JAMES LYNCH , National Review; Matt Gaetz Withdraws from Attorney General Consideration amid Ethics Scandal
"Former Representative Matt Gaetz (R., Fla.) is withdrawing his name from consideration to be President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general, he announced Thursday.
Gaetz said that the Ethics Committee investigation into allegations he paid underage women for sex had become too much of a distraction as President-elect Trump works to staff his incoming administration."
JORDAIN CARNEY, NICHOLAS WU, DANIELLA DIAZ and OLIVIA BEAVERS, Politico ; ‘Black mark’: Lawmakers seethe over Ethics’ Gaetz report imbroglio
"Matt Gaetz is plunging the House into chaos, again.
Members of the House Ethics Committee deadlocked over whether to release the findings of an investigation into the former Florida lawmaker, who is Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general. The inaction is triggering outrage among Democrats, who argue the committee is dragging out the process, while Republicans remain furious that Gaetz put them in this position...
The havoc is the latest illustration of how Trump’s looming return to Washington is shaking the foundations of Capitol Hill and forcing Republican lawmakers to make a series of immediate, high-stakes calls about the integrity of the legislative branch."
Paul Kane, The Washington Post; House Ethics Committee struggles to crack down on bad behavior
"Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.) can cite almost verbatim the first rule of congressional conduct.
“Members shall behave at all times in a manner that reflects creditably upon the House,” he said, unprompted, during a Wednesday interview, forgetting just one extra “shall” in the opening clause of the House’s Code of Official Conduct.
As chairman of the House Ethics Committee, Deutch would like to see a bit more vigorous policing of behavior that doesn’t break specific rules but clearly brings discredit to the institution...
Deutch thinks there is room for the ethics panel to take up issues like this, if both sides are willing to just take the first clause of the rule book seriously.
“If members are doing things that are abhorrent, then it should certainly trigger a conversation about clause one,” Deutch said. “Again, the broadest interpretation of that rule is what is required.”"
