By Bradley Jaye. Media: Breitbart
Rep. Susan Wild (D-PA), the top Democrat on the House Ethics Committee, admitted to the panel that she violated her sworn oath and leaked details of the investigation into former Rep. Matt Gaetz to the press, The Hill reported Monday.
Leaks about the Gaetz investigation and the threat of its full release played a significant role in derailing Gaetzās nomination by Donald Trump for attorney general.
The report from The Hillās Mychael Schnell raises new questions about the motivations of the notoriously bipartisan committee, which restarted its investigations into Gaetz after a probe from Joe Bidenās Department of Justice ended without charges and continued even after the nominee resigned from the House and was no longer under the committeeās purview.
Chairman Michael Guest (R-MS) even signaled the Ethics Committee was likely to ignore Speaker Mike Johnsonās (R-LA) recommendation to withhold releasing its report, before Gaetz ultimately announced he would withdraw his nomination after obstinate senators concerned about the reportās contents refused to back him.
The Hill reports that Wild:
ā¦was absent from the panelās meeting last week after being traced as the source of leaks to the press regarding the investigation into former Rep. Matt Gaetz , sources told The Hill.
It remains unclear if Wild voluntarily skipped the Thursday gathering or was asked not to attend, what information she leaked and to whom, and how the panel tracked her back as being the leaker. Two sources said Wild ultimately acknowledged to the panel that she had leaked information.
Wild had expressed her anger after Guest told media following a November 20 meeting that the committee had not agreed to release the report. Wild took to the media to call that statement āinaccurate.ā
Guest ābetrayed the process by disclosing our deliberations within moments after walking out of the committee,ā Wild said in justifying her own reasoning for going to the press.
Wild herself had previously told reporters that the Gaetz report should be released.
The committee is known for its intense secrecy and rarely issues an official statement to the press except when required by statute or House rules to provide notice of its actions.
Wildās Chief of Staff, Jed Ober, disputed The Hillās sources, claiming her frustration over the handling of the yet-to-be-released report was the reason for her attendance issues.
āRep. Wild was frustrated by the manner in which the report was handled and didnāt feel it was fruitful to participate in any further meetings on its āpotentialā release,ā Ober told The Hill. āCharacterizing it as anything more is inaccurate. There will be no further statement.ā
He declined to comment when asked if Wild, who lost her reelection bid in November to Republican Ryan Mackenzie, would attend future meetings regarding the Gaetz report.
Reports of Wildās leaking, as well as the rare public dispute between committee leaders and the unusual timeline of the reinvigorated investigation of Gaetz, cast a shadow on the committeeās investigation and motivations.
The leaks, wherever they came from, also raise questions about the committeeās operations.
The Hill reports:
Various pieces of information about the years-long probe into Gaetz have leaked in recent months, including logistics about meetings, votes taken during those gatherings, and the panelās plan to vote on releasing the report days after he announced his resignation.
Any leaks from members and staff are a violation of the committeeās rules: Individuals on the panel take an oath swearing they will not disclose unauthorized information.
Members of the committee and their staffs must take an oath which reads:
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will not disclose, to any person or entity outside the Committee on Ethics, any information received in the course of my service with the Committee, except as authorized by the Committee or in accordance with its rules.
The usually sleepy committee has awoken to make plenty of headlines this Congress. Most notably, Republicans on the committee have been criticized for partnering with Democrats to punish Republicans while letting Democrats off the hook. As Breitbart reported:
In 2023, the committee broke decades of precedent by releasing its investigation into Republican Rep. George Santos (R-NY) despite the congressman not yet having his day in court for his alleged crimes. The report led to Santosās expulsion from Congress after prior attempts had failed.
When the House last expelled a member, Rep. Jim Traficant (D-OH) in 2002, it did so only after Traficant was found guilty in court. The Ethics Committee then did not even begin an investigation until Traficantās court case had concluded.
The loss of Santosās reliable conservative vote cost Republicans. Most notably, the House embarrassingly failed by a single vote to impeach Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Meanwhile, this Congress, the Republican-chaired committee chose not to take action against Democrat Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), despite the congressman pleading guilty after pulling a fire alarm in a House office building that disrupted a House vote ā allegedly to prevent House Republicans from passing a spending bill while Senate Democrats readied a package of their own, a potential felony.
Committee membership is split evenly between Republicans and Democrats; therefore the math dictates at least one Republican ā possibly more ā voted to release its report on George Santos, while no Democrats voted to take action against Bowman ā already a convicted felon for his actions.
The committee is traditionally composed of establishment Republicans. As Breitbart News reported:
The Ethics Committee ā which, lacking a legislative jurisdiction, provides its members no capability to extract campaign funds from the donor class ā is not highly sought after by members of Congress and is generally seen as a chore. Its members usually serve by request of their partyās respective leader and are usually appointed for their loyalty to leadership ā often in exchange for other favors quietly bestowed by leadership.
Speaker Johnson, who became Speaker after the current members were seated on the committee, responded to a question from Axiosās Juliegrace Brufke Tuesday regarding Wildās alleged leaking of the report, saying he had not yet spoken to Guest but that āthere ought to be repercussions.ā
āWe canāt set that as a precedent,ā he said of the leaks. āItās dangerous.ā
Gaetz has long denied the allegations against him, arguing the committee only restarted its investigation due to his leading the ouster of Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) ā to whom all members of the committee, including Guest, owe their spot on the committee. Also serving are Reps. David Joyce (R-OH), John Rutherford (R-FL), Andrew Garbarino (R-NY), and Michelle Fischbach (R-MN).
Gaetz has repeatedly called out Guest for his successful stock trading practices and for his acknowledged failure to disclose to the very Ethics Committee he leads a family stock (as well as his voting record), arguing the Ethics Committee should take up reforms to stock trading by members of Congress.
As Attorney General, Gaetz would have oversees federal investigations into members of Congress for insider trading or other corruption ā including Guest.
Democrats are not done demanding the release of the report into Gaetz, who remains a Trump ally and recently announced he would host a primetime program on One America News. Last week, Democrats forced a vote on the floor to release the vote, although Republicans successfully used a procedural method to prevent its release.
But Guest himself told reporters the committee is not yet finished meeting for the year. And regardless of whether Wild attends, the committeeās Republicans have a clear recent history of taking action against the conservative Gaetz and Santos.
