在众议院道德委员会成员围绕是否公布前众议员马特·盖兹的报告陷入僵局后，两名民主党人提出了特许决议，将报告公之于众。
田纳西州的众议员史蒂夫·科恩和伊利诺伊州的肖恩·卡斯特恩提出决议，试图迫使委员会公布这份报告。根据众议院的规定，一旦一项特许决议被提出，众议院必须在两个立法日内进行审议。共和党在众议院占多数，领导层将决定何时将决议提交投票。共和党人将试图阻止这一努力，但目前还不清楚这将如何进行。
道德委员会正在调查盖兹涉嫌性行为不端、使用非法药物、在众议院地板上分享不当图像或视频、滥用州身份记录、将竞选资金转为个人使用和/或接受贿赂、不当小费或不允许的礼物的指控。
在当选总统唐纳德·特朗普宣布他计划提名盖兹担任司法部长后，盖兹上周从国会辞职。如果成员离任，道德委员会通常会放弃对他们的调查，但共和党人和民主党人一直在争论是否要打破这一先例，允许参议院履行审查总统提名的职责。
一位消息人士告诉ABC新闻，周三早些时候，该委员会经过多轮投票后投票反对发布该报告，委员会的所有共和党人都投票反对发布该报告。
该委员会主席、共和党众议员迈克尔·盖斯特(Michael Guest)在离开会议时告诉记者，“没有达成发布报告的协议”。
但是该委员会的最高民主党众议员苏珊·怀尔德不同意盖斯特的描述，称“在这个问题上没有达成共识。”
“此后，主席背叛了这一程序，在离开委员会后不久就透露了我们的审议情况，他暗示委员会同意不透露这份报告。这是不真实的——从某种程度上说，这意味着委员会达成了一致，或者我们在这一点上达成了共识，这是不准确的。
怀尔德说“进行了投票”，并暗示这是平局，暗示没有共和党人超越党派界限。委员会中有五名共和党人和五名民主党人。
“我们经常一致投票。这次投票没有出现这种情况。我不希望美国公众或任何其他人认为，盖斯特先生对今天发生的事情的描述将是某种迹象，表明委员会在这个问题上一致或一致同意不发布报告。那将是一个不准确的描述，”她说。
消息人士称，委员会将完成报告，并在12月再次进行讨论。其他委员会成员拒绝回答问题。他和副总统当选人JD万斯一起会见共和党参议员关于他的提名，他说他没有关注道德委员会的进展。
“老实说，我一直在关注我们必须做些什么来改革司法部。我一直在会见参议员。我并没有太注意这一点，”盖兹说。
前国会议员乔治·桑托斯(George Santos)在道德委员会发现他违反了众议院规则后被驱逐，他在国会大厦出人意料地出现，告诉记者对他前同事的调查是“政治热点”。
桑托斯后来承认了电信欺诈和严重的身份盗窃。当被问及他是否在寻求赦免时，桑托斯说这“不是一个问题，是一次我已经谈过的谈话”...我不想谈这个话题。”
他还表示，他没有再次竞选国会议员的计划。
对盖兹的调查
2021年4月9日，这个秘密小组宣布，它已经开始审查对盖兹的指控，指控他“可能参与了性行为不端和/或非法使用药物，在众议院地板上分享不适当的图像或视频，滥用州身份记录，将竞选资金转为个人使用，和/或接受贿赂，不正当的小费或不允许的礼物，违反了众议院的规则，法律或其他行为标准。”
在对盖兹的调查中，该委员会与十多名证人进行了交谈，发出了至少25张传票，并审查了数千页文件。
众议院道德委员会最初推迟了对此事的考虑，以回应司法部的要求，司法部对这位四届国会议员进行了多年的性贩运调查。
2023年2月，DOJ通知代表证人的律师，它不会对盖兹提出指控。
在司法部撤回其延期请求后，道德委员会于2023年5月重新授权其调查时，盖兹指责前众议院议长·凯文·麦卡锡。接着，盖兹成功地带头推翻了麦卡锡的议长职位。
今年6月，该委员会宣布仍在调查盖兹是否“参与性行为不端和非法使用药物，接受不当礼物，向与他有私人关系的人提供特殊特权和优惠，并试图阻挠政府对他的行为进行调查。”
但它宣布，将对他可能在众议院分享不当图像或视频、滥用国家身份记录、将竞选资金转为个人使用和/或接受贿赂或不当小费的指控采取“进一步行动”。
在特朗普宣布选择盖兹为司法部长提名人后，盖兹上周突然辞职，众议院道德委员会几乎完成了调查。
如果众议院议员离任，该委员会通常会放弃对他们的调查，但共和党人和民主党人一直在争论，参议院是否有必要打破这一先例，以履行其建议和同意总统提名的宪法职责。
虽然发布报告最明确的水上途径是同意道德委员会的多数投票，但也有人猜测，任何一名成员都可以在众议院提出一项特权决议，迫使就报告的披露进行投票。
委员会领导说了什么
道德委员会主席迈克尔·盖斯特(Michael Guest，R-Miss)对周三的会议议程守口如瓶，但表示他已经阅读了盖兹的报告。
怀尔德周一告诉记者，该报告应该向公众披露，并在周三表示，她的立场没有改变。
“你要么公开，要么不公开。所以，即使在一名成员辞职后，伦理委员会也有很多披露报告的先例，”怀尔德周一说。
国会领导人说了什么
约翰逊已经明确表示，他认为委员会不应该发布关于一名前国会议员的调查报告。
“我的工作是保护这个机构，我已经非常清楚地表明，我认为我们的机构不利用众议院道德委员会调查和报告不是这个机构成员的人是一个重要的护栏，”约翰逊周二在国会大厦告诉记者。
与此同时，在周二的新闻发布会上，当被问及该报告是否应该公布时，众议院少数党领袖哈基姆·杰弗里斯回答说“是”。
委员会里有谁?
该委员会的五名共和党人是:密西西比州主席盖斯特、俄亥俄州的大卫·乔伊斯、佛罗里达州的约翰·卢瑟福、纽约州的安德鲁·加巴里诺和明尼苏达州的米歇尔·菲施巴赫。
这五名民主党人是:宾夕法尼亚州的怀尔德、得克萨斯州的维罗妮卡·埃斯科瓦尔、加利福尼亚州的马克·德索尔尼尔、北卡罗来纳州的黛博拉·罗斯和马里兰州的格伦·艾维。
Democrats try to force Ethics Committee to release Gaetz report
