The House Ethics Committee did not come to an agreement about whether to release its report detailing the yearslong investigation into former Rep. Matt Gaetz, Chairman Michael Guest (R-MS) said Wednesday after the committee met for a closed-door session.
The committee adjourned after two hours of meeting, with lawmakers emerging from the closed-door meeting declining to comment. However, no decision was made on whether to publish, according to the chairman.
“There was not an agreement by the committee to release the report,” Guest told reporters, declining to say whether a vote was taken.
Ranking member Susan Wild (D-PA) pushed back against Guest’s characterization of the decision, noting there was no consensus among members on how to move forward.
“[Guest] has implied that there was an agreement of the committee not to disclose the report,” Wild told reporters after the meeting. “We often vote unanimously. That did not happen in today’s vote, and I do not want the American public or anyone else to think Mr. Guest’s characterization of what transpired today would be some sort of indication that the committee had … consensus on this issue not to release the report. That just would be inaccurate.”
Wild confirmed that a vote was taken inside the room and that there “was no consensus on this issue.”
Shortly after the meeting, reports emerged that the committee took two votes during its meeting. The panel first voted to release the report in its current form, which was deadlocked among partisan lines, according to Punchbowl News. The panel then reportedly voted to complete the report, which the outlet said received majority, but unanimous, support.
It is not clear if the report is finished or what work is left to be done, and Wild declined to comment on its status “except to say that we were in a position to vote today.”
The 10-member committee’s deliberations come as Gaetz is being considered as the next attorney general under the incoming Trump administration. Gaetz resigned on Nov. 13 just hours after his nomination was announced, raising eyebrows across Capitol Hill.
Still, even as the committee has failed to reach an agreement as pressure mounts on both sides about whether the report should be released, one Democrat has already threatened to explore alternative options if the committee voted against publishing the report. Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL) plans to introduce a privileged motion on Wednesday that would force the House Ethics Committee to release its findings.
“The allegations against Matt Gaetz are serious,” Casten said in a statement. “They are credible. The House Ethics Committee has spent years conducting a thorough investigation to get to the bottom of it. This information must be made available for the Senate to provide its constitutionally required advice and consent.”
A privileged resolution would force a vote on the matter within two legislative days, meaning lawmakers may not consider the matter until they return after Thanksgiving. Casten’s threat comes just one day after he led 97 House Democrats in a letter demanding the release of the report.
The committee met days after ABC News interviewed Joel Leppard, the Florida attorney representing the two women who appeared before the House Ethics Committee, who revealed on Monday that his clients testified they were both paid by Gaetz to have sex. One of the women also told investigators that she witnessed Gaetz having sex with a third woman who was underage at the time, according to Leppard.
“She testified [that] in July of 2017, at this house party, she was walking out to the pool area, and she looked to her right, and she saw Rep. Gaetz having sex with her friend, who was 17,” Leppard told the outlet.
Gaetz stopped having sexual relations with the 17-year-old girl when he realized she was underage, Leppard said.
“Her understanding was that Matt Gaetz did not know that she was a minor, and that when he learned that she was a minor, that he broke off things and did not continue a sexual relationship until she turned 18,” Leppard told the outlet.
Leppard also said the adult women testified that Gaetz paid the two women through Venmo and that they presented the receipts to the women while they were testifying.
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“The House was very clear about that and went through each,” Leppard said. “They essentially put the Venmo payments on the screen and asked about them. And my clients repeatedly testified, ‘What was this payment for?’ ‘That was for sex.’”
Trump transition spokesman Alex Pfeiffer stood by Gaetz, who has denied all allegations of wrongdoing. The Justice Department also investigated sex trafficking but did not bring charges.
