Former Rep. Matt Gaetz‘s (R-FL) surprise withdrawal from consideration as attorney general in President-elect Donald Trump‘s Cabinet has thrown the future of the House ethics report against him into uncertainty.

The release of the House Ethics Committee’s yearslong investigation into the Florida Republican has been the subject of debate on Capitol Hill, with Trump and his allies pushing for the report not to be released to the public as Gaetz was being considered as the next attorney general under the incoming Trump administration.

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But now that Gaetz has removed himself from consideration, it’s unclear where that leaves the committee’s report. The committee, which met on Wednesday, did not come to a consensus about whether to release its report, but planned to continue discussions in December.

However, Democrats signaled they planned to move forward with their efforts to force the committee to release the report following Gaetz’s announcement. Two House Democrats, Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL) and Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) ) introduced separate resolutions to immediately release the results of the ethics committee’s three-year investigation into Gaetz, who has been accused of sexual misconduct, Wednesday evening after the committee failed to come to a consensus.

Casten said in a statement that while he welcomed the news that Gaetz had removed himself, it “remains important that the Gaetz report be made available to the American people.”

The resolutions were introduced as privileged, a procedural tool that would force Republican leadership to bring the motion to the floor within two legislative days. Lawmakers would likely not consider the motion until after Thanksgiving after recessing for a week on Thursday. Still, it’s unclear whether the vote will be permitted under House rules.

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Gaetz’s withdrawal from the attorney general nomination came just one day after the committee meeting and the resolutions were introduced, with the Florida Republican saying the amount of media attention surrounding his confirmation was “unfairly becoming a distraction.”

Whether or not the committee had jurisdiction over Gaetz, who resigned from his House seat last week, was also a subject of debate, with GOP leadership urging the panel not to release the report, citing precedent. 

“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,” Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) told reporters Friday. “The rules of the House have always been that a former member is beyond the jurisdiction of the Ethics Committee, and so I don’t think that’s relevant.”

That had been a change in tune for the speaker, who earlier last week that he “can’t be involved” in the committee’s decisions — signaling pressure from Trump and allies to keep the report from seeing the light of day.

However, should Gaetz try to maneuver back into the House, or swear into the 119th Congress, which he said he did not intend to do in his resignation letter, the Ethics inquiry would likely jumpstart once again as the Republican would be a sitting member of Congress.

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Several House Republicans came out against Gaetz’s nomination and called on the committee to release the report prior to the committee’s meeting on Wednesday. Even Senate Republicans, though less opposed to Gaetz’s selection, argued they should still have access to the report for his nomination hearing.

Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI), who is not quiet about his negative feelings toward Gaetz, signaled he’d be in favor of forcing the report’s release.

“I think it’s very important that everybody has as much knowledge as possible so that they can make an informed decision,” Van Orden said.

“And my personal feelings about Mr. Gaetz should have nothing to do with what’s going on here in the country, and that’s a big problem in our country, is that people are allowing interpersonal conflicts to affect their ability to legislate,” the Wisconsin Republican added.

In the days following Gaetz’s nomination to lead the Department of Justice, the former lawmaker’s unpopularity in the House spilled onto the scenes from Democrats and Republicans alike. Gaetz, a firebrand conservative known for leading the ouster of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, gained many enemies over his time in the House. 

His Cabinet selection sent shockwaves through Washington, D.C., with opponents of Gaetz reacting with everything from laughs and smirks to shaking their heads in disappointment. Several GOP lawmakers had celebrated the potential downfall of their colleague.

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“Look, I love President Trump. I support every single one of his picks,” Rep. Max Miller (R-OH) told the Washington Examiner last week. “But this one will never get through the Senate. And I would venture to go talk to every single House member out there to see how excited we are that he potentially can be leaving and will never get confirmed.”

Where does the ethics report go from here?

It is not clear what work on the report is left to be done, but Ethics Ranking Member Susan Wild (D-PA) told reporters on Wednesday that “we were in a position to vote today.” 

The committee did vote on Wednesday to finish the report and were planning on meeting again in December to further conversations, per multiple reports — meaning that the evenly-split, bipartisan panel reached consensus that the investigation’s findings should be completed.

Some GOP lawmakers assumed that the committee’s inability to reach consensus on whether to release the report meant it was unfinished.

If the report was unfinished, they said they would vote to table Cohen and Casten’s resolutions — even if they personally want the report to see the light of day.

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“I want the report out, but I also want to make sure that it’s credible, that it’s going to be accurate, and that if it’s not accurate and if it’s not credible, then we owe Mr. Gaetz an apology, but I’m not for releasing an unfinished report,” Miller told the Washington Examiner ahead of Gaetz’s withdrawal.

“I’m voting to table because it’s an unfinished report,” Miller added. “I’m not voting to table because I don’t want the report out there.”

Miller has been a vocal opponent of Gaetz since his nomination was first announced, predicting to reporters it would not go through. 

“I’m not going to dance on his grave, but I was the first one to call it,” Miller told the Washington Examiner after Gaetz withdrew his name. 

Other House Republicans said they saw his withdrawal coming, with one lawmaker going so far as to say it may have been the “plan all along.”

“Shutdown the ethics probe, sacrifice his appointment for others, whoever Trump selects next would be seen as better,” the lawmaker said. 

Some House GOP members suggested that if Gaetz’s report is still going to be released, the House should vote to publish all ethics investigations. 

“For the last 20 years, for anybody that’s still around, still alive, release the ethics report on them,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) said. 

Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC) told reporters he’d file his own privileged resolution to release other ethics investigations into other members, something that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) suggested earlier in the week. 

“If we’re going to release the report, let’s release a lot of reports,” said Bishop, who is leaving the House after an unsuccessful run for North Carolina attorney general. “Let’s go for full transparency.”

It’s not yet clear whether Bishop will still move forward with that resolution after Gaetz’s withdrawal, and the Washington Examiner contacted his office for comment. 

Greene said in a post to X that if the House votes to release ethics reports and “rip apart our own that Trump has appointed, then put it ALL out there for the American people to see.”

Johnson said this week that he hasn’t talked to other members about releasing additional ethics reports.

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Many Republicans are expressing relief or congratulating the former congressman on Gaetz’s decision to withdraw.

“He made the right decision for the new administration and the country,” a House Republican told the Washington Examiner.