Thursday dawned on Capitol Hill with little sign of respite for a Senate Republican caucus clearly still coming to terms with getting what they bargained for.
Senators returned for the second day of business in the midst of Gaetz-gate: the multi-day freakout taking place over the nomination of Matt Gaetz, the Republican gadfly and Trump loyalist from Florida, to serve as Donald Trump's attorney general.
And what was an open question on Wednesday is now a whispered certainty: Gaetz did not, as he clearly intended, dodge an imminent report from the House Ethics Committee regarding longstanding allegations that he slept with a 17-year-old girl — a highschooler — while serving as a member of Congress.
Gaetz was previously investigated in the matter by the Justice Department, which he will now seek to lead; it ended with no charges brought against him. He has strongly denied the allegations.
The Florida congressman reportedly became Trump's pick for attorney general after convincing the president-elect during a trip on Trump Force One this week — just hours before the decision was announced on Wednesday.
He then promptly resigned from the House, officially ending the Ethics panel's jurisdiction to file the report.
The Ethics Committee will meet on Friday to determine the official fate of that investigation.
Unofficially? It's all but certain to be released, whether by the committee in the days immediately ahead, or through a leak to the press, or from the Senate.
Several GOP senators joined their Democratic colleagues on Wednesday and Thursday and said that they wanted to see the Ethics report released before voting on the ex-congressman's confirmation.
"I think there should not be any limit on the Senate Judiciary Committee's investigation," John Cornyn, who sits on the panel which will vote on whether to advance Gaetz's confirmation, said on Thursday.
Kevin Cramer, another Republican aligned with the chamber's institutionalists, said that the congressman had a "steep hill to climb" for votes in the chamber — including his own.
One highly-sourced Florida reporter said the unofficial release could come within hours, not days.
Not to let a moment go to waste, however, Trump is pressing on with his Cabinet nominations. On Thursday, he named Robert F Kennedy Jr, his onetime third-party rival and a prominent vaccine skeptic, to lead HHS.
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