众议院拒绝民主党强制公布马特·盖茨道德报告的努力
【中美创新时报2024 年 12 月 5 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）众议院周四阻止了民主党人发布前众议员马特·盖茨期待已久的道德报告的努力，这让对长达数年的性行为不端指控调查的任何解决方案的命运进一步陷入了不确定性。美联社记者FARNOUSH AMIRI 对此作了下述报道。
尽管佛罗里达州共和党人离开国会并退出当选总统唐纳德·特朗普的司法部长提名人选，但民主党人一直在敦促公布调查结果，随后几乎以党派路线投票。众议员汤姆·麦克林托克（Tom McClintock，共和党，加利福尼亚州）是唯一支持该行动的共和党人。
大多数共和党人认为，国会对盖茨的任何调查都随着他从众议院辞职而结束。众议院议长迈克·约翰逊也要求委员会不要公布其报告，称这将是一个可怕的先例。
虽然道德报告以前曾在议员辞职后公布，但这种情况极为罕见。
在投票前不久，众议员肖恩·卡斯滕（Sean Casten，民主党，伊利诺伊州）提出了其中一项强制公布报告的法案，他说，如果共和党拒绝公布报告，他们将“成功将可信的性行为不端指控掩盖起来”。盖茨一再否认这些指控。
周一、周三和周五发布的今天上午最重要的新闻指南。
周四早些时候，道德小组开会讨论了盖茨的报告，但未做出决定，并在一份简短的声明中表示此事仍在讨论中。目前尚不清楚该文件是否会公之于众，因为距离新一届国会开始只有几周时间了。
这是道德委员会五名共和党人和五名民主党人数周来承受的压力的顶峰，他们大多在秘密调查针对议员的不当行为指控。
上个月，盖茨在特朗普宣布希望他的盟友进入内阁后突然从国会辞职，对盖茨调查的进展情况也成为一个悬而未决的问题。国会议员离任后，委员会结束调查是标准做法，但考虑到盖茨在新政府中的潜在作用，他的情况并不常见。
委员会主席、密西西比州共和党众议员迈克尔·盖斯特周三表示，鉴于盖茨已离开国会，不再是特朗普选择的司法部长，因此发布报告的紧迫性已不复存在。
“我一直坚定不移。他不再是议员了。盖茨说：“他将不再得到参议院的批准，因为他撤回了司法部长的提名。”
盖茨的报告还导致两党委员会的议员之间关系紧张。宾夕法尼亚州众议员苏珊·怀尔德是委员会的最高民主党人，她上个月公开谴责盖茨在之前的一次会议上向媒体歪曲事实。
盖茨否认有任何不当行为，并表示去年司法部对他涉及未成年女孩的性交易指控的单独调查没有受到联邦指控。
他曾经的政治盟友乔尔·格林伯格也是一名共和党人，曾担任佛罗里达州塞米诺尔县的税务员，他在 2021 年与检察官达成认罪协议，承认他付钱给女性和一名未成年女孩，让她们与他和其他男子发生性关系。当他认罪时，法庭文件中没有公布这些男子的身份。格林伯格于 2022 年底被判处 11 年监禁。
题图：马特·盖茨在当选总统唐纳德·特朗普于 2024 年 11 月 14 日星期四在佛罗里达州棕榈滩的 Mar-a-Lago 庄园举行的美国优先政策研究所晚会上发表讲话。Alex Brandon/美联社
附原英文报道：
House rejects Democratic effort to force release of Matt Gaetz ethics report
By FARNOUSH AMIRI The Associated Press,Updated December 5, 2024
Matt Gaetz talks before President-elect Donald Trump speaks during an America First Policy Institute gala at his Mar-a-Lago estate, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024, in Palm Beach, Fla.Alex Brandon/Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House shut down Democrats’ efforts Thursday to release the long-awaited ethics report into former Rep. Matt Gaetz, pushing the fate of any resolution to the yearslong investigation of sexual misconduct allegations into further uncertainty.
The nearly party-line votes came after Democrats had been pressing for the findings to be published even though the Florida Republican left Congress and withdrew as President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general. Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., was the sole Republican to support the effort.
Most Republicans have argued that any congressional probe into Gaetz ended when he resigned from the House. Speaker Mike Johnson also requested that the committee not publish its report, saying it would be a terrible precedent to set.
While ethics reports have previously been released after a member’s resignation, it is extremely rare.
Shortly before the votes took place, Rep. Sean Casten, D-Ill., who introduced one of the bills to force the release, said that if Republicans reject the release, they will have “succeeded in sweeping credible allegations of sexual misconduct under the rug.” Gaetz has repeatedly denied the claims.
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Earlier Thursday, the Ethics panel met to discuss the Gaetz report but made no decision, saying in a short statement that the matter is still being discussed. It’s unclear now whether the document will ever see the light of day as lawmakers only have a few weeks left before a new session of Congress begins.
It’s the culmination of weeks of pressure on the Ethics committee’s five Republicans and five Democrats who mostly work in secret as they investigate allegations of misconduct against lawmakers.
The status of the Gaetz investigation became an open question last month when he abruptly resigned from Congress after Trump’s announcement that he wanted his ally in the Cabinet. It is standard practice for the committee to end investigations when members of Congress depart, but the circumstances surrounding Gaetz were unusual, given his potential role in the new administration.
Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss., the committee chairman, said Wednesday that there is no longer the same urgency to release the report given that Gaetz has left Congress and stepped aside as Trump’s choice to head the Justice Department.
“I’ve been steadfast about that. He’s no longer a member. He is no longer going to be confirmed by the Senate because he withdrew his nomination to be the attorney general,” Guest said.
The Gaetz report has also caused tensions between lawmakers on the bipartisan committee. Pennsylvania Rep. Susan Wild, the top Democrat on the panel, publicly admonished Guest last month for mischaracterizing a previous meeting to the press.
Gaetz has denied any wrongdoing and said last year that the Justice Department’s separate investigation against him into sex trafficking allegations involving underage girls ended without federal charges.
His onetime political ally Joel Greenberg, a fellow Republican who served as the tax collector in Florida’s Seminole County, admitted as part of a plea deal with prosecutors in 2021 that he paid women and an underage girl to have sex with him and other men. The men were not identified in court documents when he pleaded guilty. Greenberg was sentenced in late 2022 to 11 years in prison.
