US speaker opposes calls to release ethics report on Trump’s AG pick

US House speaker Mike Johnson insists that the chamber’s ethics committee should not release a report on alleged sexual improprieties by Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general, Matt Gaetz.

“It should not come out,” Johnson tells CNN. “And why? Because Matt Gaetz resigned from Congress. He is no longer a member. There’s a very important protocol and tradition and rule.”

Gaetz is a deeply polarizing Florida Republican who has been accused of — and adamantly denied — having years earlier paid for sex with a then 17-year-old girl.

He was also being probed for alleged illicit drug use, converting campaign funds for personal use, sharing inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, and other alleged misconduct.

Almost immediately after US President-elect Trump’s stunning nomination of Gaetz to head the powerful Justice Department — a move Democrats saw as brazenly provocative — the Floridian resigned his House seat. This effectively ended the ethics probe against him.

But lawmakers of both parties have called for the report’s release, with even some Republican senators saying their constitutional role in reviewing nominations means they need access to all relevant information.