While it’s unusual for the committee to release its findings after a lawmaker leaves public office, the report said a “majority” of members felt it was in the public interest to do so in this case.
An intense debate erupted over whether to release the report, especially after Goetz withdrew his name from consideration for the Justice Department job.
He said he hoped to avoid “an overly protracted Washington fight.”
Goetz’s planned role as attorney general was one that required confirmation by U.S. senators, and he did not appear to have the necessary support.
The secretive Ethics Commission has been investigating Goetz since 2021 – not only on sex and drug allegations, but also on allegations of bribery and misuse of company funds. In all cases, he vehemently denied his guilt.
House Republicans previously blocked attempts by Democrats to release the report’s findings, but two of them later voted to do so, CBS reported.
On Monday, Goetz posted on X that the committee decided to release the report closer to Christmas “rather than in any courtroom where I could present evidence and call witnesses.”
Last week, he posted that the ethics committee was planning to “publish a report online that I am not in a position to discuss or refute as a former member of that body.”
Goetz also wrote: “It is embarrassing, although not criminal, that I probably indulged, womanized, drank and smoked more than I should have earlier in my life. Now I live a different life.”
Several House Democrats criticized their former colleague and Trump for choosing him as an ally.
Representative Glenn Ivey, one of five Democrats on the ethics committee, said the allegations against Gaetz show that Trump is not “putting people in positions that are really capable of doing the job.”
“President-elect Trump should have thought twice before nominating Matt Gaetz, and some of the other nominations he’s made, I think, will also need to be reconsidered,” he told CBS News, the BBC’s US affiliate.
