House Ethics Committee Ranking Member Susan Wild on Wednesday condemned the Republican chairman after he said there was “no agreement” to release a reportedly damning sexual misconduct report about Matt Gaetz, Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general.
“It has come to my attention that the chairman [Michael Guest] has since betrayed the process by disclosing our deliberations within moments after walking out of the committee, and he has implied that there was an agreement of the committee not to disclose the report,” said Wild, a Democrat from Pennsylvania. “To the extent that that suggests that the committee was in agreement, or that we had a consensus on that, that is inaccurate.”
“A vote was taken. As many of you know, this committee is evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans — five Dems, five Republicans, which means that in order to affirmatively move something forward, somebody has to cross party lines and vote with the other side, which happens a lot, by the way, and we often vote unanimously,” Wild continued. “That did not happen in today’s vote, and I do not want the American public or anyone else to think that Mr. Guest's characterization of what transpired today would be some sort of indication that the committee had unanimity or consensus on this issue, not to release the report. That would be an inaccurate portrayal.”
Wild went on to say that the committee agreed on one thing: to meet again December 5.
The Gaetz report has been highly anticipated on Capitol Hill, but it has been stalled since Gaetz resigned from Congress last week after Trump nominated him for the AG role. Some Republicans have argued Gaetz’s resignation means the committee cannot at least publicly release the report, which reportedly includes testimony from two women who said Gaetz paid them for sexual favors throughout the summer of 2017 until the start of 2019. One of the women also reportedly testified that she witnessed Gaetz having sex with one of her high school friends, who was 17 at the time, at a party.
