Row brews as Republicans look to kill report on Matt Gaetz
US house Speaker Mike Johnson is fighting the release of a report on alleged sexual improprieties by Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney-general, Matt Gaetz.
US house Speaker Mike Johnson insists the chamber’s ethics committee should not release a report on alleged sexual improprieties by Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney-general, Matt Gaetz, even as Democrats castigated him as unqualified and “a troll”.
“It should not come out,” Mr Johnson told CNN on Sunday. “And why? Because Matt Gaetz resigned from congress. He is no longer a member. There’s a very important protocol and tradition and rule.”
Mr Gaetz is a deeply polarising Florida Republican who has been accused of – and denied – having years earlier paid for sex with a 17-year-old girl.
He was also being investigated for alleged illicit drug use, converting campaign funds for personal use, sharing inappropriate images or videos on the house floor, and other alleged misconduct.
Almost immediately after president-elect Trump’s nomination of Mr Gaetz to head the Justice Department, the Floridian resigned his house seat, effectively ending the ethics probe against him.
Politicians of both parties have called for the report’s release, however, with even some Republican senators saying their constitutional role in reviewing nominations means they need access to all relevant information.
Senator-elect Adam Schiff, a Democrat and frequent Trump critic who is a regular target of the former president’s wrath, made the case against Mr Gaetz on CNN. “I think he’s not only unqualified, he is really disqualified,” he said. “Are we really going to have an attorney-general who, there’s credible allegations (that) he was involved in child sex trafficking, potential illicit drug use, obstruction of an investigation? Who has no experience serving in the Justice Department – only being investigated by it?”
AFP
Trump lashes DEI for lowering Air Traffic Control standards
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