Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has directed the House Ethics Committee to preserve its report on Trump attorney general nominee Matt Gaetz.
Via The Washington Post:
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, ordered House Ethics to preserve reports and documents related to former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who abruptly resigned from Congress on Wednesday. requested the committee.
…
“We cannot allow this valuable information from a bipartisan investigation to be withheld from the American people,” Durbin said in a statement. “Make no mistake, this information could be relevant to Mr. Gaetz’s confirmation as the next U.S. attorney general and the issue of his constitutional responsibility for advice and consent.”
The House Ethics Committee will vote on whether to release the report. The Ethics Commission is unique in that it is bipartisan. The committee is made up of an equal number of Democrats and Republicans. It would be surprising if the Ethics Committee did not release its report.
Sen. Durbin’s move is intended to give the Senate Judiciary Committee access to the report for use in Matt Gaetz’s confirmation hearings, even if it is not made public.
If the report was damaging enough to force Gaetz to immediately resign, it would likely be damaging enough to dash his hopes of becoming attorney general.
In any case, it looks like this report won’t be kept secret for long.
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