Johnson says he will object to release of ethics report on Gaetz

WASHINGTON — Speaker Mike Johnson on Friday said he planned to object to the release of a damaging bipartisan investigative report on the conduct of former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., whom President-elect Donald Trump wants to be attorney general.

Johnson said it would be a “terrible breach of protocol” for the House Ethics Committee, which investigated Gaetz over sexual misconduct, illicit drug use and other allegations, to make public its findings because Gaetz is no longer a member of Congress.

Gaetz abruptly resigned this week after being tapped by Trump, effectively ending the investigation just days before the committee had planned to vote on releasing its conclusions.

“I’m going to strongly request that the Ethics Committee not issue the report,” Johnson told reporters Friday at the Capitol, adding that he would contact the chair of the panel, Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss., to make his wishes known. “That is not the way we do things in the House, and I think that would be a terrible precedent to set.”

Guest had already said he was not inclined to release the report. Senators in both parties have demanded to see the product of the yearslong inquiry as they consider Gaetz’s nomination to be the nation’s top law enforcement officer. That could lead to an extraordinary constitutional clash between the two chambers.

Intervention by the speaker in a matter before the Ethics Committee, a bipartisan panel that operates in complete secrecy and is supposed to be insulated from partisan politics, would also be a remarkable move.

Johnson insisted that he was not attempting to meddle in the Ethics Committee’s affairs. He said he had “no involvement or understanding of what’s going on” with the investigation or the report other than what he had seen reported in the news media, but was simply trying to protect a principle of how the panel does its work.

“We are not in the business of investigating and publishing a report of people who are not a part of this institution,” Johnson said. “The Ethics Committee’s jurisdiction is for sitting members of Congress. That’s an important rule.”

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., chair of the Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over the confirmation of an attorney general, has insisted that his panel have access to the report.

And Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, said he would be open to issuing a subpoena to obtain it if necessary.