Speaker Mike Johnson's shock response to whether Matt Gaetz ethics report on underage sex allegations should be released

Mike Johnson called Matt Gaetz 'one of the brightest minds in Washington' while insisting a report on the former Florida congressman's alleged sexual misconduct with underage girls should be kept secret.

The Speaker of the House went on multiple Sunday shows to claim House Ethics Committee should not release the report on Gaetz after he was chosen by President Trump to head the Justice Department.  

'He's one of the brightest minds in Washington or anywhere for that matter,' Johnson said about Gaetz, who has been accused of having sex with a minor at a house party in Orlando in 2017. 

'He knows everything about how the Department of Justice has been weaponized and misused.'

Johnson believes that Gaetz strikes fear not because of the allegations against him but because he could fix a broken system.  

'And he will be a reformer. And I think that's why the establishment in Washington is so shaken up about this pick,' Johnson said.

Gaetz, 42, resigned his seat in the Republican-controlled House on Wednesday, hours after Trump unveiled his choice of the lawmaker and two days before the House Ethics Committee was expected to release its report, which also looked into allegations of illegal drug use. He denies any wrongdoing.

On Fox News Sunday, Shannon Bream asked him whether it should be released, with the caveat that the desire for information isn't confined to liberals, as Republican Texas Senator John Cornyn also wants the report out. 

Johnson believes letting the report come out would set a dangerous precedent going forward.  

'I'm afraid that would open a Pandora's box because the jurisdiction of the ethics committee is limited to those serving in the institution.' 

He said the tradition holding things together being broken could see the House of Representatives go after anyone they deem undesirable.  

'With regard to the report there's a very important reason for the tradition and the rule that we have almost always followed and that is we don't issue investigations and ethics reports on people who are not members of Congress,' he said. 

His comments came as Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin became the latest GOP Senate member to ask that it be at least given to the Senate as evidence in confirmation hearings.

'I hope that the Ethics Committee will stick by our tradition and protocol for the reasons I just articulated. I think this would take us down a path there where I don't know how we'd return,' Johnson continued . 

'If the House Ethics Committee and its resources, which are significant, substantial, could be used to investigate people who are not in the House, then where would that end?'

Ultimately, Johnson had nothing but praise for his longterm House colleague Gaetz and fully endorsed him for the job.

'The reason that Matt Gaetz is such an exciting pick to so many people is because he will go in and reform the Department of Justice. It desperately needs it.' 

Mullin told NBC's 'Meet the Press' that the Senate, which holds the authority to confirm or deny Trump's nominations to high-level positions, needs to see the report.

'The senate should have access to that,' Mullin said, declining to say whether he believed the report should be made public.

John Cornyn said that he simply wants to have all the available information before voting.  

'The President's role is to make the nomination, but we need to have complete vetting of the nominees, not only so we know that the nominee is qualified, but also to protect the president,' Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said Thursday. 

He 'absolutely' wants to review the House Ethics Committee's report on Gaetz's conduct.

Cornyn even floated the idea of taking legal action to review the report's contents. 

'There's various ways we can glean access to it, we can subpoena it,' he told reporters. 'I don't I don't think any of us want to fly blind.'

Following Donald Trump's nomination of Gaetz to serve as attorney general on Wednesday there have been increasing bipartisan calls for the report on his alleged sexual misconduct and drug use to be released. 

That would break with Ethics Committee norms as Gaetz resigned his spot in Congress immediately after being nominated, meaning the committee no longer has jurisdiction over the former Florida Republican. 

But advocates for the report's release say that its contents are pertinent to whether or not Gaetz gets confirmed by the Senate, and therefore it should be released. 

Speaker Johnson pushed back on that Friday, saying he wants the Ethics Committee to refrain from publishing the potentially damaging file. 

'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, and I think that would be a terrible precedent to set,' Johnson said coming out of his office.

The Ethics panel was set to meet Friday to decide whether to release the report.

However that meeting was scuttled after Gaetz's sudden resignation. 

His exit comes as allegations resurfaced Thursday about a woman who reportedly testified to the committee that Gaetz had sex with her when she was 17. 

The woman - now in her 20s - talked about Gaetz and her having sex when she was a minor in high school while 'representing that she was an adult,' sources told ABC News.

The FBI had investigated similar claims against Gaetz, but the DOJ opted not to indict him over claims he sex trafficked a minor.

Trump's pick of the embattled former congressman to oversee the Justice Department, FBI, DEA, ATF and related agencies has shocked Republicans and Democrats. 

And the bombshell claims could derail his hopes of taking the helm as attorney general. 

Already reports indicate that Republicans in the Senate are not on board with Gaetz becoming AG. 

According to the Wall Street Journal, sources say that Gaetz already has at least 30 Republicans planning on voting against his nomination. 

Gaetz is one of a series of Cabinet nominees tapped by Trump last week who lack the resumes normally seen in candidates for high-level administration jobs. 

He would need to be confirmed by the Senate -- where Trump's Republicans will have a majority of at least 52 of the 100 seats -- to get the post. A handful have expressed skepticism at the choice.