‘A Dangerous Departure’: Republican Lawmakers Dissent From Release of Matt Gaetz Ethics Probe Findings

Several Republican lawmakers disagreed with publishing the findings of an ethics probe into former Republican Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, according to a House Ethics Committee report released Monday.

Republican lawmakers who sit on the committee, led by Mississippi Rep. Michael Guest, chair of the House Ethics Committee, issued a dissent in the report against releasing the committee’s findings on the former Florida congressman.

“Representative Gaetz resigned from Congress, withdrew from consideration to serve in the next administration, and declared that he would not seek to be seated in the 119th Congress,” the dissenting lawmakers, including Guest, wrote in the report. “The decision to publish a report after his resignation breaks from the Committee’s long-standing  practice, opens the Committee to undue criticism, and will be viewed by some as an attempt to weaponize the Committee’s process.”

“We believe that operating outside the jurisdictional bounds set forth by House Rules and Committee standards, especially when making public disclosures, is a dangerous departure with potentially catastrophic consequences,” the dissenting lawmakers added.

The dissenting lawmakers notably did not dispute the report’s allegations.

Gaetz allegedly paid more than ten women for sexual favors or illicit drugs — including a 17-year-old girl — between 2017 and 2020, according to the report.

The committee identified at least 20 occasions from 2017-2020 during which the former Florida congresswoman allegedly paid women for sex or illicit drugs during the ethics panel’s years-long investigation into Gaetz. The former Florida congressman allegedly paid one of the women, who the committee determined may have been in a long-term relationship with the former congressman, more than $60,000.

The release of the ethics report Monday comes as lawmakers initially balked at releasing the report into Gaetz following his appointment by President-elect Donald Trump to serve as attorney general. Following Gaetz’s decision to withdraw his nomination after failing to secure support from key Republican senators and his resignation from the House of Representatives, Democratic lawmakers on the committee, led by retiring Democratic Rep. Susan Wild, moved ahead to release the report.