Why Matt Gaetz’s Resignation May Not Block Release Of Ethics Report
by Zach Everson · ForbesHours after Donald Trump announced his nomination of Matt Gaetz as his attorney general, the Florida Republican resigned from Congress. For more than two years, the House Committee on Ethics had been investigating Gaetz on allegations including sexual misconduct, illicit drug use and accepting improper gifts. The bipartisan committee had been scheduled to vote Friday on whether or not to release its report, according to Punchbowl News. But Gaetz’s resignation effectively quashed the inquiry.
The panel, however, still could share its report. When asked if there were any paths for the report on Gatez to reach the public, Tom Rust, the general counsel and staff director for the ethics committee, told Forbes, “No comment.”
There are several previous instances, however, that suggest the panel’s findings could be released. In addition to the House Ethics Committee producing its preliminary report on Rep. Bill Bonner (D-Tenn.) after he resigned in 1987 to become the mayor of Nashville, as Punchbowl noted, Forbes found five examples in which lawmakers or Congressional staff opted to publicly share details about ethics investigations involving members or staffers who had resigned or were on their way out the door.
In February 2010, the Office of Congressional Ethics, staffed by nonpartisan career employees, forwarded its investigation into Rep. Nathan Deal (R-Ga.) to the House Ethics Committee (then called the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct). The office was examining allegations that Deal improperly used his elected position to preserve a state vehicle-inspection program at his family’s auto-salvage business. In March 2010, before the committee had made a public statement on the matter, Deal resigned from Congress. Nine days later, the Office of Congressional Ethics released its 160-page report, citing a House resolution that allows it to “release ‘any communication’ pursuant to its rules or as ‘necessary to conduct official business.’”
Similarly, that office also released reports on two congressional staffers who had since left their positions.
Although the House Committee on Ethics did not publish a report on its investigation into Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas) after he resigned, it did issue a public statement. In 2018, the panel was in its third year of investigating allegations that Farenthold sexually harassed a former staffer, discriminated against her on the basis of her gender and retaliated after she complained. Fahrenthold already had announced his retirement in response to the allegations, but shortly after learning that the committee had scheduled a vote on its findings, he resigned. A week later, the Ethics Committee issued a two-page statement recapping the accusations, outlining its work, urging Farenthold to follow through on his promise to reimburse the U.S. Treasury the $84,000 it paid to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit brought against him and calling on the Senate to pass the Congressional Accountability Act.
The committee has also pushed for transparency in a case involving allegations far less serious than those Gaetz faced. In 2018, the panel began investigating first-term congressman Thomas Garrett on allegations that the Virginia Republican may have improperly had staffers perform personal tasks for him and his wife, including shopping for groceries, chauffeuring his daughters and walking his dog. With the inquiry still ongoing, Garrett decided not to seek re-election. But, according to a statement from the committee’s chair and ranking member, it “worked expeditiously to investigate the allegations.” On the second-to-last day of the Congress, the committee released its 47-page report on the matter.
“The Committee will lose jurisdiction over this matter before it can issue a report to the House regarding the allegations involving Representative Garrett,” the committee's leaders wrote at the time. “However, we believe the entire House community would benefit from further guidance with respect to these allegations. For that reason we have opted to release this statement and the attached report prepared by the Committee’s nonpartisan, professional staff.”
The Ethics Committee chose transparency in Garrett’s case for the House’s “benefit.” Gaetz’s allegations, far more serious, may warrant a similar response.