众议院道德委员会共和党人拒绝公布有关马特·盖茨的报告
【中美创新时报2024 年 11 月 20编译讯】（记者温友平编译）众议院道德委员会共和党人周三投票反对公布该委员会对当选总统唐纳德·特朗普提名的司法部长候选人、前众议员马特·盖茨的长期调查，该委员会的民主党高层表示。美联社记者LISA MASCARO 和 STEPHEN GROVES 对此作了下述报道。
然而，这一结果只是盖茨的暂时缓解，他面临性行为不端的指控，因为他正在努力争取自己备受争议的国家最高执法官员提名。
众议院小组预计将于 12 月 5 日再次开会，重新考虑公布调查结果。
“在这个问题上没有达成共识，”该委员会的资深民主党人、宾夕法尼亚州众议员苏珊·怀尔德 (Susan Wild) 表示，她表示投票结果符合党派立场，委员会的投票结果势均力敌。
僵局发生之际，特朗普和盖茨正准备迎接一场可能旷日持久、残酷的确认之战。盖茨周三与共和党参议员私下会面了几个小时，这些参议员听取了有关这些指控的问题，并将考虑对他的提名进行投票。
盖茨是特朗普的重要盟友，他提出了广泛的建议，以清除司法部那些被认为“利用其工作武器化”来对付当选总统、他的盟友和保守派的人。
至少有一名共和党参议员谴责这次审查是针对盖茨的“私刑暴徒”。
“我不会因为人们不喜欢他的政治观点而使这一程序合法化，从而毁掉他，”南卡罗来纳州共和党参议员林赛·格雷厄姆在离开私人参议员会议时说道。
“他应该有机会提出他应该担任司法部长的理由，”格雷厄姆说。“没有橡皮图章，没有私刑暴徒。”
支持盖茨提名的密苏里州共和党参议员乔什·霍利表示：“如果你有顾虑，那没关系。但不要下定决心。先让这个人作证。”
盖茨长期以来一直否认对他的指控。
然而，众议院道德委员会的工作尚未完成。
怀尔德说，委员会在一次漫长的闭门会议上进行了投票，没有共和党人加入民主党人希望公布报告的行列。据一位不愿透露姓名的人士透露，仅公布报告所依据的证据的投票也未能按照党派路线进行。 。
不过，该人士表示，众议院委员会投票完成了报告，并在一些共和党人的支持下获得通过。
在委员会共和党主席、密西西比州众议员迈克尔·盖斯特 (Michael Guest) 描述了会议上发生的事情后，她被迫发言。他曾表示，双方没有就此事达成一致。
北达科他州共和党参议员凯文·克莱默 (Kevin Cramer) 说，在盖茨发起确认竞选活动的同时，特朗普本人告诉参议员，他希望“让马特跨过终点线”。克莱默周二与当选总统和其他人一起在德克萨斯州与亿万富翁埃隆·马斯克一起参加了 SpaceX 火箭发射。
俄亥俄州参议员、当选副总统 JD Vance 正在引导盖茨参加参议院会谈，主要是与司法委员会成员进行会谈，这将是确认程序的第一站。与参议院盟友的会谈主要是一场战略会议，他强调需要举行听证会，以便阐述他和特朗普对司法部的愿景。
本周初，盖茨与保守派众议院自由党团举行了会议，该党团成员对他的全面改革方法表示热情，这些改革给该部门带来了焦虑和沮丧的气氛。
万斯提醒共和党参议员，特朗普的总统胜利对他们的队伍产生了影响，使他们成为多数派。这位即将离任的俄亥俄州参议员在社交媒体上发帖称：“他应该拥有一个忠于他当选后要实施的议程的内阁。”
与此同时，本周，参与盖茨同伙提起的民事案件的律师收到通知，一名未经授权的人访问了律师之间共享的一份文件，其中包括联邦调查中未删节的证词，一名女性称盖茨在她 17 岁时与她发生过性关系，另一名女性称她看到了这次性接触，律师乔尔·莱帕德 (Joel Leppard) 表示。
参议院司法委员会的民主党人周三致信联邦调查局局长克里斯托弗·雷 (Christopher Wray) 向该委员会提供“完整的证据文件”，包括“在前国会议员马特·盖茨涉嫌性交易未成年人的封闭调查中”记录采访的表格。
盖茨表示，该部门对涉及未成年女孩的性交易指控的调查与众议院委员会的调查无关，调查已经结束，没有对他提出联邦指控。
“对盖茨先生的严重公开指控直接表明他不适合担任联邦政府的首席执法官，”司法委员会主席、伊利诺伊州民主党参议员迪克·德宾和委员会其他成员写道。
众议院议长、路易斯安那州共和党参议员迈克·约翰逊表示，委员会不应公布报告，因为盖茨在特朗普宣布提名后迅速辞去国会议员职务，但几位共和党参议员表示，他们希望在决定如何投票之前获得所有信息。
犹他州共和党参议员迈克·李也与盖茨会面，他在谈到委员会的报告时表示：“我们没有详细了解他期望报告的内容，但他表示相信委员会面前的都是一系列虚假指控。”
盖茨在国会监督听证会上成为焦点，他抨击了保守派所称的司法部内部的偏袒，司法部指控特朗普在卸任后处理机密文件不当，并在 2021 年 1 月 6 日国会大厦袭击事件发生前试图推翻 2020 年大选的结果。2020 年大选败给了民主党人乔·拜登。
但这位当选总统的选择是最令人惊讶和最具挑衅性的。
特朗普的盟友、田纳西州共和党参议员玛莎·布莱克本表示，她与盖茨的会面非常愉快，并期待“迅速确认我们的下一任司法部长”。她在社交媒体上写道，特朗普的内阁“将撼动华盛顿的沼泽，我们期待着推动他的提名人。”
克莱默仍然表示，盖茨的确认之路“艰难险阻”。
