Ethics panel chair: Johnson won't influence whether Gaetz report released

Rep. Michael Guest (R-Miss.), the chair of the House Ethics Committee, said that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) won’t influence whether his committee releases its report on former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who vacated his House seat last week after being tapped to become President-elect Trump's attorney general.

Johnson has urged the Ethics Committee against releasing the Gaetz report, saying it would be “a terrible breach of protocol and tradition and the spirit of the rule,” since Gaetz is no longer a House member.

Guest said Monday that he and Johnson spoke at the end of last week, according to Politico.

“I appreciate Mike reaching out,” Guest told the outlet. “I don't see it having an impact on what we as a committee ultimately decide.”

While Trump has nominated a number of controversial figures to his Cabinet, none has garnered more blowback than Gaetz, a far-right firebrand and fierce Trump loyalist.

At the Department of Justice, he would take over an agency that previously investigated him over allegations of sex trafficking. Though that probe did not lead to charges, the House Ethics Committee opened its own investigation into accusations of sexual misconduct and illicit drug use. Gaetz has denied allegations of wrongdoing.

Two women testified before the House Ethics Committee that Gaetz paid them to have sex, according to the attorney representing them.

Democrats and some Republicans have said the findings in the report must be released to senators weighing his nomination.

The Ethics Committee pushed back a meeting last week about the report, and is now set to meet Wednesday about it, a source told The Hill. Guest told Politico the report is not available to all members of the committee.

Johnson has quickly found his way into Trump's inner orbit following this month's election victory, and is trying to exert his influence to block the Gaetz report.

“I’m going to strongly request the Ethics Committee not issue the report, because that is not how we do things in the House and I think that would be a terrible precedent to set,” he told reporters on Friday.

In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, Johnson said he had not spoken with Trump about the report.

“The president and I have literally not discussed one word about the ethics report, not once, and I’ve been with him quite a bit this week — between Washington and Mar-a-Lago and last night at Madison Square Garden,” Johnson said.