周四，众议院共和党人成功地扼杀了民主党发布道德委员会对前佛罗里达州共和党众议员马特·盖兹(Matt Gaetz)调查报告的努力。
众议院以206-198的投票结果将民主党众议员肖恩·卡斯特恩的决议(该决议试图将盖兹的报告公之于众)发回道德委员会，道德委员会两周前投票反对发布该报告。
卡斯特恩的特许决议试图迫使伦理委员会发布其报告。卡斯特恩周二介绍了他的决议的更新版本，其中包括委员会发布关于前国会议员报告的几个例子。共和党人利用盖兹从众议院辞职作为反对释放的理由。
另一位来自民主党众议员史蒂夫·科恩(Steve Cohen)的人试图将报告公之于众，并保留与调查有关的所有文件，他也以204-198的投票结果提交给了道德委员会。
投票结束后，卡斯特恩在一份声明中说，共和党人“采取了简单的方式。
“他们本可以确保就前成员在面临包括与未成年人发生性行为在内的严重和可信的不当性行为指控时是否应被追究责任进行投票。相反，众议院投票掩盖这些指控，开创了一个不幸的先例，如果你面临审查，从国会辞职可以让你的问题消失，”他说。
投票前，委员会在周四下午就这份报告开了两个小时的会，但成员们不愿透露讨论的内容。该委员会在会后发表声明称，他们正在“继续讨论此事”
只需要少数共和党人跨越党派界限，与民主党人一起投票，就可以否决向委员会提交决议或迫使委员会发布报告的措施。众议员汤姆·麦克林托克是唯一一个和民主党一起投票支持卡斯特恩决议的共和党人。
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。
周四下午，两党伦理委员会开会讨论了这份报告，随后进行了投票表决。在11月的最后一次会议上，共和党委员会成员阻止了该报告的发布。
约翰逊一直表示，盖兹道德报告不应向公众公布，理由是一名成员离开国会后，长期以来一直有放弃调查的传统。当选总统后，盖兹于上月突然辞职唐纳德·特朗普宣布他为司法部长的人选。他后来退出了考虑，因为他显然面临着参议院民主党人和共和党人的艰难挑战，参议院将投票决定是否确认他的提名。
特朗普宣布后，民主党人推动发布该报告，称这与参议院考虑让他担任司法部长有关。尽管盖兹退出了，民主党人决定继续努力。
在特朗普选择他担任AG之前，盖兹连任第119届国会议员，但他在退出后宣布，他不会连任。他承诺，他将继续“全力以赴”协助当选总统。
Gaetz一直在Cameo上出售私人视频，用户可以在这个网站上购买名人的个性化视频信息。
House Republicans kill effort to force the release of Gaetz's ethics report
House Republicans were successful on Thursday in their effort to kill a Democratic effort to release the Ethics Committee report on its investigation of former Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz.
The House voted 206-198 to refer Democratic Rep. Sean Casten’s resolution -- which sought to make the Gaetz report public -- back to the Ethics Committee, which voted two weeks ago against releasing the report.
Casten‘s privileged resolutionattempted to force the Ethics Committee to release its report.Casten introduced an updated version of his resolution on Tuesday which included several examples of the committee releasing reports on former members of Congress. Republicans had used Gaetz's resignation from the House as grounds for fighting its release.
Another from Democratic Rep. Steve Cohenthat sought to make the report public and preserve all documents related to the investigation was also referred to the Ethics Committee on a 204-198 vote.
After the vote, Casten said in a statement that Republicans "took the easy way out.
"They could have ensured a vote on whether or not former Members should be held accountable when they face serious and credible allegations of sexual misconduct, including having sex with minors. Instead, the House voted to sweep these allegations under the rug and set an unfortunate precedent that, if you are ever facing scrutiny, resigning from Congress can make your problems go away," he said.
The committee met on the report for two hours Thursday afternoon before the vote, but members wouldn't disclose what was discussed. A statement from the committee after the meeting said it is "continuing to discuss the matter."
It would taken only a handful of Republicans to cross party lines and vote with Democrats to defeat the measure to send the resolutions to the committee or to force it to release the report. Rep. Tom McClintock was the only Republican to vote with Democrats on the Casten resolution.
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.
The floor vote came after the bipartisan Ethics Committee met Thursday afternoon to discuss the report.During its last meeting in November, Republican committee members blocked the report's release.
Johnson has consistently said the Gaetz ethics report should not be released to the public, citing a longstanding tradition of dropping investigations after a member leaves Congress.Gaetz resigned abruptly last month after President-electDonald Trumpannounced him as his selection for attorney general. He later withdrew from consideration after it became clear he was facing an uphill climb from both Democrats and Republicans in the Senate, which would vote whether to confirm his nomination.
Democrats pushed for the report's release after Trump's announcement, saying it was relevant to the Senate's consideration of him for attorney general. Even though Gaetz withdrew, Democrats decided to continue their effort.
Gaetz was reelected to the 119th Congress before Trump picked him for AG, but he announced after his withdrawal that he would not serve another term. He pledged that he remains "fully committed" to assisting the president-elect.
Gaetz has since been selling private videos on Cameo, a website where users can purchase a personalized video message from from celebrities.
