US House speaker Mike Johnson on Sunday insisted that the chamber's ethics committee should not release a report on alleged sexual improprieties by Donald Trump's nominee for attorney general, Matt Gaetz, even as Democrats castigated Gaetz as unqualified and "a troll."
"It should not come out," Johnson told CNN. "And why? Because Matt Gaetz resigned from Congress. He is no longer a member. There's a very important protocol and tradition and rule."
Gaetz is a deeply polarizing Florida Republican who has been accused of -- and adamantly denied -- having years earlier paid for sex with a then 17-year-old girl.
He was also being probed for alleged illicit drug use, converting campaign funds for personal use, sharing inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, and other alleged misconduct.
Almost immediately after President-elect Trump's stunning nomination of Gaetz to head the powerful Justice Department -- a move Democrats saw as brazenly provocative -- the Floridian resigned his House seat. This effectively ended the ethics probe against him.
But lawmakers of both parties have called for the report's release, with even some Republican senators saying their constitutional role in reviewing nominations means they need access to all relevant information.
Senator-elect Adam Schiff, a Democrat and frequent Trump critic who is a regular target of the former president's wrath, made the case against Gaetz on CNN.
"I think he's not only unqualified, he is really disqualified," he said.
"Are we really going to have an attorney general who, there's credible allegations (that) he was involved in child sex trafficking, potential illicit drug use, obstruction of an investigation? Who has no experience serving in the Justice Department -- only being investigated by it?"
Trump has frequently jousted with the Justice Department, and critics say that as attorney general Gaetz would likely drop several criminal cases against the former president and try to file bogus charges against perceived Trump opponents.
Gaetz was known as a disruptor who earned the enmity of some House colleagues, including by engineering the ouster of Johnson's predecessor and fellow Republican Kevin McCarthy.
Earlier this year, Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma told an interviewer, referring to Gaetz: "There's a reason why no one in the conference came and defended him, because we had all seen the videos he was showing on the House floor...of the girls he had slept with."
On Sunday, Mullin told NBC that the report "absolutely" should be released to the Senate at least, although he stopped short of saying the public should see it.
"I believe the Senate should have access to that now," he said, adding that Gaetz would be given "the same chances we'll give all President Trump's appointees."
One Democratic senator, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, said Sunday that while he would be "excited" to confirm some Trump appointees, "There's others that are just absolute trolls, just like Gaetz."
Johnson said days ago that as House speaker he should not "put his thumb on the scale" of the ethics committee's decision. But his message Sunday was different.
Senators, he said, would "have a rigorous review and vetting process... But they don't need to rely upon a report or a draft report or a rough draft report that was prepared by the ethics committee for its very limited purposes."