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Raw Story: 'Spare us the drama': House ethics veteran says history shows Gaetz report must be seen
Raw Story - 'Spare us the drama': House ethics veteran says history shows Gaetz report must be seen
Travis Gettys
November 19, 2024 10:40AM ET
The nomination of Matt Gaetz to be attorney general set off a firestorm on Capitol Hill, where the former congressman has made many enemies and fallen under investigation for alleged sex trafficking. Now some senators are demanding the release of a House Ethics Committee report on that inquiry.
The Florida Republican resigned last week as soon as Trump announced his nomination, which complicates the release of that panel's findings, but former ethics chairman Charlie Dent published an op-ed for MSNBC arguing that Gaetz's exit from Congress should not prevent the public from learning what lawmakers found.
"Ordinarily, nominees for Cabinet positions are thoroughly vetted to identify any potential obstacles to confirmation," wrote Dent, a Republican former congressman from Pennsylvania. "Trump has eschewed any pretense of a normal vetting process and instead has sought an attorney general nominee prepared to torch the very department he would lead. Not to quibble about Gaetz’s qualifications, but he has scant experience as a lawyer and was the subject of a lengthy sex crimes investigation by the Justice Department that resulted in no charges filed against him."
The ethics committee customarily defers its own investigations while the Justice Department investigates a sitting member of Congress, and the panel resumed or continued its probe of Gaetz after the agency announced it lacked evidence to continue its inquiry. He then abruptly resigned to block the release of what Dent said was most likely a "damning report."
/snip
Travis Gettys
November 19, 2024 10:40AM ET
The nomination of Matt Gaetz to be attorney general set off a firestorm on Capitol Hill, where the former congressman has made many enemies and fallen under investigation for alleged sex trafficking. Now some senators are demanding the release of a House Ethics Committee report on that inquiry.
The Florida Republican resigned last week as soon as Trump announced his nomination, which complicates the release of that panel's findings, but former ethics chairman Charlie Dent published an op-ed for MSNBC arguing that Gaetz's exit from Congress should not prevent the public from learning what lawmakers found.
"Ordinarily, nominees for Cabinet positions are thoroughly vetted to identify any potential obstacles to confirmation," wrote Dent, a Republican former congressman from Pennsylvania. "Trump has eschewed any pretense of a normal vetting process and instead has sought an attorney general nominee prepared to torch the very department he would lead. Not to quibble about Gaetz’s qualifications, but he has scant experience as a lawyer and was the subject of a lengthy sex crimes investigation by the Justice Department that resulted in no charges filed against him."
The ethics committee customarily defers its own investigations while the Justice Department investigates a sitting member of Congress, and the panel resumed or continued its probe of Gaetz after the agency announced it lacked evidence to continue its inquiry. He then abruptly resigned to block the release of what Dent said was most likely a "damning report."
/snip