WASHINGTON — Members of the House Ethics Committee met behind closed doors Wednesday afternoon. Publicly release a report detailing the extensive investigation into former Rep. Matt GaetzPresident-elect Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general.

Many Republicans and Democrats in the Senate have said they want it. Examine the parliamentary report This is before a Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing for Gaetz next year. But House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), a close Trump ally, pointed out that the Ethics Committee has jurisdiction only over current members, and Gaetz resigned from his post last week after Trump appointed him head of the Justice Department. did.

“I have made clear that not using the House Ethics Committee to investigate and report on individuals who are not members of that institution is a significant guardrail for our institution,” Johnson told reporters on Tuesday. “Matt Gaetz is no longer a member of this body.”

Bipartisan Ethics Committee — Chairman Michael Guest, R-Miss. and led by Rep. Susan Wild, D-Pa. – Gaetz, R-Fla. He has been investigated on and off over the past three years to examine allegations that he engaged in sexual misconduct and illegal drug use, accepted inappropriate gifts, granted special privileges to people with whom he had personal relationships, and obstructed him. probe.

The committee met with two women She testified that Gaetz paid them for sex The women’s attorney, Joel Leppard, told NBC News this week that she was at a small party in Florida, where prostitution is illegal. Leppard said one of the women testified that she witnessed Gaetz having sex with a friend who was 17 at the time, but she did not believe Gaetz knew her friend’s age at the time.

Leppard added that his clients want the House of Representatives report to be made public. “They want the American people to know the truth and to tell the truth,” he said.

Gaetz denied all the allegations, which the Trump transition team called “baseless” and the Justice Department closed Years of investigation into Gaetz without charging him with a crime.

Trump said Tuesday that he is not reconsidering appointing Gaetz as attorney general, despite reservations from Republican senators who will oversee Gaetz’s confirmation once he is formally nominated. Trump”I work the phones intensively” to build support for Gaetz, a transition official said. And Vice President-elect J.D. Vance will be on Capitol Hill on Wednesday to brief GOP senators on Trump’s Cabinet picks, including setting up meetings between key senators and Gaetz. Pete Hegseth is Trump’s choice for defense secretary.

The Ethics Committee has several options at its special meeting scheduled for Wednesday at 1 p.m. ET. He can vote to make the report public, vote not to release it, pass it to the Senate and enter the exit ramp, or choose to take no action.

A committee spokesman had no comment about the meeting.

Wild, the committee’s top Democrat, said this week that the House report should read: will “definitely” be made public and said it should at least be sent to the Senate. He argued that there was precedent for the Ethics Committee to issue reports after members of Congress resigned.

This happened in the case of Rep. Bill Boner, D-Tenn., who resigned on Oct. 5, 1987, to become mayor of Nashville. Ethics Committee published a statement first staff report The following December, allegations that Boner had misused campaign funds, failed to disclose gifts, and accepted bribes were investigated. The report made no recommendations to the full committee.

“In the Committee’s opinion, the general policy against the issuance of reports in the cases at issue here is outweighed by the Committee’s responsibility to keep the public fully informed of the status and results of Rep. Boner’s efforts through the date of his departure from Congress,” the Ethics Committee said at the time.

Three years later the committee published a report. short staff report Rep. Buz Lukens, R-Ohio, resigned soon after as he faced allegations that he made unwanted and offensive sexual advances from a congressional staffer.

If the committee refuses to make the Gaetz report public, any House member can try to vote to release the report.

House Democrats in September 1996 Tfried to force The Ethics Committee will release a report from outside legal counsel on its investigation of then-Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga. The parliament rejected the decision in a vote in the hall.