The bipartisan House Ethics Committee met behind closed doors Wednesday to consider whether to release a report on its investigation of former Rep. Matt Gaetz, but the committee chairman said there was no had “no agreement” on the publication of the report.

“There was no agreement to release the report,” Republican Rep. Michael Guest, chairman of the committee, told reporters as he left the meeting room.

A majority of the five Democrats and five Republicans on the committee must approve public release of the report. In other words, at least one Republican must leave the party ranks to join the Democrats and force his release.

Republican Rep. David Joyce would only say that the guest and Democratic Rep. Susan Wild of Pennsylvania should issue a statement. Other members refused to answer questions.

Before the meeting, Wild told ABC News that a vote on whether to release the report was on the agenda, but declined to comment further.

Guest told reporters, “I can’t discuss anything that we might or might not get into today” as he entered the room.

Meanwhile, Democratic Rep. Sean Casten of Illinois plans to introduce a privileged resolution to try to force the ethics committee to release the report.

According to House rules, once the resolution is presented, the House must consider it within two legislative days. GOP leaders will decide when the topic comes up for a vote. Republicans will try to block that effort, but it’s unclear exactly how that will play out.

The committee spoke with more than a dozen witnesses, issued at least 25 subpoenas and reviewed thousands of pages of documents as part of its Gaetz investigation. on, who resigned from office last week after President-elect Donald Trump chose him as his nominee for attorney general.

The investigation into Gaetz

On April 9, 2021, the secret committee announced that it had launched a review of allegations that Gaetz “may have engaged in sexual misconduct and/or illegal drug use, shared inappropriate images or videos to the House, Misuse State ID Records, Convert Campaign.” funds for personal use and/or accepted a bribe, improper gratuity or unauthorized gift, in violation of the rules, laws or other standards of conduct.

House Ethics initially postponed its review of the matter in response to a request from the Justice Department, which conducted its own multi-year sex trafficking investigation into the four-term congressman.

In February 2023, the DOJ informed attorneys representing the witnesses that it would not bring charges against Gaetz.

Gaetz blamed former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy when the Ethics Committee reauthorized his investigation in May 2023 after the Justice Department withdrew its request for a delay. Gaetz then successfully led the charge to oust McCarthy as president.

Last June, the committee announced it was still investigating whether Gaetz “engaged in sexual misconduct and illegal drug use, accepted inappropriate gifts, granted special privileges and favors to individuals with whom he had a personal relationship and sought to obstruct government investigations into his conduct.”

But he announced he would take “no further action” regarding allegations that he shared inappropriate images or videos in the House, misused state identification documents, converted government funds, the campaign for personal gain and/or accepted a bribe or inappropriate gratuity.

The House Ethics Committee had nearly completed the investigation before Gaetz abruptly resigned last week after Trump announced he had chosen Gaetz as his nominee for attorney general.

The committee typically drops investigations of House members if they leave office, but Republicans and Democrats have questioned whether a break from that precedent is necessary for the Senate to fulfill its constitutional duty to advise and to approve presidential nominations.

Although the clearest path for the report’s release is to accept a majority vote from the Ethics Committee, speculation is also swirling that any member could propose a privileged resolution in the House to force a vote for or against. its disclosure.

What committee leaders said

Ethics Committee Chairman Michael Guest, R-Miss., remained tight-lipped about the agenda for Wednesday’s meeting but said he had read the Gaetz report.

Wild told reporters Monday that the report should be made public and said Wednesday that his position had not changed.

“You’re either going to disclose it or you’re not going to disclose it. So, and there is a lot of precedent within the ethics committee for releasing the report even after a member has resigned,” Wild said Monday.

What Congressional Leaders Said

Johnson made it clear that he believed the committee should not release an investigative report on a former member of Congress.

“My job is to protect the institution, and I’ve made it very clear that I think it’s an important safeguard for our institution that we don’t use the House Ethics Committee to investigate and do report on people who are not members of this body,” Johnson said. reporters at the Capitol on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, at a press conference on Tuesday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries responded “Yes” when asked whether the report should be released.

Who is on the committee?

The five Republicans on the committee are: Guest Chairman David Joyce of Ohio from Mississippi, John Rutherford from Florida, Andrew Garbarino from New York and Michelle Fischbach from Minnesota.

The five Democrats are: Wild of Pennsylvania, Veronica Escobar of Texas, Mark DeSaulnier of California, Deborah Ross of North Carolina and Glenn Ivey of Maryland.