Democrats try to force Ethics Committee to release Gaetz report

After members of the House Ethics Committee deadlocked along party lines whether to release its report on former Rep. Matt Gaetz, two Democrats introduced privileged resolutions to make the report public.

Reps. Steve Cohen of Tennessee and Sean Casten of Illinois introduced resolutions to try to force the committee to release the report. Under House rules, once a privileged resolution is introduced, the House must take it up within two legislative days. Republicans have the majority in the House and leadership will decide when the resolution is brought up for a vote. Republicans will attempt to block the effort but it's not yet clear how this could play out.

The Ethics Committee was investigating allegations that Gaetz engaged in sexual misconduct, illicit drug use, shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused state identification records, converted campaign funds to personal use, and/or accepted a bribe, improper gratuity, or impermissible gift.

Gaetz resigned from Congress last week after President-elect Donald Trump announced he planned to nominate Gaetz to be his attorney general. The Ethics Committee generally drops investigations of members if they leave office, but Republicans and Democrats have argued whether to break that precedent to allow the Senate to perform its role of vetting presidential nominations.

Earlier Wednesday, the committee voted against releasing the report after multiple rounds of votes, a source told ABC News, with all Republicans on the committee voting against its release.

Republican Rep. Michael Guest, the committee chairman, told reporters, “There was not an agreement to release the report,” as he left the meeting.

But Rep. Susan Wild, the top Democrat on the committee, disagreed with Guest’s characterization, saying “There was no consensus on the issue.”

“The chairman has since betrayed the process by disclosing our deliberations within moments after walking out of the committee, and he has implied that there was an agreement of the committee not to disclose the report. That is untrue -- to the extent that suggests that the committee was in agreement or that we had a consensus on that, that is inaccurate,” Wild said.

Wild said “a vote was taken” and suggested it was tied, implying no Republicans crossed party lines. There are five Republicans and five Democrats on the committee.

“We often vote unanimously. That did not happen with this vote. And I do not want the American public or anyone else to think that Mr. Guest's characterization of what transpired today would be some sort of indication that the committee had unanimity or consensus on this issue not to release the report. That would be an inaccurate portrayal,” she said.

Sources said the committee will complete the report and take it up again in December. Other committee members refused to answer questions.,Gaetz, who along with Vice President-elect JD Vance had been meeting with Republican senators on his nomination, said he hasn't been following developments in the Ethics Committee.

"I'll be honest with you I've been focused on what we've got to do to reform the Department of Justice. I've been meeting with senators. I haven't been paying much attention to that," Gaetz said.

George Santos, the former congressman expelled after the Ethics Committee found he violated House rules, made a surprise appearance at the Capitol, telling reporters the investigation into his former colleague was a "political hit piece."

Santos later pleaded guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. Asked if he was seeking a pardon, Santos said it was "not a question, a conversation I've had...I am not entertaining that conversation."

He also said he had no plans to run for Congress again.

The investigation into Gaetz

On April 9, 2021, the secretive panel announced it had initiated a review into allegations that Gaetz “may have engaged in sexual misconduct and/or illicit drug use, shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused state identification records, converted campaign funds to personal use, and/or accepted a bribe, improper gratuity, or impermissible gift, in violation of House Rules, laws, or other standards of conduct.”

The committee spoke with more than a dozen witnesses, issued at least 25 subpoenas and reviewed thousands of pages of documents in its investigation of Gaetz.

House Ethics initially deferred its consideration of the matter in response to a request from the Department of Justice, which conducted its own multiple-year sex-trafficking probe into the four-term congressman.

In February 2023, DOJ informed lawyers representing witnesses that it would not bring charges against Gaetz.

Gaetz blamed former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy when the Ethics Committee reauthorized its investigation in May 2023 after the Department of Justice had withdrawn its deferral request. Gaetz then successfully led the charge to oust McCarthy as speaker.

This June, the committee announced it was still investigating whether Gaetz had “engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, accepted improper gifts, dispensed special privileges and favors to individuals with whom he had a personal relationship, and sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct.”

But it announced it would take “no further action” on the allegations that he may have shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused state identification records, converted campaign funds to personal use, and/or accepted a bribe or improper gratuity.

The House Ethics Committee had nearly completed the inquiry before Gaetz abruptly resigned last week after Trump announced he had selected Gaetz as his attorney general nominee.

The committee generally drops investigations of House members if they leave office but Republicans and Democrats have argued whether a break in that precedent is necessary for the Senate to perform its constitutional duty to advise and consent to presidential nominations.

While the clearest above-water path for the report’s release is by agreeing to a majority vote by the Ethics Committee, there is also speculation that any single member could offer a privileged resolution on the House floor to force an up-or-down vote on its disclosure.

What committee leaders have said

Ethics Committee Chairman Michael Guest, R-Miss, has been tight-lipped about the meeting agenda on Wednesday but said he has read the Gaetz report.

Wild told reporters on Monday that the report should be disclosed to the public and said Wednesday that her position had not changed.

“You either are going to disclose it or you're not going to disclose it. So, and there's plenty of precedents in the Ethics Committee to disclose the report even after a member has resigned,” Wild said Monday.

What congressional leaders have said

Johnson has made clear that he believes the committee should not release an investigative report on a former member of Congress.

“My job is to protect the institution, and I have made very clear that I think it’s an important guardrail for our institution that we not use the House Ethics Committee to investigate and report on persons who are not members of this body,” Johnson told reporters at the Capitol on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, during a press conference on Tuesday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries answered “Yes” when asked if the report should be released.

Who's on the committee?

The five Republicans on the committee are: Chairman Guest of Mississippi, David Joyce of Ohio, John Rutherford of Florida, Andrew Garbarino of New York and Michelle Fischbach of Minnesota.

The five Democrats are: Wild of Pennsylvania, Veronica Escobar of Texas, Mark DeSaulnier of California, Deborah Ross of North Carolina and Glenn Ivey of Maryland.

-ABC News' Chris Boccia contributed to this report.