克莱默说：“唐纳德·特朗普担心他的司法部长是否愿意按照他的意愿行事，这是可以理解的，也是合情合理的。”“马特·盖茨绝对是那种不会手下留情的人。”
2025 年 1 月 3 日，新一届国会召开，共和党将获得多数席位，参议员们预计将开始就特朗普的提名人举行听证会，并可能在 1 月 20 日就职典礼当天进行投票。
题图：11 月 20 日，马特·盖茨（左）和 JD Vance 在美国国会大厦。Kevin Dietsch/摄影师：Kevin Dietsch/Gett
附原英文报道：
Republicans on the House Ethics Committee reject releasing report on Matt Gaetz
By LISA MASCARO and STEPHEN GROVES The Associated Press,Updated November 20, 2024
Matt Gaetz, left, and JD Vance at the US Capitol on Nov. 20.Kevin Dietsch/Photographer: Kevin Dietsch/Gett
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Ethics Committee Republicans voted Wednesday against releasing the panel’s long-running investigation into President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general, former Rep. Matt Gaetz, the top Democrat on the panel said.
The outcome, however, is only a temporary reprieve for Gaetz, who faces allegations of sexual misconduct, as he works to personally secure his embattled nomination to be the nation’s top law enforcement official.
The House panel expects to meet again Dec. 5 to reconsider releasing its findings.
“There was no consensus on this issue,” said Rep. Susan Wild of Pennsylvania, the panel’s ranking Democrat, who said the vote fell along party lines on the evenly split committee.
The standoff comes as Trump, and Gaetz, are digging in for a potentially lengthy, brutal, confirmation fight ahead. Gaetz met privately for hours Wednesday with Republican senators who have heard questions about the allegations and will be considering their votes on his nomination.
Trump has in Gaetz a valued ally who is bringing wide-ranging proposals to rid the Department of Justice of those perceived to have “weaponized” their work against the president-elect, his allies and conservatives in general.
At least one Republican senator decried the scrutiny as a “lynch mob” forming against Gaetz.
“I’m not going to legitimize the process to destroy the man because people don’t like his politics,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., as he left the private senators’ meeting .
“He deserves a chance to make his argument why he should be attorney general,” Graham said. “No rubber stamp, no lynch mob.”
