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An influential US congressional committee has refused to release a report containing details of its probe into alleged sexual misconduct by Matt Gaetz, Donald Trump’s pick to be attorney-general, who faces a battle to be confirmed by the Senate for the job.
The House of Representatives’ ethics panel met on Wednesday to discuss whether to disclose the result of its investigation into Gaetz, the fiery Florida congressman Trump wants to be the country’s top legal official.
Democrats in Congress and some Senate Republicans had pressed for the report to be released, but many House Republicans have sought to shield Gaetz from dissemination of information that could hurt his standing.
“There was not an agreement by the committee to release the report,” said Michael Guest, the Republican Mississippi congressman who chairs the ethics committee, which contains members of both parties.
On Wednesday, The Washington Post reported that House ethics committee investigators had obtained records showing Gaetz had paid women for sex. A lawyer representing women who testified to the committee also told US media outlets that one had witnessed Gaetz having sex with an underage girl.
Gaetz is the most provocative of several controversial cabinet nominees Trump has announced as he prepares to start his second term in office in January.
As a loyal ally of Trump, Gaetz would be expected to execute the president-elect’s goals of overhauling the justice department and seeking retribution against his political enemies, raising concerns about the independence of the department.
Since 2021, the House panel has been investigating accusations of sexual misconduct and illegal drug use against Gaetz, making him an unlikely candidate for the top law enforcement job in the US cabinet.
While House Republicans blocked the ethics panel from releasing the report on Wednesday, the committee is expected to reconvene in early December to consider the Gaetz case again, its top Democrat, Susan Wild, told reporters.
Democrats on the Senate judiciary committee have also written to FBI director Christopher Wray asking the agency to release its files on Gaetz — another possible way to retrieve more details before confirmation hearings.
“The grave public allegations against Mr Gaetz speak directly to his fitness to serve as the chief law enforcement officer for the federal government,” the group of Democrats, including Dick Durbin, the Illinois senator and chair of the judiciary committee, wrote to Wray.
Gaetz rushed to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to plead his case with senators who will decide the fate of his nomination. He was joined by JD Vance, the Ohio senator and vice-president elect, who Trump dispatched to Washington on Tuesday.
One of their meetings was with Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican senator, who seemed inclined to give Gaetz the benefit of the doubt.
“I would urge all of my Senate colleagues, particularly Republicans, not to join the lynch mob and give the process a chance to move forward,” he wrote on X.