who were “regularly elected” to the House under the state and federal laws will be eligible to take their seats in January, the aide continued.
Gaetz has not yet said publicly what he wants to do. And he did not respond to questions from Blue Light News about what his future might hold.
But if he wants to come back to Blue Light News, he may argue his assertion that he won’t serve in the new Congress may be conditional: He specified that he wouldn’t take the oath “to pursue the position of Attorney General in the Trump Administration,” which is now off the table.
This could put the spotlight on DeSantis — and Byrd, his appointee — on how they want to handle it. Notably, a special election has not yet been scheduled to fill Gaetz’s seat.
Gaetz was once tight with DeSantis, and played a key role in his first transition team back in 2018. But Gaetz remained loyal to Trump during DeSantis’ bid for president — and that shifted the relationship.
Gaetz could possibly take his seat as normal, as if his resignation never happened. Or that special election could still happen — but nothing would stop Gaetz from running in it if he wanted to come back to Washington.
It’s also possible his political future isn’t in the House. Trump’s decision to pick Sen. Marco Rubio as secretary of State will allow DeSantis to appoint someone to that plum position for the next two years, until the 2026 elections. DeSantis said he intends to name a successor by early January.
Gaetz is not considered a likely contender for the open Senate seat — but some of his allies have already floated him. And Gaetz has long been rumored to be considering a 2026 gubernatorial run, with DeSantis term-limited.
When reached by phone, Don Gaetz, a Florida state senator and Matt Gaetz’s father, said he had not had a “substantive conversation” with his son following his decision to drop his bid for attorney general and did not know whether he would attempt a return to Congress. He did add that, “I love my son and I’m proud of him.”
Several candidates had already announced their intent to run in the younger Gaetz’s 1st District, a safe Republican seat. But they may show him deference.
Republican state Rep. Michelle Salzman, who already announced a run, told Blue Light News after the news broke that she immediately reached out to Gaetz to tell him she would “fully support whatever he wants” and would “absolutely” withdraw from the race if Gaetz wanted to return to Congress.
Other Republicans who’d filed to run or said they planned to include state Rep. Joel Rudman and Bernadette Pittman, the owner and CEO of Boots on the Ground Bikers for Trump. Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis had also considered running, which would necessitate DeSantis appointing his replacement.
Former Rep. Matt Gaetz’s abrupt withdrawal of his bid to be attorney general on Thursday could be bad news for another of President-elect Donald Trump’s picks: Pete Hegseth.
Hegseth’s nomination for Defense secretary is facing headwinds over seven-year-old allegations of sexual assault, although he was never charged. But Hegseth so far had been overshadowed by Gaetz, a flame-throwing congressional ally with numerous foes in both parties who faced his own misconduct allegations, including that he engaged in sex with a minor.
With Gaetz stepping out of contention, scrutiny could quickly shift to Hegseth after revelations that the Army veteran and former Fox News personality paid his accuser and the release on Thursday of a 22-page police report of the alleged 2017 incident in Monterey, California. Hegseth denies wrongdoing.
Indeed, Hegseth “could hide behind Gaetz” because the former lawmaker’s misconduct allegations are more far-reaching and have been in the public eye longer, a person familiar with the Trump transition said. But now, the person said, Hegseth “is at the front of the line.” The person was granted anonymity to speak candidly about Hegseth’s chances of confirmation.
There’s no sign that Republicans, four of whom would need to defect to sink Hegseth, are about to abandon the Pentagon pick. But some top Democrats, who argue Hegseth is unqualified in addition to his personal issues, are counting on closer scrutiny of his nomination.
“The spotlight will fall very heavily on him,” predicted Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.). “The combination of Gaetz’s withdrawal and the latest reports on the Monterey incident, I think, will dramatically increase scrutiny of the SecDef nominee.”
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) argues the outlook is different from just a few hours earlier, when Gaetz was still in the picture.
Gaetz’s withdrawal “removes the distraction that maybe Trump world thought he would provide for some of the other nominees,” Blumenthal said.
The Trump team, meanwhile, appeared to be circling the wagons Thursday as Hegseth and Vice President-elect JD Vance met with Republicans on Capitol Hill, most of whom are close allies.
Hegseth also offered his defense following the meetings, telling reporters that he “was completely cleared” in the police investigation.
Sen. John Fetterman mocked Matt Gaetz Thursday for withdrawing as Donald Trump’s attorney general pick, saying sarcastically that he “didn’t see that coming.”
“I heard a rumor that they’re going to issue a new silver dollar in his honor because he had to withdraw,” Fetterman joked. “OK, so can we freak out about that next?”
Gaetz announced Thursday he was withdrawing, saying in a social media post his nomination had become a distraction.
When the president-elect announced he tapped Gaetz to be his next attorney general last week, Fetterman called it “god-tier-level trolling.”
“People have the opportunity and they can freak out over anything and respond and if they want to do that you better pace yourself though because it’s not even Thanksgiving,” Fetterman told reporters Thursday. “We don’t have to react and take unserious things so seriously that the world is going to spin off its axis the way it is right now.”
Mia McCarthy contributed to this report.
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