Ethics Committee deadlocks on releasing Matt Gaetz sex, drug probe report-OxBig News Network

The bipartisan House Ethics Committee deadlocked Wednesday on whether to release a report on its investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct and other wrongdoing by former Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz.

The outcome of the vote means that the report on Gaetz, who is President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to be the next U.S. attorney general, will not be released for the time being.

Ethics Chair Michael Guest, R-Miss., told reporters after the closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill, “There has been no agreement to release the report.”

But Rep. Susan Wild of Pennsylvania, the panel’s ranking Democrat, pushed back on that characterization.

“The chairman has essentially suggested that there was agreement of the members of the committee, which there most definitely was not,” she said.

She stressed that the vote in the 10-member committee, which is evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats, fell along partisan lines.

“There was no consensus on this issue,” Wild said.

She noted that the panel did agree to reconvene on Dec. 5 to “further consider this matter.”

When asked if she agreed with Guest’s prior remark that the panel’s report is unfinished, Wild paused before saying, “I really don’t care to comment on the status of the report, except to say that we were in a position to vote today.”

The ethics probe centered on whether Gaetz engaged in sexual misconduct or illicit drug use, as well as whether he accepted improper gifts, gave special favors to personal contacts or sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct.

Gaetz has denied all wrongdoing.

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