{"id":2479,"date":"2024-11-14T17:02:57","date_gmt":"2024-11-14T17:02:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/house-ethics-chair-reiterates-he-does-not-plan-to-release-gaetz-report\/"},"modified":"2024-11-14T17:02:57","modified_gmt":"2024-11-14T17:02:57","slug":"house-ethics-chair-reiterates-he-does-not-plan-to-release-gaetz-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/house-ethics-chair-reiterates-he-does-not-plan-to-release-gaetz-report\/","title":{"rendered":"House Ethics chair reiterates he does not plan to release Gaetz report"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

House Ethics Chair Michael Guest is seemingly sticking to his decision to not release his panel\u2019s report about Matt Gaetz after the Floridian\u2019s abrupt resignation Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happens in Ethics is confidential. We’re going to maintain that confidentiality,\u201d Guest (R-Miss.) told reporters Thursday morning as he left the House floor. \u201cI\u2019ve given my statement yesterday and there\u2019s nothing new that has changed from then until now.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked if he\u2019s allowed to release the Ethics report if Gaetz isn\u2019t in the House: \u201cI\u2019ve got no further comment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guest told reporters Wednesday<\/u><\/a>, ahead of Gaetz\u2019s announced resignation, that the probe would end if Gaetz was no longer a member of the House.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce 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,\u201d Guest said.<\/p>\n

Gaetz resigned from the House just hours after President-elect Donald Trump nominated him as attorney general in his new administration.<\/p>\n

While Speaker Mike Johnson said Wednesday that Gaetz had resigned so abruptly because he wanted to give leadership time to fill the seat if he becomes attorney general, some of his GOP colleagues believe Gaetz\u2019s decision was actually tied to an Ethics Committee report investigating several allegations, including that Gaetz engaged in sex with a minor. The report was expected to come out in a matter of days, according to two Republican lawmakers, granted anonymity to speak candidly.<\/p>\n

Gaetz has repeatedly denied wrongdoing in the multiple probes into those accusations.<\/p>\n

Despite Guest indicating the report likely won\u2019t be formally released, it could still leak \u2014 Gaetz has made numerous enemies in the House, and senators have expressed doubts he could get confirmed. The report would likely become a huge point of contention in any hearings.<\/p>\n

To that point, Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) has already demanded that his panel see a copy of the report before Gaetz faces confirmation hearings. Of course, he won\u2019t control the committee next year, when those hearings could occur.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am calling on the House Ethics Committee to preserve and share their report and all relevant documentation on Mr. Gaetz with the Senate Judiciary Committee,\u201d Durbin, who is expected to be the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee next year, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cWe cannot allow this valuable information from a bipartisan investigation to be hidden from the American people. Make no mistake: this information could be relevant to the question of Mr. Gaetz\u2019s confirmation as the next Attorney General of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

House Ethics Chair Michael Guest is seemingly sticking to his decision to not release his panel\u2019s report about Matt Gaetz after the Floridian\u2019s abrupt resignation Wednesday. \u201cWhat happens in Ethics is confidential. We’re going to maintain that confidentiality,\u201d Guest (R-Miss.) told reporters Thursday morning as he left the House floor. \u201cI\u2019ve given my statement yesterday […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2479\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}