Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) warned against releasing the House Ethics Committee’s investigative report on former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, suggesting Congress needs to be “careful” about leaks and other effects releasing the report could have.
Since Gaetz’s nomination by President-elect Donald Trump to be his attorney general, many have demanded the release of the House Ethics Committee’s yearslong investigation ahead of the confirmation vote. When asked about the possibility of releasing this report, either to the public or just the Senate, Donalds argued “no” because document leaks are common on Capitol Hill, pointing to how there were leaks in the three years the FBI investigated Gaetz’s allegations.
“But what did Merrick Garland‘s DOJ, or frankly, also when it started, Bill Barr‘s DOJ do?” Donalds asked on CNN’s Laura Coates Live. “They didn’t bring any charges. There were no charges here. So I think we got to be careful: do we just want to be salacious because it‘s great to take somebody down, or it’s good for news headlines, or are we going to make sure we‘re serious about making sure somebody like Matt Gaetz goes into the job of attorney general to make sure that the DOJ’s doing its job for the American people, not for the politicians here in Washington D.C.? That‘s what matters.”
Donalds further explained that Democrats calling for the release of Gaetz’s report are simply “reeling” from the 2024 election, adding that the Democratic Party is split on how it can move forward. About Republicans calling to release the Gaetz report, he suggested the pushes for its release amid their decision to confirm Gaetz are “fair,” but they are also looking for “a reason to get back on track.”
The Florida congressman then compared the situation of Gaetz’s report to the allegations that Justice Brett Kavanaugh faced in his Supreme Court confirmation in 2018. He contended Kavanaugh’s allegations were “tossed around” despite not being confirmed, and he was able to get approval despite the unconfirmed allegations.
“Are we now going to demonize people because of an allegation where the Department of Justice did not bring charges?” Donalds said. “They did investigate this for three years, and to be fair to Matt, the investigation went through, a lot of stuff was leaked about this investigation, no charges were brought forward, so then what are we talking about now?”
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Donalds also stressed the need to recognize that President Joe Biden weaponized the Department of Justice with Attorney General Merrick Garland. He suggested this weaponization went beyond targeting Trump during the Biden presidency, pointing to how Garland’s DOJ labeled parents protesting their children’s schools as “domestic terrorists,” and voters are “done” with this type of weaponization.
On Wednesday, the House Ethics Committee did not come to an agreement about whether or not to release its report on Gaetz following a two-hour meeting. Shortly after, Reps. Sean Casten (D-IL) and Rep. Steve Cohen (R-TN) filed two separate resolutions to attempt to force the committee to release the report.