A House Democrat is now moving forward with plans to try and compel its ethics committee to release the report on attorney general nominee and former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz.
Rep. Sean Casten from Illinois is expected to bring a motion on the House floor Wednesday to compel the House Ethics Committee to release the report. The effort would require bipartisan support.
The move comes after the House Ethics Committee Wednesday tried to vote on whether to release the report. The committee, which is made up equally of Democratic and Republican lawmakers, deadlocked.
"This committee is evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans," said Rep. Susan Wild of Pennsylvania, ranking member of the committee. "In order to affirmatively move something forward, somebody has to cross party lines and vote with the other side — which happens a lot, by the way. And we often vote unanimously. That did not happen in today's vote."
"There was no consensus on this issue. We did agree that we would reconvene as a committee on December 5th to further consider this matter," she said.
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Gaetz resigned just two days before the committee was originally scheduled to potentially release the findings of investigation.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has since said he believes the committee should not release the report since it deals with a now former member of the chamber.
In the meantime, Congressional Republicans have hinted that confirming Gaetz as attorney general may be difficult.
Gaetz was on Capitol Hill with Vice President-elect JD Vance Wednesday to set up meetings with lawmakers as they work to shore up support for his nomination.
Confirmation hearings are not expected to begin in earnest until January.
