U.S. Consultant Matt Gaetz (R-FL) listens to testimony throughout a U.S. Home Judiciary Committee listening to entitled “Undue Affect: Operation Larger Courtroom and Politicking at SCOTUS”, trying into allegations that the previous anti-abortion chief Rev. Robert Schenck received advance phrase of the result of a significant 2014 U.S. Supreme Courtroom case involving contraceptives written by conservative Justice Samuel Alito, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., December 8, 2022.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
The Home Ethics Committee on Monday released the final report on its yearslong investigation into allegations that former Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use.
Hours earlier than the long-awaited report got here out, Gaetz requested a federal choose to concern a temporary restraining order that may block its launch.
The ethics panel’s report, the ultimate product of an investigation that started in 2021, was on the middle of a current firestorm of controversy surrounding the previous lawmaker from Florida.
Gaetz, 42, resigned from Congress in mid-November, shortly after President-elect Donald Trump picked him to be U.S. legal professional common. Trump’s choice to steer the Division of Justice instantly drew howls from critics, who have been fast to notice that Gaetz if confirmed can be in command of the company that had beforehand investigated him on sex-trafficking allegations.
The Justice Department ended that probe with out submitting prison expenses. However the Ethics Committee, which had paused its personal efforts whereas the DOJ’s model performed out, reauthorized its investigation in Could 2023.
When Gaetz left Congress, Republicans together with Ethics Chairman Rep. Michael Visitor, R-Miss., stated that he was now not within the committee’s jurisdiction, casting doubt on whether or not its report would come out publicly.
Information shops reported on the time that Gaetz’s departure got here simply two days earlier than the Ethics panel was set to vote to launch the report. The panel, which is evenly cut up between Democrats and Republicans, deadlocked on whether or not to share the report regardless of Gaetz now not being a congressman.
However in a secret vote in early December, the committee determined that the report ought to come out.
Gaetz withdrew his bid for legal professional common after simply eight days as Trump’s choose, saying he was “unfairly turning into a distraction” to the Republican president-elect’s transition efforts. He has denied all wrongdoing.
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