WASHINGTON — House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Friday that he would “strongly request” that the House Ethics Committee not release a report detailing its investigation into former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla.
The Ethics panel had been investigating Gaetz — who resigned this week after President-elect Donald Trump chose him to serve as attorney general — off and on since 2021. He has denied any wrongdoing.
Johnson said that the release of the report, now that Gaetz is no longer a sitting congressman, would be a “terrible breach of protocol, tradition and the spirit of the rule,” and said he plans to communicate that to the panel’s chairman, Rep .Michael Guest, R-Miss.
“The rules of the House have always been that a former member is beyond the jurisdiction of the ethics committee,” Johnson said when asked if the public deserves to see the report. “I’m going to request, strongly request, that the Ethics Committee not issue the report.”
There is precedent for releasing ethics reports after or on the same day that a lawmaker resigns from Congress. Two months after former Rep. Bill BonerD-Tenn., resigned in 1987, and on the day former Rep. Buz LukensR-Ohio, resigned from the House in 1990, the committee released its reports into the legislature.
Johnson said later Friday that making the report public “would open Pandora’s box.” He added, “If it’s been broken once or twice, it shouldn’t have been.”
Johnson returned to Washington, DC, early Friday morning after meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday. Johnson declined to say whether he spoke to Trump about the ethics report.
The bipartisan, 10-member Ethics panel had been scheduled to meet Friday to discuss the report on Gaetz and whether to release it to the public, but a source with direct knowledge had said on Thursday that the meeting was canceled.
Tom Rust, a spokesman for the Ethics Committee, declined to comment on Johnson’s remarks.
Republicans who will control the Judiciary Committee next year and would oversee a Gaetz confirmation process, told NBC News Thursday that they wanted to see the details of the Ethics report, although some said they’d likely get that information from an FBI background if the report is not released.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said Thursday that the Ethics Committee should preserve the report and hand over all relevant materials from its investigation into Gaetz.
Josh Sorbe, spokesman for Democrats on the Judiciary Committee, said that Gaetz “shouldn’t be able to resign away from an ethics investigation involving allegations of grave misconduct, especially when he will be nominated to be our country’s top law enforcement officer.”
“There is bipartisan support for the Senate Judiciary Committee having access to this information,” Sorbe said. “Chair Durbin will continue pursuing it so members of the Committee can fulfill their constitutional obligation of advice and consent on this deeply problematic nominee.”
The Ethics Committee’s investigation into Gaetz most recently zeroed in on alleged sexual misconduct, illicit drug use, accepting improper gifts, obstruction and other allegations. Gaetz had also been under federal investigation for sex trafficking, although he was ultimately not charged.
Kyle Stewart, Scott Wong and Brennan Leach contributed.