The House Ethics Committee, which has been investigating allegations of sexual misconduct and obstruction against Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, has scheduled a vote Friday on whether to release its report, according to three sources knowing the work of the committee.
Hours after President-elect Donald Trump announced his intention to designer Gaetz to become attorney general, Gaetz resigned his seat in Congress, effective immediately.
“I do not intend to be sworn in for the same position in the 119th Congress, nor do I intend to serve as Attorney General in the Trump Administration,” Gaetz said in his resignation letter obtained by CBS News.
House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters that there are about eight weeks that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis could fill his seat by setting a date for a special election.
News of the scheduled vote was first reported by Punchbowl.
Now that Gaetz has resigned, it is unclear whether the panel will vote on releasing the report, since Gaetz is no longer in Congress.
There is, however, congressional precedent on the Senate side that an ethics committee report becomes public after a member of Congress resigns. In 2011, this happened when Senator John Ensign of Nevada resigned amid allegations that he tried to hide an extramarital affair.
But it’s unclear whether that would apply in the House, leaving open the possibility that the report on Gaetz won’t be released.
In June, the House Ethics Committee released a statement saying it was investigating a series of allegations against Gaetz, including sexual misconduct, illegal drug use and corruption.
Multiple sources at the time told CBS News that four women had informed the House Ethics Committee that they had been paid to go to parties that included sex and drugs, and that Gaetz had also attended them. The committee has Venmo transactions from Gaetz that allegedly show payments to the women.
Gaetz has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and called the campaign committee’s smear investigation “frivolous.”
Some of the sexual misconduct allegations examined by the committee were also the subject of a previous Justice Department investigation into Gaetz. Federal investigators have sought to determine whether Gaetz violated sex trafficking and obstruction of justice laws, but no charges have been filed.
The House Ethics Committee resumed its investigation into Gaetz in 2023, following the Justice Department’s decision not to pursue charges against him.
Gaetz has long blamed then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, also a Republican, for the investigation. And Gaetz later he led the movement to fire McCarthy as president.
