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The House of Representatives rebuffed two attempts by Democrats to force the House to release a report on former congressman Matt Gaetz from the House Ethics Committee.
The full extent of the report was a mystery, but it was known that the allegations were being investigated Matt Gaetz had sex with a minor while a member Congress. Gaetz has repeatedly denied the allegations he faces, which allege he had repeated sexual relations with a 17-year-old girl (at the time) at a party he attended in 2017, during his first term.
The votes were mostly along party lines, with Republicans eager to turn the page on their former colleague. Gaetz, a former congressman from Florida, resigned from the chamber before a failed bid to become attorney general vacated the House GOP most of the answers to questions about his antics.
Gaetz is now considered a likely candidate for Florida governor, as state GOP leader Ron DeSantis is term-limited. He remains a key ally of former President Donald Trump, who chose Pam Bondi to replace him after the congressman withdrew from consideration.
It should be noted that Thursday’s vote is not the final decision on the report. The resolutions to compel the release of the report were filed as privileged Sean Casten and Steve Cohen, two Democrats, and came as the Ethics Committee itself was still debating its completion and release. It was originally slated for release two days before Gaetz resigned from Congress, and repeated delays in that period followed as some Republicans debated whether to release it at all.
The ethics panel reportedly met for more than two hours Thursday before the vote and released a statement that read in part: “The committee continues to discuss the matter. There will be no further statements except in accordance with the Committee and the Rules of Procedure.”
The end of his bid for attorney general has largely eased the pressure from the Republican backbench, but not entirely. Gaetz still has plenty of enemies inside and outside the chamber — former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who still has allies within the GOP caucus, has been open about his hatred of the former congressman and speculated that The Independent in an interview at the Republican convention as recently as this summer that the report and related allegations would stall Gaetz’s bid for governor.
This is breaking news. More to come…