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who is supportive of Gaetz’s nomination, emerged saying, “If you have concerns, that’s fine. But don’t make up your mind yet. Let the guy testify first.”
Gaetz has long denied the mounting allegations against him.
The House ethics panel, however, is not finished with its work.
Wild said the committee voted at a lengthy closed-door meeting, and no Republican joined Democrats who wanted to release the report. A vote to release just the exhibits underlying the report also failed along party lines, according to a person granted anonymity to discuss the private session. .
However, the House committee did vote to complete the report, which passed with some Republican support, the person said.
Wild she she was compelled to speak up after the panel’s Republican chairman, Rep. Michael Guest of Mississippi, characterized what had transpired at its session. He had said there was no agreement reached on the matter.
As Gaetz mounts his campaign for confirmation, Trump himself told senators that he hoped “to get Matt across the finish line,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., who was with the president-elect and others for a SpaceX rocket launch Tuesday with billionaire Elon Musk in Texas.
Vice President-elect JD Vance, an Ohio senator, was shepherding Gaetz through the Senate talks, largely with members of the Judiciary Committee that will be the first stop in confirmation proceedings. The meeting with Senate allies was largely a strategy session where he emphasized the need to get a hearing where he could lay out his and Trump’s vision for the Justice Department.
It follows a meeting Gaetz had at the start of the week with the conservative House Freedom Caucus, whose members have expressed enthusiasm for his approach to wholesale changes, which have instilled a climate of anxiety and dismay at the department.
Vance reminded the GOP senators that Trump’s presidential victory had coattails that boosted their ranks to the majority. “He deserves a Cabinet that is loyal to the agenda he was elected to implement,” the outgoing Ohio senator posted on social media.
At the same time, attorneys involved in a civil case brought by a Gaetz associate were notified this week that an unauthorized person accessed a file shared between lawyers that included unredacted depositions in a federal probe from a woman who has said Gaetz had sex with her when she was 17, and a second woman who says she saw the encounter, according to attorney Joel Leppard.
The Senate Judiciary Committee’s Democrats sent a letter Wednesday asking FBI Director Christopher Wray to provide to the panel “the complete evidentiary file,” including the forms memorializing interviews “in the closed investigation of former Congressman Matt Gaetz’s alleged sex trafficking of minors.”
Gaetz has said the department’s investigation into sex trafficking allegations involving underage girls, separate from the House committee’s probe, had ended with no federal charges against him.
“The grave public allegations against Mr. Gaetz speak directly to his fitness to serve as the chief law enforcement officer for the federal government,” wrote Judiciary Chairman Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and others on the panel.
While House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has said the committee should not release the report because Gaetz swiftly resigned his congressional seat after Trump announced the nomination, several GOP senators have indicated they want all information before having to make a decision on how they would vote.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, who also met with Gaetz, said of the committee’s report, “We didn’t get into a lot of detail as to what he expects to be in there, but he expressed confidence that what is before the committee are a series of false accusations.”
Gaetz emerged star at congressional oversight hearings as he railed against what conservatives claim is favoritism within the Justice Department, which indicted Trump over alleged mishandling of classified documents after he left office and for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, which lost to Democrat Joe Biden, before the Jan. 6, 2021 attack at the Capitol.
But the president-elect’s pick has been among the most surprising, and provocative.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., a Trump ally, said she had a great meeting with Gaetz and looked forward to “a speedy confirmation for our next attorney general.” She wrote on social media that Trump’s Cabinet “is going to shake up the D.C. swamp, and we look forward to moving his nominees.”
Cramer still said that Gaetz had a “steep climb” to confirmation.
“Donald Trump is understandably, legitimately and authentically concerned that he has an attorney general that’s willing to do what he wants him to do,” Cramer said. “Matt Gaetz is definitely the guy that will not hold on any punches. “
As soon as the new Congress convenes Jan. 3, 2025, when Republicans take majority control, senators are expected to begin holding hearings on Trump’s nominees, with voting possible on Inauguration Day Jan. 20.
