Top Democrat On House Ethics Committee, Rep. Susan Wild, Misses Meeting After Report On Matt Gaetz Leaks

Rep. Susan Wild (D-Pennsylvania), the top Democrat on the House Ethics Committee, missed a committee meeting after being identified as the leaker of a report on former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida).

Published reports say that Wild acknowledged that she had leaked key details of the report to the press after Republicans had blocked its release to the public. It is unclear whether Wild was told not to attend or did so voluntarily. 

Gaetz resigned from Congress just days before the report’s scheduled release when President-elect Donald Trump nominated him to be attorney general. Gaetz withdrew his nomination when it became clear that he could not find 50 senators to support his confirmation. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson argued that releasing the report of a three-year investigation could damage the House because the information would be about a former member. “Matt Gaetz is no longer a member of Congress, and so we don’t issue Ethics reports on nonmembers. I think it’s an important guardrail for us to maintain for the interest of the institution,” he said. 

Republicans on the panel, led by committee Chair Michael Guest (R-Mississippi), were said to be angered by the leaked information. The committee’s work is supposed to be done in complete secret. 

All Democrats on the panel supported the report’s release, but all Republicans opposed it, thereby blocking its release. 

Wild previously told reporters the report should be published, and 97 Democrats have asked for its immediate release. When asked if the panel should release the report, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jefferies(D-NY) said yes.

Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Oklahoma), a critic of Gaetz, was among several Republican senators who asked for the report’s release. 

The Ethics Committee investigated Gaetz for years over allegations of sexual misconduct and drug use. Gaetz denied any wrongdoing, and the Justice Department has not charged him.

Johnson has argued that releasing the information would violate the long-standing rule of not releasing information on former Congress members. However, in 1987 and 2011, this rule was broken to release information on former Rep. William Boner (D-Tennessee) and former Sen. John Ensign (R-Nevada).

“It’s a very important rule that should be maintained. If it’s been broken once or twice, it should not have been because that would be a Pandora’s box. I think it’s a very important position to mmaaintain regardless of what the circumstances,” Johnson last week.

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Article by Janae Antrum