Former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz (R) filed a lawsuit against the House Ethics Committee in a last-minute attempt to block the panel from releasing its report on the Florida Republican.
Gaetz, who resigned from Congress last month, filed the lawsuit as several outlets reported on leaked drafts of the Ethics Committee’s report, which CNN and CBS say found “substantial evidence” that the ex-congressman violated House rules or Florida state laws
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., asks a judge to issue an emergency order blocking the report’s release.
Gaetz claims the committee is acting beyond its authority because it has no jurisdiction over him now that he has resigned from Congress. Gaetz’s attorneys said the report contains “untruthful and defamatory information” that would “significantly damage” his reputation.
“The Committee’s apparent intention to release its report after explicitly acknowledging it lacks jurisdiction over former members, its failure to follow constitutional notions of due process, and failure to adhere to its own procedural rules and precedent represents an unprecedented overreach that threatens fundamental constitutional rights and established procedural protections,” Gaetz’s attorneys wrote.
The suit names the Ethics Committee and its chair, Rep. Michael Guest (R-Miss.), as defendants.
“These claims would be destroyed in court — which is why they were never made in any court against me,” Gaetz told The Hill on Monday.
The Ethics Committee continued investigating Gaetz after the DOJ declined to charge the Florida Republican, probing allegations of sexual misconduct, illicit drug use, accepting improper gifts, dispensing special privileges and favors to individuals with whom he had a personal relationship and seeking to obstruct government investigations of his conduct.
In a lengthy statement posted on X last week, after news broke that the panel reversed course and voted to release its report into Gaetz, the ex-congressman defended his conduct, saying it was “embarrassing, though not criminal.”
The panel is expected to publicly release the report as early as Monday.
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