Republican senator calls on House to share Matt Gaetz ethics report

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican U.S. Senator Markwayne Mullin called on the House of Representatives on Sunday to share an unreleased ethics report into alleged sexual misconduct involving a 17-year-old girl by Matt Gaetz, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general.

Gaetz, 42, resigned his seat in the Republican-controlled House on Wednesday, hours after Trump unveiled his choice of the lawmaker and two days before the House Ethics Committee was expected to release its report, which also looked into allegations of illegal drug use. Gaetz denies any wrongdoing.

Mullin told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the Senate, which holds the authority to confirm or deny Trump’s nominations to high-level positions, needs to see the report.

“The senate should have access to that,” Mullin said, declining to say whether he believed the report should be made public.

Gaetz is one of a series of Cabinet nominees tapped by Trump last week who lack the resumes normally seen in candidates for high-level administration jobs. He would need to be confirmed by the Senate — where Trump’s Republicans will have a majority of at least 52 of the 100 seats — to get the post. A handful have expressed skepticism at the choice.

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson on Friday said the ethics committee should not release its report. He stood by that on Sunday.

“There have been, I understand, I think, two exceptions to the rule over the whole history of Congress and the history of the Ethics Committee,” Johnson said on CNN.

“The speaker does not have the authority to stop the release of a report by the ethics committee, but I’ve just simply said what I believe is an obvious point, that we don’t want to go down that road.”

Mullin has previously described Gaetz as unprincipled, noting situations in which Gaetz had shown colleagues on the House floor nude photographs of his conquests.

But he said on Sunday that he had absolutely not made a decision on whether to vote for or against Gaetz.

“I’m going to give him a fair shot just like any individual,” Mullin said.

The Justice Department investigated Gaetz for nearly three years over sex trafficking allegations involving a 17-year-old girl. Gaetz’s office said in 2023 that he had been told by prosecutors that he would not face criminal charges.

The girl’s lawyer on Thursday called for the report to be released to the public.

(Reporting by Raphael Satter, Jasper Ward and Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Scott Malone and Bill Berkrot)