House lawmakers voted Thursday on two privileged resolutions, both introduced by Democrats, on whether to force the release of the House Ethics Committee’s report on former Rep. Matt Gaetz. One, from Rep. Sean Casten of Illinois, reportedly demanded the committee make the report public; and another, from Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee, allegedly directed the committee to preserve and release data related to its investigation.
Both resolutions were referred back to committee almost entirely on party-line votes, effectively ending the matter.
Earlier on Thursday, the House Ethics Committee again failed to reach an agreement to release its report on its investigation into Gaetz, a move that paved the way for the full House vote on Thursday evening. The ethics committee, which consists of five Republicans and five Democrats, had previously failed to reach consensus on whether the report should be made public during a closed-door meeting on November 20. At the time, Rep. Susan Wild of Pennsylvania, D.-Pa., suggested the vote would be split along party lines.
“I’m not going to speculate on any future action the committee might take,” said Ethics Chairman Michael Guest, R-Miss., when asked if the committee would still vote to release the report, according to NBC News.
Gaetz was investigated by the ethics committee over allegations of sexual misconduct and illegal drug use. A separate Justice Department investigation into allegations that Gaetz engaged in sex trafficking ended last year without any charges being filed against him. Gaetz has denied any wrongdoing in both investigations.
The ethics report became the subject of fierce debate after President-elect Donald Trump announced the Florida Republican as his nominee for attorney general. Gaetz then abruptly resigned from the House, effectively ending the committee’s jurisdiction over him. As controversy over the report threatened to bubble up, Gaetz withdrew his name from the AG post.
Despite Gaetz withdrawing from the race for attorney general, Democrats have continued to call for the report’s release. They say there is precedent for doing this after a lawmaker has resigned. Republicans in the House of Representatives have so far unanimously opposed these calls.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
