A North Florida congressman is tight-lipped about a former colleague and a committee investigation into alleged wrongdoing.

But it can be read between the lines based on an entertaining past history.

Rep. US John Rutherford of Jacksonville, who represents Florida’s 5th Congressional District, did not ask questions about the former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz and a House ethics report that won’t be released as expected this week.

The commission was set to vote on Friday to make the report public, but Gaetz’s resignation blocked the move to transparency.

Asked if he was “surprised” by Gaetz’s nomination for attorney general, the former sheriff demurred.

“I have no comment on that. I’m on Ethics Committeeso I steer clear of that,” Rutherford said.

Rutherford was an ally of the former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthyand memorably opposed the Gaetz-led coup against the California Republican.

He accused Gaetz of “leading House Democrats and a handful of dissenters in turning the House back to the far left,” adding that it was “a lie to characterize this as anything other than a personal vendetta.”

The House Ethics Committee the investigation was still looking into whether Gaetz engaged in sexual misconduct or illegal drug use, and whether he extended special favors to romantic interests.

In June, Gaetz proclaimed his innocence in the cases declared settled.

“The House Ethics Committee has closed four investigations into me that resulted from lies designed solely to slander me,” Gaetz posted on X. “Instead of working with me to ban Congress from trading, the Ethics Committee is now opening frivolous new investigations. They do this to avoid the obvious fact that every investigation into me ends the same way: my exoneration.”

In June, the committee lamented the “difficulty in obtaining relevant information from Rep. Gaetz and others,” but suggested an exhaustive review of the evidence, including conversations “with more than a dozen witnesses … 25 subpoenas and (the review ) thousands of pages of documents. in this matter.”

___

Jacob Ogles of Florida Politics contributed to this report.

Post Views: 0