Committee will publish
Will sex allegations against Trump confidant Gaetz become public?
December 18, 2024, 9:50 p.m
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After criticism from his own party, Trump confidant Gaetz withdrew his nomination as Minister of Justice. A report on sex and drug allegations should remain secret. Now the Ethics Committee of the US House of Representatives is voting in favor of publication.
An incriminating report about Donald Trump's former preferred candidate for US Attorney General, Matt Gaetz, could now come to light after all. The House Ethics Committee voted in a secret vote to release the report on Gaetz's ethical lapses, according to sources familiar with the matter. The panel had previously investigated allegations of sexual misconduct by Gaetz, including sexual contact with minors, and drug abuse. These accusations and concerns from within his own party were a central reason why Gaetz ultimately gave up his chances at the Justice Department.
In November, the five Republicans on the committee voted against making the report public, and the five Democrats voted for it. In the plenary session at the beginning of December, all but one Republican voted against it. One reason she cites is that after the election and his nomination by Trump, Gaetz also resigned from his seat as a member of parliament and is therefore no longer a member of Congress.
Gaetz: “I live a different life now”
Gaetz wrote on X that since he left Congress he had no opportunity to defend himself there. “It is embarrassing, although not criminal, that I probably partied, had women, drank and smoked more than I should have,” Gaetz wrote. “I live a different life now.”
US House of Representatives Chairman Mike Johnson had the Ethics Committee decide not to release the report – it would set a terrible precedent, he said. While it has happened that ethics reports have been published following a member's resignation, this is extremely rare.
Shortly before the House vote, Democratic Rep. Sean Casten of Illinois, who introduced one of the bills to force the release, said that by opposing the release, Republicans would be “successfully sweeping credible allegations of sexual misconduct under the rug.”
