The House of Representatives on Dec. 5 blocked a pair of Democrat-led efforts to force the release of the House Ethics Committee’s report about former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.).
In a largely partisan vote, the House backed motions put forward by House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) to refer the report back to the Ethics panel.
A 206–198 vote rejected Rep. Sean Casten’s (D-Ill.) effort to force a floor vote to release the committee’s report publicly. A separate vote of 204–198 blocked a similar effort by Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.).
The members of the Ethics panel, for their part, have decided against releasing the report publicly after no consensus was reached during a meeting on Nov. 20, with the votes breaking down 5–5 along party lines….