House Ethics Chair Michael Guest said Monday that his panel will make its own decision about releasing the report into Matt Gaetz, regardless of Speaker Mike Johnson’s opinion that it should be kept under wraps.
Guest (R-Miss.) told POLITICO in a brief interview that he and Johnson had spoken over the weekend. He added that all Ethics Committee members can now review the report, when only he and Rep. Susan Wild, the top Democrat on the panel, previously had a copy of it, according to two people familiar with the matter.
“We did talk this weekend,” Guest said, noting Johnson shared the same views he has publicly — that the panel should not release the report. Guest has not heard from anyone in the Trump administration, he added.
“I appreciate Mike reaching out,” Guest said. “I don’t see it having an impact on what we as a committee ultimately decide.”
The panel, which is evenly split between Democrats and Republicans, is slated to meet Wednesday, potentially to vote on whether to publish the report.
Both Republican and Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee are pushing for access to the panel’s findings after President-elect Donald Trump tapped Gaetz to be his attorney general last week. Gaetz resigned from the House hours after the announcement — amid rumors that the Ethics report could be released in the coming days — complicating the decision to publish the findings of the investigation.
The panel investigated several allegations against Gaetz, including that he had sex with a minor. Gaetz has repeatedly denied wrongdoing.
Guest also said all members of the panel have access to the report, should they choose to review it. Republican members of the Ethics panel met privately on Monday.
“The members have access to the report, so any member that wishes to view the report will have access to the report in the draft form,” Guest said.
Johnson told reporters Friday he planned to reach out to Guest, and publicly urged the Ethics Committee to not release its report. The speaker has argued that the Ethics Committee should follow typical precedent, which is not releasing reports about members who are no longer in the House. When a reporter noted that the committee previously did publish its findings about lawmakers who resigned, Johnson said if the precedent had “been broken once or twice, it should not have been.”
