Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) will resign from Congress “effective immediately” after being nominated to serve as attorney general by President-elect Trump, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) announced on Wednesday.
The resignation — which was announced hours after Gaetz received the attorney general nod — was described by Johnson as a way to speed up the process of filling the House Republican’s seat to lessen the impacts of being one member down in the narrow GOP majority next year.
But the larger impact of the resignation is that the House Ethics Committee investigation into Gaetz, which was in its final stages, will be effectively dead. The panel will have no jurisdiction to investigate Gaetz since he is no longer a member of Congress, and its findings may never see the light of day — a major boon for Gaetz as he prepares to face an already-skeptical Senate.
“Once a member is no longer a member of Congress, then Ethics has no jurisdiction,” House Ethics Committee Chair Michael Guest (R-Miss.) told reporters on Wednesday, after Gaetz received the attorney general nod. “So if Matt Gaetz were to be appointed as the attorney general, the Ethics investigation that is currently ongoing would cease at that point.”
The House Ethics Committee was investigating whether Gaetz engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, among other allegations. The congressional probe into Gaetz was opened in 2021, shortly after news reports emerged that the Department of Justice (DOJ) was reportedly investigating whether he had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl.
Gaetz has vigorously denied allegations of wrongdoing, and the DOJ declined to charge him with a crime. In September, Gaetz said he would “no longer voluntarily participate” in the “nosy” Ethics probe and would not comply with its subpoena, accusing the panel of asking him for a list of adult women with whom he’d had sex over the last seven years.
Johnson said he was not sure if the Ethics Committee will release a report on Gaetz given its lack of jurisdiction now that he is no longer in Congress.
Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio), a vocal critic of Gaetz, had told reporters earlier on Wednesday that members were looking forward to Gaetz’s Ethics Committee findings being aired in Senate confirmation hearings.
“It’s going to be very interesting to see what comes out. And a lot of us are excited to see what comes out, because it’s possible they could be used in a very good manner,” Miller said, suggesting that Gaetz could be expelled from the House.
Resigning could be risky for Gaetz. He still faces Senate confirmation, which many in Congress are doubtful could come to fruition after a number of senators immediately expressed bafflement about the pick.
Johnson on Wednesday evening said the Florida Republican decided to leave the House early to speed up the process to replace him, with hopes that his successor can be decided by the time the new Congress is sworn in on Jan. 3. House Republicans are on track to have a razor-thin majority next year, which is set to slim even more as Trump continues nominating House Republicans for his administration.
Johnson said Gaetz’s decision to resign early “caught us by surprise a little bit.” He said he called Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Wednesday to discuss plans to fill the vacant seat. Florida state law allows DeSantis to set the timeline for replacing House members through special elections.
“I think, out of deference to us, he issued his resignation letter effective immediately, of Congress,” Johnson said. “That caught us by surprise a little bit, but I asked him what the reasoning was and he said, well, you can’t have too many absences, so under Florida state law there’s about an eight-week period to select and fill a vacant seat.”
Johnson said he is hopeful the seat could be filled by Jan. 3, when the new Congress is sworn in.
“I’ve already placed a call to Gov. DeSantis in Florida and said let’s start the clock. He’s in Italy at the moment and so we’re gonna talk first thing in the morning about this. And if we start the clock now, if you do the math we may be able to fill that seat as early as Jan. 3 when we take the new oath of office for the new Congress,” Johnson said. “So Matt would’ve done us a great service by making that decision as he did on the fly, and so we’re grateful for that.”
Updated at 7:37 p.m.