Democrat Rep. Will Try to Trigger Vote on Releasing House Ethics Report on Gaetz

Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL) says he will soon attempt to trigger a vote before all House members on whether or not to release the Ethics Committee’s report into President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general nominee, former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL).

After the House Ethics Committee disagreed on whether or not to release the report on Wednesday, Casten said he would use a privileged resolution to mandate a floor vote on its release. The vote would be mandatory within two days of Casten introducing the bill.

Politico first noted that Casten was committed to this path if the Committee did not agree to publish the report.

A key facet to this is that Gaetz has left the House of Representatives, and as House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has pointed out, this would set a precedent as it is highly unusual for reports to be released after a member resigns.

“I’m going to strongly request that the Ethics Committee not issue the report, because that is not the way we do things in the House,” Johnson told reporters last week. “And I think that would be a terrible precedent to set.”

Politico highlighted Gaetz’s resignation when pointing out a “critical difference” between a previous instance of a member trying to force the release of an ethics report regarding another sitting member via a privileged resolution, which Casten’s office attempted to frame as precedent:

Casten’s office said there is precedent for this move. Back in 1996, Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) introduced a privileged resolution to force the Ethics panel to release its report on alleged misconduct by then-Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.). The House voted then to kill Lewis’ move on the floor, and the committee was not forced to release its preliminary report. But there is a critical difference between that Lewis precedent and the Gaetz situation — Gingrich was a sitting member of the House, and Gaetz is not.

If Casten does move forward with a privileged resolution, Republicans will have the opportunity to table it before it is voted on.