Will Trump’s pick for attorney general get derailed?

Washington lawmakers will meet this week to discuss an internal report on President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general that could be a hurdle to his confirmation if it’s released to the public.
MSNBC is reporting the House Ethics Committee will meet on Wednesday to discuss the report on Matt Gaetz. The bipartisan Ethics panel is under enormous pressure as it weighs what to do about its years-long probe into sexual misconduct and other allegations against Gaetz, who resigned from Congress on Wednesday after Trump announced him as his nominee for attorney general.
It is standard practice for the Ethics Committee to end investigations when members of Congress depart on the grounds that they lack jurisdiction to continue. But the circumstances with Gaetz are hardly standard, given his potential role in Trump’s Cabinet. Senators saying the panel’s material must see the light of day so that they can fully vet his nomination.
“The sequence and timing of Mr. Gaetz’s resignation from the House raises serious questions about the contents of the House Ethics Committee report,” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Thursday. “We cannot allow this valuable information from a bipartisan investigation to be hidden from the American people.”
Gaetz has vehemently denied any wrongdoing and said last year that the Justice Department’s separate investigation against him into sex trafficking allegations involving underage girls ended with no federal charges.
“The rules of the House have always been that a former member is beyond the jurisdiction of the Ethics committee,” Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said. “And so I don’t think that’s relevant.”
But Republican and Democratic senators alike on the Judiciary Committee that would review Gaetz’s attorney general nomination have called for the report to be made available to them.
“I think it’s going to be material in the proceedings,” said Sen. Thomas Tillis, a North Carolina Republican.
Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, said, “I think there should not be any limitation on the Senate Judiciary Committee’s investigation, including whatever the House Ethics Committee has generated.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Matt Arco may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @MatthewArco.