After members of the House Ethics Committee deadlocked along party lines whether to release its report on former Rep. Matt Gaetz, two Democrats introduced privileged resolutions to make the report public.
Reps. Steve Cohen of Tennessee and Sean Casten of Illinois introduced resolutions to try to force the committee to release the report. Under House rules, once a privileged resolution is introduced, the House must take it up within two legislative days. Republicans have the majority in the House and leadership will decide when the resolution is brought up for a vote. Republicans will attempt to block the effort but it's not yet clear how this could play out.
The Ethics Committee was investigating allegations that Gaetz engaged in sexual misconduct, illicit drug use, shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused state identification records, converted campaign funds to personal use, and/or accepted a bribe, improper gratuity, or impermissible gift.
Gaetz resigned from Congress last week after President-elect Donald Trump announced he planned to nominate Gaetz to be his attorney general. The Ethics Committee generally drops investigations of members if they leave office, but Republicans and Democrats have argued whether to break that precedent to allow the Senate to perform its role of vetting presidential nominations.
Earlier Wednesday, the committee voted against releasing the report after multiple rounds of votes, a source told ABC News, with all Republicans on the committee voting against its release.
Republican Rep. Michael Guest, the committee chairman, told reporters, “There was not an agreement to release the report,” as he left the meeting.
But Rep. Susan Wild, the top Democrat on the committee, disagreed with Guest’s characterization, saying “There was no consensus on the issue.”
“The chairman has since betrayed the process by disclosing our deliberations within moments after walking out of the committee, and he has implied that there was an agreement of the committee not to disclose the report. That is untrue -- to the extent that suggests that the committee was in agreement or that we had a consensus on that, that is inaccurate,” Wild said.
Wild said “a vote was taken” and suggested it was tied, implying no Republicans crossed party lines. There are five Republicans and five Democrats on the committee.
