US House Ethics panel to meet amid calls for report on Trump AG pick Gaetz
A growing number of Trump's fellow Republicans in the US Senate, which has a constitutional duty to confirm or reject high-level presidential appointments, have called on the House panel to turn over its findings on allegations of sexual misconduct involving a teenager and drug use by Gaetz
The US House of Representatives Ethics Committee is expected to discuss next steps on Wednesday in its investigation into President-elect Donald Trump's attorney general pick Matt Gaetz, two sources with knowledge of the panel's plans said.
The sources were granted anonymity to discuss the bipartisan panel's inner workings.
A growing number of Trump's fellow Republicans in the US Senate, which has a constitutional duty to confirm or reject high-level presidential appointments, have called on the House panel to turn over its findings on allegations of sexual misconduct involving a teenager and drug use by Gaetz.
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It is uncertain whether the probe will continue because Gaetz, 42, resigned his seat in the Republican-controlled House on Wednesday, hours after Trump unveiled his choice of the lawmaker and as the probe was nearing completion. Gaetz denies any wrongdoing.
An attorney who said he represented two women who testified to the committee said on Monday that Gaetz had paid his clients, who were adults, for sex and that one of his clients witnessed Gaetz having sex with a 17-year-old girl.
The attorney, Joel Leppard, said one of the women saw Gaetz having sex with her friend, who was 17 at the time, at a Florida house party in July 2017.
Leppard called on the House Ethics Committee to release its report.
In a separate probe, the Department of Justice, which the attorney general leads, investigated Gaetz for nearly three years over allegations involving the teenager and the possibility that he may have violated sex trafficking laws.
Gaetz's office said in 2023 that prosecutors had told him he would not face charges.
A Gaetz spokesperson referred a request for comment to a spokesman for Trump's transition office, who dismissed Leppard's claim.
"These are baseless allegations intended to derail the second Trump administration," said the spokesman, Alex Pfeiffer, in an email.
SENATORS WANT TO SEE REPORT
Gaetz is one of several Cabinet nominees tapped by Trump last week who lack the resumes normally seen in candidates for high-level administration jobs.
Republican US Senator Markwayne Mullin on Sunday told NBC's "Meet the Press" that the panel should share its report with the Senate.
"The Senate should have access to that," Mullin said. "Should it be released to the public or not? That I guess will be part of the negotiations."
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has said he believes the report should not be made public, as Gaetz is no longer a House member.
Trump himself faced a pair of federal prosecutions since leaving office in 2021, one for his efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat and one for mishandling classified documents after leaving office. He has denied wrongdoing, described those prosecutions and two others he faced as politically motivated and vowed to use the Justice Department to go after political enemies when he returns to power on Jan. 20.
