CNN Legal Analyst Elie Honig Says Gaetz Can’t Block Release of House Ethics Report

CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig said on Wednesday that former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) cannot block the pending release of a House Ethics Committee investigatory report.

Gaetz was nominated by President-elect Donald Trump to be the next attorney general and resigned from Congress before dropping his bid. The Florida firebrand’s alleged entanglement in a sprawling series of schemes and crimes — including accusations about illegal drug use, bribes, and allegations he sexually trafficked a 17-year-old girl — brought a lot of noise to his nomination path, already rocky because of the many bridges he burned with his GOP congressional colleagues.

A House Ethics Committee investigation had been opened into the allegations and rumors about the “highly damaging” contents of the committee’s report have been swirling for months. Gaetz denied all wrongdoing but did eventually step aside for Trump to pick another Floridian, the state’s former Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Gaetz defiantly responded to the news of the report’s release with a fiery tweet that characterized his own conduct as “embarrassing, though not criminal.”

Wednesday morning, CNN reported that the committee had reversed its previous vote and decided to release the report in a secret vote. CNN Newsroom anchor Pamela Brown interviewed Honig about the implications of the report.

Brown asked Honig if he had seen Gaetz’s response and asked, “Does he have any legal recourse to block this report?”

“Short answer, Pam, is no,” said Honig. “There’s really nothing that he can do to go to court to get a judge to say, ‘Congress, you are not to release this.'”

“This is fully within the purview and the discretion of Congress,” the former federal and state prosecutor continued. “However they vote is however this report is going to go. There’s really nothing Gaetz can do to stop it.”

“So what could the release of the report mean for Gaetz, though?” Brown asked. “Does it have any legal weight? We know that DOJ had investigated him before and didn’t press charges. Could this change anything?”

“Well, obviously, politically, I know he’s not running for office anymore,” replied Honig, “but politically and reputationally, it could be enormously damaging.”

Honig explained that the “legal repercussions” could “of course” include prosecutors taking a look at this report and asking if there was “something new in there that we didn’t have during our investigation, is there something in there worth following up?”

It was still important to keep in mind, Honig said, that DOJ had investigated Gaetz and decided not to charge him. “Maybe there’s something new in there that piques their interest. But I don’t think that’s particularly likely, especially under a Trump administration.”

Watch the clip above via CNN.