Top Democrat on Senate judiciary committee calls for sharing of ethics report on Gaetz
Dick Durbin, the Democratic chair of the Senate judiciary committee, has called on the House ethics committee to share its report into Matt Gaetz, Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general who resigned his seat in Congress yesterday.
The judiciary committee is tasked with holding hearings into nominees to lead the justice department, but Gaetz will only come before the body next year, when the GOP takes control of the Senate after winning a majority in last week’s elections.
In a statement, Durbin said:
In light of Donald Trump’s selection of former congressman Matt Gaetz to be his attorney general, I am calling on the House Ethics Committee to preserve and share their report and all relevant documentation on Mr. Gaetz with the Senate Judiciary Committee. The sequence and timing of Mr. Gaetz’s resignation from the House raises serious questions about the contents of the House Ethics Committee report. We cannot allow this valuable information from a bipartisan investigation to be hidden from the American people. Make no mistake: this information could be relevant to the question of Mr. Gaetz’s confirmation as the next attorney general of the United States and our constitutional responsibility of advice and consent.
Gaetz’s resignation from the House yesterday could prevent the ethics committee from releasing its investigation into sexual misconduct and drug use by Gaetz. Yesterday, Punchbowl News reported that it was expected to soon do so, before Gaetz resigned.
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The paper responded by saying it stood by its reporting, but the legal threat is a worrying sign of how Trump may deal with news outlets that run afoul of him once he takes office. While Trump frequently gives interviews to media outlets, he also routinely condemns those who write negative stories about him, as well as people who speak up against him.
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Here’s more, from CJR, on his threat to the Times:
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The letter, addressed to lawyers at the New York Times and Penguin Random House, arrived a week before the election. Attached was a discursive ten-page legal threat from an attorney for Donald Trump that demanded $10 billion in damages over “false and defamatory statements” contained in articles by Peter Baker, Michael S. Schmidt, Susanne Craig, and Russ Buettner.
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It singles out two stories coauthored by Buettner and Craig that related to their book on Trump and his financial dealings, Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father’s Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success, released on September 17. It also highlighted an October 20 story headlined “For Trump, a Lifetime of Scandals Heads Toward a Moment of Judgment” by Baker and an October 22 piece by Schmidt, “As Election Nears, Kelly Warns Trump Would Rule Like a Dictator.”
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“There was a time, long ago, when the New York Times was considered the ‘newspaper of record,’” the letter, a copy of which was reviewed by CJR, reads. “Those halcyon days have passed.” It accuses the Times of being “a full-throated mouthpiece of the Democratic Party” that employs “industrial-scale libel against political opponents.”
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The letter is signed by the president-elect’s lawyer Edward Andrew Paltzik, who is—according to one online biography—based in Palm Beach, near Trump’s Mar-a-Lago headquarters. But its language often so closely resembles Trump’s as to be indistinguishable. It has not been previously reported, but came as part of a wave of other litigation from the former and future president that emerged around the same time.
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The Times responded to the letter on October 31, referring Paltzik to Penguin Random House for claims against the book and stating that it stood by its reporting, according to a person familiar with the situation. A spokesperson for the Times declined to comment. A representative for PRH did not respond to a request for comment.
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John Cornyn, a long-serving Republican senator from Texas who came in second in yesterday’s election to lead his conference, also wants to see the House ethics committee report into Matt Gaetz, Reuters reports:
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Cornyn told reporters “there should not be any limitation” on the Senate’s investigation as lawmakers consider whether they should confirm Gaetz to head the Justice Department, “including whatever the House Ethics Committee has generated.”
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When asked if that means he wants to see the ethics report, he replied: “Absolutely.”
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The report investigating allegations of sexual misconduct and drug use by Gaetz was reportedly days away from being released, before the congressman resigned his seat yesterday after Trump nominated for the post of attorney general. It is now unclear if it will ever be made public.
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Cornyn is the second senator today to call for the document to be shared with the chamber, which is tasked with confirming a president’s cabinet appointments. Dick Durbin, the Democratic chair of the judiciary committee, made a similar demand minutes ago.
