Looks like House Republicans have finally decided to force out Matt Gaetz
House Republicans seemed to decide quite awhile ago that Matt Gaetz was more trouble than he was worth, and opened up a House Ethics Committee probe into his numerous scandals. Gaetz then got House Speaker Kevin McCarthy ousted, seemingly to try to derail that probe. But all that did was solidify House Republicans’ resolve to get rid of Gaetz.
The ethics probe had been progressing rather methodically, suggesting that House Republicans were waiting to make their move at a time when it wouldn’t cost them the House majority. In his far right district, Gaetz would near-automatically be replaced by another Republican – but the seat would remain empty for ninety days while a special election played out.
But now House Republicans are making their move, or at least committing themselves to making their move. Today they subpoenaed Matt Gaetz over his lack of cooperation in the ethics probe. That’s right, House Republicans subpoenaed one of their own. That’s how badly they now seem to want to get rid of Gaetz.
As we all keep seeing, congressional subpoenas don’t have nearly the same legal standing as grand jury subpoenas. But if Gaetz wants to fend off this congressional subpoena, he’ll have to fight it in court. And that’s probably the opposite of what he wants to do, given that he could still potentially be in danger of criminal indictment by the DOJ. If he goes into court to fight over the evidence that House Republicans are trying to force him to turn over, it could churn up more evidence for prosecutors to get their hands on.
This of course puts Gaetz in a position where the only way to make the subpoena and the ethics probe go away would be to resign. Gaetz seems to think he’s invincible, so for all we know he might fight this until the end. But House Republicans would certainly have the numbers to expel Gaetz, given that most or all House Democrats would join in on such an effort.
Best guess is that House Republicans are looking to force Matt Gaetz out toward the end of the current term, so that his replacement could potentially be seated in time for the start of the next term. This is certainly worth watching.
