The House Ethics Committee is facing scrutiny over an unreleased report related to an investigation into former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, in appearances on news programs over the weekend, urged the House Ethics Committee to not make public the contents of the report and to uphold congressional customs.
“I don’t know anything about the contents of the report because of the way the rules work. Of course, the speaker of the House can’t put a thumb on the scale or be involved in an Ethics Committee report. What I do know is that the comments about there being a precedent for releasing reports is not exactly accurate,” Johnson said, according to Fox News .
He argued that since Gaetz is no longer a member of the House of Representatives, releasing the report would breach protocol since the matter is technically out of the hands of the Ethics Committee. But a few of his Republican colleagues and a large number of House Democrats think otherwise.
Meanwhile, the House Ethics Committee plans to stay mum until the members decide what to do. Should the report be released, Gaetz’s future in the Trump administration could be in trouble.