Only a week, and already what will be the next Trump administration has provided the first “Gate” – one of those classic DC political scandals that gives journalists something to fall back on when they have a slow news day. Or get a chance to offer up some breathless hype. A cover up involving paid-for sex with underage girls, even human trafficking and with some drugs thrown in is something that gets ratings! It’s clear powerful Republicans starting with House Speaker Mike Johnson intend to ensure the long-awaited House Ethics Committee report on Gaetz never sees the light of day. COVER UP! It will be like catnip to journalists. Ever since Nixon and Watergate they have, whenever possible attached a “Gate” to some DC scandal or another. So buckle up for “Gaetz Gate.”
Ninety-Nine percent of the folks in DC want to see what’s in that Ethics Report that’s been sitting there like an unexploded bomb. Gaetz long ago realized the Committee had him cold. He’s made desperate moves to keep that report from coming out. The most recent was in the wake of Trump announcing his nomination to be Attorney General Gaetz resigned from Congress. Effective immediately. Wow. The fig leaf he and other Republicans including some powerful ones intend to hide behind is that since he’s no longer a member of the House the Ethics Committee no longer has any jurisdiction to act. That report stays right where it is – locked away.
Alas the picture being painted isn’t a complete one. It’s not just journalists, but politicians that will want to see what’s in that report prior to Gaetz’s confirmation hearings. The harder Gaetz and allies of convenience (to avoid pissing off Trump) fight to keep the thing hidden the more others will press to get it out into the open. This will be classic, old-school DC open political, legal and yes journalistic warfare. That report could well be more than a huge bomb – it could be a political nuke.
We all know the general information regarding Gaetz having been investigated for his partying ways over the years. Said “partying” included at least some interactions with human traffickers and paying for sex with teens, at least some of whom were underage. Gaetz did come under scrutiny from investigators in Florida but victims including what prosecutors considered the best one were afraid to testify. Gaetz was born to wealth and privilege and his father was well-connected. All that was why Gaetz got into Congress in the first place and between that kind of ‘rich privilege’ and the additional armor of being a sitting Congress Critter prosecutors let Gaetz slide.
However, Gaetz spent a lot more time in the House making enemies than friends and became the House version of Ted Cruz. It led to a serious investigation by the House Ethics Committee which has a solid history of doing its job. It finally dawned on Gaetz that they were getting testimony and other evidence that he knew even his fellow Republicans wouldn’t tolerate. It didn’t help that he’d go around showing dirty pics of his conquests (and sometimes “action”) to guys on the freaking floor of the House! When it dawned on Gaetz that the Ethics Committee was going to do its job, and it would likely lead to his expulsion he freaked. With good reason. With one of his buds already doing time for some of the stuff Gaetz was involved in prosecutors might have no choice but to give him another look!
Gaetz’s desperation led to him engineering the cluster f**k the soon to be over Congress has been. Starting with the debacle of just choosing a Speaker and creating a guillotine to hang over McCarthy’s head, to actually getting McCarthy tossed out of the Speakership it’s been a circular firing squad. With such a slim, virtually unworkable majority to begin with and the ouster of Santos the Republicans on the Ethics Committee (its members are equally divided between Democrats and Republicans) shamed themselves by yielding to pressure. They kept the report from being released (yet apparently kept investigating) until what they hoped would be more favorable circumstances.
Despite what seems will be an even slimmer majority they seemed resigned to releasing that long-awaited report. A meeting was scheduled for yesterday but got cancelled at the last minute. Maybe the Republicans on the Committee are just trying to buy a little time and hope the furor over Gaetz causes Trump to pull his nomination. Or maybe they’ve been bullied into taking part in the cover-up. If they are hoping to continue in their relative anonymity they are mistaken. Will one of them crack and join with the Democrats? Time will tell.
However, signs are there that news outlets are ramping up for a ratings/revenue extravaganza regarding this ugly mess. Hell, it’s classic ‘sex, drugs and rock & roll’ stuff AND about an individual the incoming President wants to be the nation’s top LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER. Executives and “talent” are somewhat scared of Trump but I predict they simply won’t be able to resist this. Not even Fox News as this article hints at. It notes a Wednesday statement from the Ethics Committee’s chair:
“Once the investigation is complete, then a report will be issued. Assuming that at that time, that Mr. Gaetz is still a Member of Congress. If Mr. Gaetz were to resign because he is taking a position, with the administration, as the Attorney General, then the Ethics Committee loses jurisdiction at that point. Once we lose jurisdiction, there would not be a report that would be issued. That’s not unique to this case,” said Guest.
Ah, but it’s not so simple and straightforward as Guest (and Speaker Johnson, “Gym” Jordan and others) want us to believe. First of all there’s no RULE that says the Committee can’t release a report on a former member. I rather doubt that Democrats would go along with suddenly creating one and remember, there are three Democrats and three Republicans. Second, while uncommon the Ethics Committee HAS in fact in the past released damaging reports on former House members:
Fox News has found that the Ethics Committee released the findings of its probe into potential influence peddling by the late Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., after his death in 2010.
The Ethics Committee also released a 699-page report on former Rep. Bob Boner, D-Tenn., after he left office in 1987. The committee found that Boner used campaign funds to travel to Hong Kong and may have used his office to influence a defense contractor.
The linked article also explains there is a process for a floor vote to ‘dislodge’ an Ethics Committee report:
There is a device called “question of privileges of the House.” A lawmaker could get to the floor under this procedure and make the argument that keeping the Gaetz ethics report under wraps impugns the dignity and integrity of the House. The House would be required to vote on such a motion. If successful on the floor, the ethics panel could be compelled to release the report.
Hakeem Jeffries is trying to make nice on the matter – for now. Citing stuff like the long history of Ethics Committee bipartisanship he demurs on whether to throw his weight behind such a move and put pressure on Republicans. However their majority is even more tenuous than before. It wouldn’t take many of them in swing districts to go along. Also, at least two such folks got targeted by Trump but survived. The political lay of the land will look a lot different two years from now. The ads hammering them on this will hurt. Hell, they and some others that are up there around sixty years old or so just might say “screw it”, and retire with their Congressional pensions and benefits.
Then there’s the fight commencing in the Senate. It will be quite the sh*t show as Lindsey Graham and others will fight any attempt to subpoena the report. The harder they fight the worse it will look which again is fodder for a news business that craves ratings and money.
I’m not saying that the report will get released. Either officially or leaked. I DO however think at least some details will get leaked if the report is NOT released. Which will of course pour gasoline on the whole fire. I don’t pretend to know how all this will play out but I know both in the House and Senate there are plenty of Republicans appalled by the thought of Gaetz as AG. They are beside themselves hoping Democrats, or the media or both will bail them out. And Trump? HE will take great delight in the torment he’s caused. Even of that being experienced by Gaetz.
Trump is exactly the kind of a-hole who, especially if Gaetz makes the mistake of asking for help decide to give him even worse treatment than Evil Keebler Elf Jeff Sessions got. Trump might just let Gaetz twist in the wind for a “Scaramucci” or two and then pull the plug. He’s got other people who would be just as bad he can tap to run DOJ into the ground and turn it into his personal law firm. Stay tuned folks.
They could add quite a lot to electricity supply if they put generators on the revolving doors Trump will have to access these positions – even more if they put the same doors on prisons nearby for the inevitable criming starting/(continuing?) about now.
The beauty of the whole thing is that the very fact of Gaetz being AG pick iincreases the need for the report to be released. So the harder Trump pushes for it not to come out, the more likely it will come out.