“We often vote unanimously. That did not happen with this vote. And I do not want the American public or anyone else to think that Mr. Guest's characterization of what transpired today would be some sort of indication that the committee had unanimity or consensus on this issue not to release the report. That would be an inaccurate portrayal,” she said.
Sources said the committee will complete the report and take it up again in December. Other committee members refused to answer questions.,Gaetz, who along with Vice President-elect JD Vance had beenmeeting with Republican senatorson his nomination, said he hasn't been following developments in the Ethics Committee.
"I'll be honest with you I've been focused on what we've got to do to reform the Department of Justice. I've been meeting with senators. I haven't been paying much attention to that," Gaetz said.
George Santos, the former congressman expelled after the Ethics Committee found he violated House rules, made a surprise appearance at the Capitol, telling reporters the investigation into his former colleague was a "political hit piece."
Santos later pleaded guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. Asked if he was seeking a pardon, Santos said it was "not a question, a conversation I've had...I am not entertaining that conversation."
He also said he had no plans to run for Congress again.
The investigation into Gaetz
On April 9, 2021, the secretive panel announced it had initiated a review into allegations that Gaetz “may have engaged in sexual misconduct and/or illicit drug use, shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused state identification records, converted campaign funds to personal use, and/or accepted a bribe, improper gratuity, or impermissible gift, in violation of House Rules, laws, or other standards of conduct.”
The committee spoke with more than a dozen witnesses, issued at least 25 subpoenas and reviewed thousands of pages of documents in its investigation of Gaetz.
House Ethics initially deferred its consideration of the matter in response to a request from the Department of Justice, which conducted its own multiple-year sex-trafficking probe into the four-term congressman.
In February 2023, DOJ informed lawyers representing witnesses that it would not bring charges against Gaetz.
Gaetz blamed former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy when the Ethics Committee reauthorized its investigation in May 2023 after the Department of Justice had withdrawn its deferral request. Gaetz then successfully led the charge to oust McCarthy as speaker.
This June, the committee announced it was still investigating whether Gaetz had “engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, accepted improper gifts, dispensed special privileges and favors to individuals with whom he had a personal relationship, and sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct.”
But it announced it would take “no further action” on the allegations that he may have shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused state identification records, converted campaign funds to personal use, and/or accepted a bribe or improper gratuity.
The House Ethics Committee had nearly completed the inquiry before Gaetz abruptly resigned last week after Trump announced he had selected Gaetz as his attorney general nominee.
The committee generally drops investigations of House members if they leave office but Republicans and Democrats have argued whether a break in that precedent is necessary for the Senate to perform its constitutional duty to advise and consent to presidential nominations.
While the clearest above-water path for the report’s release is by agreeing to a majority vote by the Ethics Committee, there is also speculation that any single member could offer a privileged resolution on the House floor to force an up-or-down vote on its disclosure.
What committee leaders have said
Ethics Committee Chairman Michael Guest, R-Miss, has been tight-lipped about the meeting agenda on Wednesday but said he has read the Gaetz report.
Wild told reporters on Monday that the report should be disclosed to the public and said Wednesday that her position had not changed.
“You either are going to disclose it or you're not going to disclose it. So, and there's plenty of precedents in the Ethics Committee to disclose the report even after a member has resigned,” Wild said Monday.
What congressional leaders have said
Johnson has made clear that he believes the committee should not release an investigative report on a former member of Congress.
“My job is to protect the institution, and I have made very clear that I think it’s an important guardrail for our institution that we not use the House Ethics Committee to investigate and report on persons who are not members of this body,” Johnson told reporters at the Capitol on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, during a press conference on Tuesday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries answered “Yes” when asked if the report should be released.
Who's on the committee?
The five Republicans on the committee are: Chairman Guest of Mississippi, David Joyce of Ohio, John Rutherford of Florida, Andrew Garbarino of New York and Michelle Fischbach of Minnesota.
The five Democrats are: Wild of Pennsylvania, Veronica Escobar of Texas, Mark DeSaulnier of California, Deborah Ross of North Carolina and Glenn Ivey of Maryland.
