Matt Gaetz's nomination to be the next attorney general could face an uphill path in the Senate, as a growing number of Republican senators are calling for access to a House Ethics Committee probe into Gaetz's conduct.
Gaetz resigned from the House Thursday, a day after President-elect Donald Trump announced his nomination. That ends a House Ethics Committee investigation into sex trafficking and drug use allegations against Gaetz that began in 2021.
Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the current chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, called on the House Ethics Committee Thursday to "preserve and share" their report and other information gathered on Gaetz.
Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn, who recently lost the race for Senate majority leader but is a senior member of the Judiciary panel, told reporters on Thursday that the Senate "should gain access to all relevant information by whatever means necessary," including a possible subpoena of the ethics report.
"I don't think any of us want to fly blind," he told reporters in the Capitol. "Part of this is to protect the president against information or surprises coming out later that he and his team weren't aware of."
Cornyn admitted he does not know if the Senate has the power to demand records from the House, but he joins a number of senators who are pushing to know the details of the Ethics Committee investigation as part of the confirmation hearing process.
The House Ethics Committee initially planned to meet on Friday, but it is unclear if the meeting will still proceed, according to a source familiar with the process who was granted anonymity to speak about private discussions. It is possible the panel was planning to vote during that meeting to release its report on Gaetz.
Kedric Payne, former counsel at the Office of Congressional Ethics now with the Campaign Legal Center, told NPR about the ethic report that the panel "absolutely can release it. They just typically don't."
"There's no rule that says after somebody's out of your jurisdiction you can't release information. No, that's not true, they can release whatever they want."
Payne said OCE, the outside nonpartisan group that refers matters to ethics, released a report in 2010 after former Rep. Nathan Deal, R-Ga., resigned to run for governor. The ethics panel didn't release their review then.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., said Gaetz's nomination "will be one of those that will be well-scrutinized."
"It'll be a fine tooth comb, and they knew that going in," Tuberville told reporters Thursday.
Tuberville added that, "I'm a Matt Gaetz fan because I've know him for a long time."
Other Republicans senators sidestepped questions about Gaetz. Arkansas GOP Sen. Tom Cotton simply said "no comment." Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, asked about Gaetz, instead praised another Trump nominee, New York Rep. Elise Stefanik. Getting on the Senate subway, she told NPR "Elise is amazing!" But as the subway car pulled away she said about Gaetz, "He has an uphill battle."
Cornyn, pressed if anything he's heard about Gaetz raised any issues about his nomination, told reporters he's just read press reports: "I don't know the man."
Gaetz nomination challenges Senate norms for nominees
The Gaetz nomination also sets up a potential confrontation with Democrats over their role in the Senate's constitutional power for "advice and consent" over presidential nominees. Republican leaders have repeatedly warned that they expect Democrats to either approve of qualified nominees or agree not to stand in the way of their approval.
Incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters on Wednesday that Republicans will explore all options to approve Trump's choices.
"The Senate has an advise and consent role in the Constitution so we will do everything we can to process his [nominees] quickly and get them installed in their positions so they can begin to implement his agenda," Thune said.
"We expect a level of cooperation from the Democrats to work with us to get these folks installed," he said. "Obviously, we're going to explore all options to make sure they get through and they approved quickly."
But the possibility of unqualified nominees creates a different dynamic. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., said he views Gaetz differently than some of Trump's other picks.
"America elected Trump, and you're going to expect all kinds of appointments, some are serious and quality ones like my colleague [Marco] Rubio," he told reporters in the Capitol. "There are some I will enthusiastically vote for, like Rubio. There are others who are like 'lol.' "
Cornyn told reporters that recess appointments are a kind of "fail safe" in the event that Democrats blockade nominees.
"He has a right to get his team in place without unnecessary delays," he said. "That's where I see the recess appointments."
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