Senators push for more information on ethics panel's Matt Gaetz probe

WASHINGTON — Key senators in both parties are demanding more information on a closely held House sexual misconduct probe into former Rep. Matt Gaetz, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be U.S. attorney general.

Calls for more scrutiny even from members of Trump’s own party signal that Gaetz’s confirmation process will be a rocky one, even after Republicans take control of the Senate in January. Gaetz has denied wrongdoing.

Trump, according to an Axios report, has made personal appeals to senators to support Gaetz.

Republican John Cornyn, a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, said Monday that he expects the women who spoke privately with the House Ethics Committee will testify before senators. He and fellow Republican Sen. Susan Collins expect the details of the report to come out, one way or another.

Dick Durbin, the Illinois Democrat who leads the Senate Judiciary panel, raised the prospect of subpoenaing information on Gaetz from both the Ethics Committee and the Justice Department. It would be highly unusual — if not unprecedented — for one chamber of Congress to subpoena another.

The House Ethics Committee plans to meet behind closed doors Wednesday as it faces demands to release its findings in the Gaetz investigation. House Speaker Mike Johnson has urged the panel to keep the findings confidential.

“It absolutely should be released to the Senate,” Rep. Susan Wild of Pennsylvania, the Ethics Committee’s top Democrat, said late Monday.

Meanwhile, Republican Sen. Josh Hawley said Gaetz called him over the weekend and sought an opportunity to clear his name at a confirmation hearing. Hawley said he supports that, while adding that Trump hasn’t called him about Gaetz.

DOJ, House Probes

The Justice Department had conducted a criminal investigation that included allegations Gaetz had sex with a minor in exchange for money but decided in February 2023 not to file any charges against him.

Gaetz quit Congress days before the Ethics Committee was scheduled to deliberate on how to handle results from its probe into allegations that Gaetz had sex with a 17-year-old girl in exchange for money, took illicit drugs and accepted improper gifts. The former representative has denied the accusations.

The House ethics panel was set to meet Friday, but had scrapped those plans as the political struggle over the release of the report intensified.

Tom Rust, chief counsel and staff director for the committee, declined to comment on or even confirm the Wednesday meeting.

Johnson has said releasing the results of the Ethics Committee probe would open “a Pandora’s box,” setting a precedent for disclosing potentially derogatory information on a former House member.

A lightning rod even within his own caucus, Gaetz nomination was viewed warily by some of his colleagues in GOP. Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, whose ouster from House leadership was initiated by Gaetz, said that the Floridian’s nomination would be rejected by the Republican Senate.

Incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune told Fox News Channel last week about Trump’s controversial picks that “none of this is gonna be easy.”

Trump has indicated that in his second term where his party controls both chambers of Congress that he’ll push for a radical transformation of the Justice Department, which sits at the apex of the machinery that the president-elect will need to carry out his agenda from enforcing federal laws to litigating controversial matters.

In the Senate, Trump has demanded that the Republican leadership back his ability to bypass confirmation proceedings in the chamber through recess appointments. Thune had repeatedly pledged to “explore all options” to get Trump’s nominees over the line.

Trump has made some unconventional choices apart from Gaetz. Among these are Fox News Channel host Pete Hegseth as defense secretary, vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as head of the Department of Health and Human Services, and former Democrat turned fierce MAGA adherent Tulsi Gabbard to run national intelligence.

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(With assistance from Alicia Diaz.)