- United States
- 2024 US Elections
Gaetz has launched an effort to secure his nomination, meeting behind closed doors with Republican senators about the sexual misconduct allegations against him.
Le Monde with AP
4 min read
Republicans on the House Ethics Committee voted on Wednesday, November 20, against releasing a report on their long-running investigation into President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for attorney general, former Representative Matt Gaetz, the top Democrat on the panel said.
Democratic Representative Susan Wild of Pennsylvania said the ethics panel, which is evenly split between the two parties, voted at a lengthy closed-door meeting, and no Republican joined Democrats who wanted to release the report.
Gaetz has launched an effort to personally secure his embattled nomination, meeting behind closed doors Wednesday with Republican senators who have heard questions about the sexual misconduct and other allegations against him.
As Gaetz and senators holed up near the Senate, the House Ethics Committee also met privately about the findings of a long-running investigation of their former colleague. The Ethics Committee had not immediately reached an agreement over releasing the report, GOP chairman Michael Guest said after the two-hour meeting.
At least one Republican senator decried the scrutiny as a "lynch mob" forming against Gaetz, who if confirmed would become the nation's top law enforcement official.
"I'm not going to legitimize the process to destroy the man because people don't like his politics," said Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, as he left the private senators' meeting.
Read more Biden urges Americans to 'bring down temperature' after Trump win
'Let the guy testify'
"He deserves a chance to make his argument why he should be attorney general," Graham said. "No rubber stamp, no lynch mob."
Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley, who is supportive of Gaetz's nomination, emerged saying, "If you have concerns, that's fine. But don't make up your mind yet. Let the guy testify first."
As the senators met in the out-of-the-way Strom Thurmond Room, Hawley said Gaetz was in a "cheerful" mood. The former Florida congressman met with different senators over the course of about four hours.
It's the start of a personal push by Gaetz, who has long denied the mounting allegations against him, to shore up the Senate support needed to be confirmed as the nation's attorney general. He brings with him wide-ranging proposals to rid the Department of Justice of those perceived by Trump to have "weaponized" their work against the president-elect, his allies and conservatives in general.
Read more Subscribers only How pro-Trump conservatives built up an alternative media ecosystem through podcasts
Trump himself told senators that he hoped "to get Matt across the finish line," said North Carolina Republican Senator Kevin Cramer, who was with the president-elect and others for a SpaceX rocket launch Wednesday with billionaire Elon Musk in Texas.
Cramer said from his observation of Trump's plans, "None of these people including Matt Gaetz are nominated as a diversion to the others. He wants them. He knows what he wants, he says what he wants and he'll see it through to some conclusion."
Gaetz is being shepherded by Vice President-elect JD Vance, an Ohio senator. His meeting with Senate allies was largely a strategy session where he emphasized the need to get a hearing where he could lay out his and Trump's vision for the Justice Department.
It follows a meeting Gaetz had at the start of the week with the conservative House Freedom Caucus, whose members have expressed enthusiasm for his approach to wholesale changes, which have instilled a climate of anxiety and dismay at the department.
Racing the clock
Vance reminded the GOP senators that Trump's presidential victory had coattails that boosted their ranks to the majority. "He deserves a Cabinet that is loyal to the agenda he was elected to implement," the outgoing Ohio senator posted on social media. Gaetz, however, is also racing the clock against the potential release of the House Ethics Committee's report which would publicly air the allegations against him.
At the same time, attorneys involved in a civil case brought by a Gaetz associate were notified this week that an unauthorized person accessed a file shared between lawyers that included unredacted depositions from a woman who has said Gaetz had sex with her when she was 17, and a second woman who says she saw the encounter, according to attorney Joel Leppard.
The Senate Judiciary Committee's Democrats sent a letter Wednesday asking FBI Director Christopher Wray to provide to the panel "the complete evidentiary file," including the forms memorializing interviews "in the closed investigation of former Congressman Matt Gaetz's alleged sex trafficking of minors."
Gaetz has said the department's investigation into sex trafficking allegations involving underage girls had ended with no federal charges against him.
Read more Subscribers only Trump marks returns to Washington with polite White House visit and controversial nominations
"The grave public allegations against Mr. Gaetz speak directly to his fitness to serve as the chief law enforcement officer for the federal government," wrote Judiciary Chairman Senator Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, and others on the panel.
While House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, has said the committee should not release the report because Gaetz swiftly resigned his congressional seat after Trump announced the nomination, several GOP senators had indicated they wanted all information before making the decision on how they would vote.
Senator Mike Lee, a Republican from Utah, who also met with Gaetz, said of the committee's report, "We didn't get into a lot of detail as to what he expects to be in there, but he expressed confidence that what is before the committee are a series of false accusations."
Trump has long had a valued ally in Gaetz, who was a star at congressional oversight hearings as he railed against what conservatives claim is favoritism within the Justice Department, which indicted Trump over alleged mishandling of classified documents after he left office and for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, which lost to Democrat Joe Biden, before the January 6, 2021 attack at the Capitol.
Read more Trump picks Marco Rubio for secretary of state, Matt Gaetz for attorney general
As soon as the new Congress convenes on January 3, 2025, when Republicans take majority control, senators are expected to begin holding hearings on Trump's nominees, with voting possible on Inauguration Day, January 20.
Le Monde with AP
Lecture restreinte
Votre abonnement n’autorise pas la lecture de cet article
Pour plus d’informations, merci de contacter notre service commercial.