US House committee withholds report on Trump attorney general pick Gaetz

Matt Gaetz has faced allegations of sex trafficking a 17-year-old girl, drug use, and misappropriating campaign funds.

A congressional ethics panel that investigated allegations of illegal conduct by Matt Gaetz, United States President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for attorney general, has parted without releasing its report on the former congressman.

Gaetz was the subject of a long-running investigation by the United States House Committee on Ethics, which polices lawmakers’ conduct.

The panel’s investigation, launched in 2021, probed several instances of alleged illegal activity involving Gaetz, an ex-lawmaker from Florida, including the sex trafficking of a 17-year-old girl, drug use, misappropriating campaign funds and other illicit activities.

The US Department of Justice last year closed an investigation into sex trafficking allegations against Gaetz without filing criminal charges.

Gaetz was first elected to the House of Representatives in 2016 and won re-election this month. But the 42-year-old resigned shortly after Trump named him as his choice for attorney general on November 13.

His resignation came just days before the ethics panel was set to vote on whether to release its report, creating uncertainty over its fate, given that Gaetz is no longer a member of Congress.

After a roughly two-hour closed-door meeting on Wednesday, the 10-member panel, which is evenly split between Republicans and Democrats, departed without reaching a decision.

“There is not an agreement by the committee to release the report,” Republican chairman Michael Guest told reporters following the meeting.

While the committee members voted along party lines, elected officials from both parties have called for the report to at least be shared with the US Senate, which votes on cabinet nominations, as they prepare to consider whether to confirm Gaetz as attorney general.

Some Republicans have argued against releasing the report, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, who said making it public would set a “terrible precedent”.

The top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Dick Durbin, on Wednesday released a public letter addressed to FBI Director Christopher Wray demanding access to the files relating to the “alleged sex trafficking of minors”.

“In order for the Senate to perform its constitutional duty in this instance, we must be able to thoroughly review all relevant materials that speak to the credibility of these serious allegations against Mr. Gaetz,” Durbin’s letter said.

Gaetz has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and labelled the investigations politically motivated.

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Al Jazeera and news agencies