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US House Speaker Mike Johnson, on Sunday, made it clear that he believed the ethics committee should not make public the report concerning Matt Gaetz, the nominee for attorney general under President Trump.
This statement stood in sharp opposition to the vehement criticism from Democrats, who have painted Gaetz as a divisive figure and unworthy of the position, calling him a “troll.”
Speaking with CNN, Johnson firmly stated that “it should not come out,” citing Matt Gaetz’s resignation from Congress and his subsequent status as a non-member. He stressed the importance of respecting longstanding protocols, traditions, and rules that govern such issues, framing them as essential to maintaining institutional integrity.
Gaetz is a deeply polarizing Florida Republican who has been accused of — and adamantly denied — having years earlier paid for sex with a then 17-year-old girl.
Beyond the sex-related allegations, Gaetz faced scrutiny for several other serious accusations, including the alleged use of illegal drugs, diverting campaign funds for personal gain, sharing inappropriate content on the House floor, and engaging in other questionable actions that raised concerns about his conduct.
The moment President-elect Trump nominated Gaetz to head the powerful Justice Department — a decision viewed by Democrats as provocatively daring — the Florida lawmaker promptly resigned his seat in the House. This resignation led to the swift termination of the ethics investigation that had been examining his conduct.
Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have called for the immediate release of the report, with even some Republican senators emphasizing that their constitutional responsibility to assess nominations requires full access to all pertinent information, regardless of party lines.
Senator-elect Adam Schiff, a Democrat and frequent Trump critic who is a regular target of the former president’s wrath, made the case against Gaetz on CNN.
“I think he’s not only unqualified, he is really disqualified,” he said.
“Are we really going to have an attorney general who, there’s credible allegations (that) he was involved in child sex trafficking, potential illicit drug use, obstruction of an investigation? Who has no experience serving in the Justice Department — only being investigated by it?”
Trump has frequently jousted with the Justice Department, and critics say that as attorney general Gaetz would likely drop several criminal cases against the former president and try to file bogus charges against perceived Trump opponents.
Gaetz was known as a disruptor who earned the enmity of some House colleagues, including by engineering the ouster of Johnson’s predecessor and fellow Republican Kevin McCarthy.
Earlier this year, Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma told an interviewer, referring to Gaetz: “There’s a reason why no one in the conference came and defended him, because we had all seen the videos he was showing on the House floor…of the girls he had slept with.”
On Sunday, Mullin told NBC that the report “absolutely” should be released to the Senate at least, although he stopped short of saying the public should see it.
“I believe the Senate should have access to that now,” he said, adding that Gaetz would be given “the same chances we’ll give all President Trump’s appointees.”
One Democratic senator, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, said Sunday that while he would be “excited” to confirm some Trump appointees, “There’s others that are just absolute trolls, just like Gaetz.”
Johnson said days ago that as House speaker he should not “put his thumb on the scale” of the ethics committee’s decision. But his message Sunday was different.
Senators, he said, would “have a rigorous review and vetting process… But they don’t need to rely upon a report or a draft report or a rough draft report that was prepared by the ethics committee for its very limited purposes.”