Democrat Rep. Will Try to Trigger Vote on Releasing House Ethics Report on Gaetz

Rep. Sean Casten, D-IL, says he’ll try to get a vote from all House members to decide whether to release or not the Ethics Committee report on former Rep. Matt Gaetz’s (R-FL) nomination as attorney general by President-elect Donald Trump.

Casten announced that after the House Ethics Committee was divided on whether to release the report or not on Wednesday, he would mandate a vote at the floor on its release. The vote must be held within two days after Casten introduces the bill.

In a blog post, he said: “Given that reports indicate the Ethics Committee won’t release the Gaetz Report today, I will introduce a privileged Resolution to require a full House vote on its release.”

Politico noted first that Casten would follow this path even if the Committee refused to publish the report.

The vulnerable House seats are here
1776 Coalition Sponsored
The vulnerable House seats are here

Thanks to our organization’s efforts, California had one of the biggest Red shifts in the nation. We kept several Congressional seats in Republican control. We even defeated the Soros-backed District Attorney in Los Angeles! The Freedom and Prosperity PAC isn’t giving up on California, and neither should you! Kick in your support today so we can Make California Great!

This is a key aspect of the case, as Gaetz left the House of Representatives. As House Speaker Mike Johnson(R-LA) pointed out, it would be a precedent, as it’s very rare for reports to come out after a resignation.

Johnson, who spoke to reporters last week, said: “I will strongly request that Ethics Committee not release the report because that’s not how we do things at the House.” “I think it would be a bad precedent to set.”

Politico highlighted Gaetz’s resignation by highlighting a “critical” difference between an earlier instance in which a member tried to force the disclosure of an ethics report about another sitting member through a privileged Resolution, that Casten’s office tried to frame as precedent.

Casten’s Office said that this action has precedent. In 1996, Rep. John Lewis introduced a special resolution that would have forced the Ethics committee to release a report about alleged misconduct of then-Speaker Newt (R-Ga.). Lewis’ motion was defeated on the House floor and the Ethics panel did not have to release their preliminary report. There is one major difference between the Lewis precedent and that of Gaetz. Gingrich is still a member of the House and Gaetz does not.

Republicans have the chance to present a privileged Resolution before it goes to vote.