House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said Thursday that the former Rep. Matt Gaetz’s (R-Fla.) House Ethics Commitee report “shouldn’t go public,” amid pressure to release it after he was tapped for a potential Trump administration role.
“Well, it’s my understanding that it’s not supposed to go public. So, if it’s not supposed to under the rules, it shouldn’t go public,” Jordan told Fox News’ host Laura Ingraham.
Jordan praised Gaetz who was chosen by President-elect Trump to be his next attorney general Wednesday. Hours after the announcement, Gaetz resigned from the House.
The Florida Republican was being probed by the committee over, among other allegations, illicit drug use and whether he engaged in sexual misconduct. His resignation will likely incite further investigation, but a number of lawmakers in both chambers argued that the report should still come out.
The committee is set to meet Friday to vote on whether to release the report, a source familiar with the matter told The Hill.
“There are very few people who have the cross-examination skills he does, and I want someone in the Justice Department [DOJ] who’s not going to say moms and dads in school board meetings need to be investigated,” Jordan said Thursday. “I want someone in the Justice Department who’s going to say it’s wrong for the FBI to do a memorandum and say that pro-life Catholics are extremists.”
“I want someone at the Justice Department who can tell us who planted the pipe bombs on January 6, who leaked the Dobbs opinion, who put cocaine at the White House instead of all the other stuff they seem to be focused on,” he added.
Trump’s pick of Gaetz surprised a lot of lawmakers on Capitol Hill with some GOP senators saying that he would have a hard time getting the confirmation in the lower chamber.
“He’s got an uphill climb,” Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) said.
A few of Trump’s allies in the upper chamber have also urged their colleagues to vote for his Cabinet nominees or face political headwinds, including Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.).
“Everybody’s got an opinion up here, but at the end of the day President Trump was elected by an enormous vote and he deserves the team around him that he wants,” Tuberville said on Fox Business Network. “It’s not us to determine that.”
Asked if Gaetz would end up being confirmed as the country’s next top law enforcement official, Jordan said “that’s up to the Senate.”
