Two Minnesota lawmakers set to play a role in Matt Gaetz’s nomination

Two Minnesota lawmakers will have a key role in the confirmation process of President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for U.S. Attorney General, former Rep. Matt Gaetz.

GOP Rep. Michelle Fischbach is the lone Minnesota lawmaker on the House Ethics Committee, which has been weighing whether to release what could be a damaging report on Gaetz, which investigates allegations of sexual misconduct against him.

Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will oversee his confirmation hearings.

The House Ethics Committee could not come to a consensus Wednesday on whether to release the report it compiled on Gaetz. They plan to reconvene Dec. 5 to figure out what to do next, the ranking Democrat on the committee, Rep. Susan Wild, D-Pa., told reporters.

“This committee is evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans — five Dems, five Republicans — which means in order to affirmatively move something forward somebody has to cross party lines and vote with the other side,” Wild told reporters.

“That did not happen in today’s [Wednesday] vote,” Wild continued, indicating that lawmakers voted along party lines on whether to release the report.

Fischbach and her office have repeatedly declined to comment on the report, while Klobuchar and some Republicans have been calling for its release.

“I’m under confidentiality rules,” Fischbach said Wednesday on Capitol Hill when asked about the report and whether it should be released following the committee’s decision. She referred all further questions to the committee’s counsel, who declined to comment when reached.

Klobuchar said the Senate Judiciary Committee may try to figure out a way to get the report released but anticipates a lot of people will be requesting the information in the report.

“I find hope in the fact that they are reconvening and that they hadn’t reached a conclusion,” Klobuchar said in an interview. “I don’t know who voted how, but I just would urge them to release this report.”

Gaetz abruptly resigned from Congress after Trump announced his nomination. The Ethics Committee does not investigate lawmakers who leave Congress, so his departure effectively ended the committee’s investigation.

House Speaker Mike Johnson has said he thinks the committee should not release the report following Gaetz’s departure. But some Republican senators have said they want to see the report regardless.

If the House committee ultimately decides not to release it, Klobuchar said it will force the government to double up on resources to replicate what the committee has already done.

“From everything that I have heard from Democrats and Republicans, Republicans obviously know him much better than Democrats do. This is not the person for the job,” Klobuchar said.

Asked how she plans to vote on his confirmation, she said she does not think Gaetz is qualified for the job and predicts he “will not be the attorney general.”