Matt Gaetz is in deep 💩

It's all happening.

On Wednesday morning, CNN reported that the House Ethics Committee held a secret vote earlier this month authorizing the release of their report into allegations of sex with a minor and illegal drug use by former Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz.

Which:

CNN’s reporting, which was quickly confirmed by the New York Times, suggests that the report will be released once Members of Congress leave Washington — which is likely to come by the end of this week. (The timing is not accidental; no Republican wants to answer Gaetz questions!)

That marks a MAJOR reversal by the Republican-controlled committee, which had previously refused to release the report — citing the fact that Gaetz is no longer a) a member of Congress or b) Donald Trump’s nominee for Attorney General.

It is also a direct rebuke to Speaker Mike Johnson, who had been adamantly opposed to releasing the report. “I’m going to strongly request that the Ethics Committee not issue the report, because that is not the way we do things in the House,” Johnson said last month. “And I think that would be a terrible precedent to set.”

It’s unclear what changed the minds of the members of the Ethics Committee.

What is clear is that Gaetz did NOT want the report coming out. He resigned from the House almost immediately after Trump nominated him as AG, a wholly unnecessary step, and quickly backed out of consideration to be the nation’s top cop after just 8 days.

Will the report affect Gaetz’s legal situation? Hard to say but not likely — given that the Department of Justice already looked into the allegations and decided not to charge him in 2023.

But, politically, the report could be a bombshell. While we don’t know what’s in it yet, Gaetz’s willingness to walk away from Congress to keep it from coming out is pretty telling.

Gaetz hasn’t been shy about his interest in running for governor in 2026 when Ron DeSantis is term-limited out of office. (Is Matt Gaetz shy about anything?) And most smart Republicans I talk to in the state suggest he would have to be considered the favorite in a Republican primary.

The release of this report — depending on how bad it is — could derail those plans.

I made a video on my YouTube channel on [waves hands around wildly] all of this. Check it out! And don’t forget to subscribe!