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Dick Durbin, the Democratic chair of the Senate judiciary committee, has called on the House ethics committee to share its report into Matt Gaetz, Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general who resigned his seat in Congress yesterday.
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The judiciary committee is tasked with holding hearings into nominees to lead the justice department, but Gaetz will only come before the body next year, when the GOP takes control of the Senate after winning a majority in last week’s elections.
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In a statement, Durbin said:
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In light of Donald Trump’s selection of former congressman Matt Gaetz to be his attorney general, I am calling on the House Ethics Committee to preserve and share their report and all relevant documentation on Mr. Gaetz with the Senate Judiciary Committee. The sequence and timing of Mr. Gaetz’s resignation from the House raises serious questions about the contents of the House Ethics Committee report. We cannot allow this valuable information from a bipartisan investigation to be hidden from the American people. Make no mistake: this information could be relevant to the question of Mr. Gaetz’s confirmation as the next attorney general of the United States and our constitutional responsibility of advice and consent.
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Gaetz’s resignation from the House yesterday could prevent the ethics committee from releasing its investigation into sexual misconduct and drug use by Gaetz. Yesterday, Punchbowl News reported that it was expected to soon do so, before Gaetz resigned.
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Nikki Haley was Donald Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, and this year challenged him unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination.
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After he won last week’s election, Trump announced that Haley would not be offered a post in his cabinet. On her SiriusXM radio show today, Haley offered a slightly different version of events – she told an advisor to the president-elect that she did not want a cabinet job:
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I had no interest in being in his cabinet. He knew that. But to go a little further, his best friend, Steve Witkoff, came to our house in South Carolina, spoke to me and my husband, and basically wanted a truce between me and Donald Trump. And I told him at the time, there was no truce needed, that I had, that Trump had my support, there was no issue on my end. And at that point he was like, “What do you want? Tell me what you want. Is there anything you want?” And I said, “There’s nothing I want.” And there wasn’t anything I wanted.
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And the truth is, I know the game he was playing. I don’t need to play that game. But more importantly, we have to look at the bigger picture. It is time to move on. It is time for us to focus on what America needs to do to be strong again, what America needs to do to be safe. The American people have spoken and spoken very loudly, and at this point, we should pray that President Trump does well. We should pray that everyone that he appoints does well. We should hope for the sake of our kids and generations to follow us, that all of this goes forward. So, you know, do I take it personally? No. That’s who he is. He can be shallow at times and I think he showed that. But I don’t have to be shallow. And at the end of the day, I’m very comfortable with where I am, and I’m comfortable with what happened.
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John Bolton, a former national security adviser under Donald Trump who has since fallen out with him, said the FBI should investigate both Tulsi Gabbard and Matt Gaetz before the Senate considers their nomination for cabinet posts.
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Trump yesterday nominated Gaetz to serve as attorney general and Gabbard as director of national intelligence, drawing an outcry from Democrats and creating unease among Republicans. Gaetz, who immediately resigned his seat in the House, has been under investigation related to sexual misconduct and drug use, while Gabbard has been known for praising US adversaries like Vladimir Putin and Bashar al-Assad.
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In an interview with NewsNation, Bolton said:
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I don’t think either she (Gabbard) or Matt Gaetz ought to have a confirmation hearing until they have both had full-field FBI investigation.
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Given the Russian propaganda that she (Gabbard) has espoused … I think she’s a serious threat to our national security. I think Republican senators should reject both of them.
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He was scathing about both Gabbard and Gaetz:
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With his (Trump) announcement of Tulsi Gabbard to be the director of national intelligence, he’s sending a signal that we’ve lost our mind when it comes to collecting intelligence.
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Up until a few hours ago, I would have said that (Gabbard) was the worst Cabinet appointment in recent American history. Since Matt Gaetz’s nomination (to be attorney general), he clearly has taken the lead on that score.
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Satire pioneers The Onion have bought InfoWars, the conspiracy theory promoting website that owner Alex Jones was forced to put up for auction after declaring bankruptcy following a lawsuit from the families of those killed in the Sandy Hook shooting.
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The Onion announced the purchase in a typically sardonic column:
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All told, the decision to acquire InfoWars was an ea