“Former Rep. Matt Gaetz, the focus of a House Ethics Committee report that may soon become public, is planning to inflict fresh pain on some of his old colleagues,” Politico reports.
“Gaetz this week floated a plan that would force the disclosure of House members who were the subject of sexual harassment settlements paid with public funds. The effort is inching toward reality, with GOP lawmakers passing around a resolution that would execute the effort.”
“The House Ethics Committee secretly voted this month to release an investigative report into the conduct of former Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida,” the New York Times reports.
“It is an abrupt turnabout for the panel, which had previously declined to release the report. It came less than two weeks after House Republicans banded together to block a Democratic move on the floor to force the release of the report, instead returning the matter to the Ethics Committee for further consideration.”
“President Joe Biden lent his voice to growing bipartisan calls on the Hill to end stock trading for congressional members on Tuesday,” ABC News reports.
Said Biden: “I don’t know how you look your constituents in the eye and know because of the job they gave you, gave you an inside track to make more money. I think we should be changing the law.”
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“President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to be the top health insurance regulator in the country, Dr. Mehmet Oz, has invested in companies that do business with the agency he would run,” USA Today reports.
“Oz, Trump’s choice to run Medicare, Medicaid and the insurance marketplace under the Affordable Care Act, owned up to $33.7 million stock in these companies when he filed a financial disclosure during his unsuccessful 2022 campaign for Senate in Pennsylvania.”
The Guardian looks at Elon Musk’s major conflicts of interest with the federal government.
“Musk owns, directs or invests in a wide array of industries, touching dozens of departments and agencies of the federal government, from the Department of Transportation with Tesla, to the Department of Defense with SpaceX, to the Department of Health and Human Services with Neuralink.”
“His companies are the subject of federal investigations and regulatory actions, including accusations of hiring discrimination, environmental damage and safety deficiencies.”
Politico: “Trump has appointed a raft of rich business people and investors — including several billionaires and multiple Wall Street executives with complex financial interests — to fill out top roles in his administration, raising a vast array of potential conflicts of interest that could span the federal government and complicate Senate confirmations.”
Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL) “introduced an updated privileged resolution to try to force the bipartisan House Ethics Committee to release its investigative report on former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who was President-elect Donald Trump’s selection as attorney general,” ABC News reports.
Politico: “House leaders will have two legislative days to schedule a vote, which would only be successful if Casten gets a majority of the House to approve it.”
“President-elect Trump is entering office with a wider array of investments and potential conflicts of interest than was seen during his first term, setting the stage for greater scrutiny of his dealings,” The Hill reports.
“Trump generally has the same empire of hotels and real estate holdings from the first term that sparked criticism that foreign governments could seek to influence him through his business ties.”
“But since leaving office, Trump has augmented his business ventures, launching a social media platform that stands to benefit from his return to the White House while getting involved in cryptocurrency and signing new deals across the globe.”
Former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) threatened that he would soon expose “stories of corruption, treason and betrayal” regarding members of Congress trading stocks.
“House Ethics Chair Michael Guest said Monday that his panel will make its own decision about releasing the report into Matt Gaetz, regardless of Speaker Mike Johnson’s opinion that it should be kept under wraps,” Politico reports.
The Miami Herald confirms that the Ethics Report on former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) is “highly damaging” — and could be leaked today.
John Clune, the lawyer for the then-minor who was the focus of the Matt Gaetz sex trafficking investigation, posted: “We would support the House Ethics Committee immediately releasing their report. She was a high school student and there were witnesses.”
“House Ethics Chair Michael Guest (R-MS) is seemingly sticking to his decision to not release his panel’s report about Matt Gaetz after the Floridian’s abrupt resignation Wednesday,” Politico reports.
Said Guest: “What happens in Ethics is confidential. We’re going to maintain that confidentiality.”
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) said Thursday he will no longer voluntarily cooperate with a House Ethics Committee investigation into his conduct, calling the probe “uncomfortably nosey,” Politico reports.
Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-NY) “gave part-time jobs to both his lover and his fiancée’s daughter, in possible violation of House ethics rules,” the New York Times reports.
“In 2007, after one of the biggest scandals in K Street history, Congress cracked down on lobbyists’ ability to wine and dine lawmakers and aides with a host of reforms — including limits on extravagant, all-expenses-paid trips,” Politico reports.
“In the nearly two decades since, the influence industry has blown a hole through those rules… U.S. representatives and their staff have taken at least 17,000 trips since 2012 that were paid for by private parties, many of them nonprofits with deep ties to lobbyists and special interests.”
“Justice Elena Kagan said Thursday that she would support the creation of a committee of judges to examine potential violations of the Supreme Court’s new ethics code, speaking out as President Biden and others are increasingly calling for reform at the high court,” the Washington Post reports.
CNN: Kagan says Supreme Court’s code of conduct should be enforced by other federal judges.
“A bipartisan group of senators reached a deal Wednesday on legislation to ban stock trading by members of Congress, setting the bill up for action in the Senate later this month,” Axios reports.
“Rep. Mike Kelly’s (R-PA) wife made a nearly identical stock purchase in March to one that resulted in a 2021 ethics investigation into insider trading,” the Tri-County Independent reports.
“Victoria Kelly on March 28 purchased up to $100,000 in stock in steel manufacturer Cleveland-Cliffs. At the same time, the seven-term Republican congressman, along with other elected officials, were pushing the U.S. Department of Energy to reconsider a proposed rule that would have changed the type of steel used in production of electrical distribution transformers.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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