(Radio Iowa) – Senator Chuck Grassley says the allegations swirling around President-elect Trump’s pick for attorney general seem like a replay of what happened in 2018 to one of Trump’s U-S Supreme Court nominees. Grassley, a Republican, was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee when the committee advanced Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination for the nation’s highest court — and Grassley will lead the panel next year as it considers now-former U-S Congressman Matt Gaetz for attorney general.

“The vetting process is very thorough. I think I proved that with the Kavanaugh nomination for the courts,” Grassley says. “The Constitution gives the president the right to appoint, and with the mandate that he got, any president would have the right to have their nominees considered.” Grassley says he will go into the nomination hearing on Gaetz with an open mind. “We had 25 or more people, maybe 26 or 27, that came forward after Kavanaugh had his hearings, people in opposition to Kavanaugh, trying to stir up a reason why he shouldn’t be on the Supreme Court,” Grassley says. “Every one of those proved to have no basis.”

Gaetz, a Florida congressman, resigned immediately after Trump announced Gaetz was his pick for attorney general. The House Ethics Committee has been investigating allegations of sexual misconduct and drug use against Gaetz. A spokesman for Trump says the accusations are baseless and are an attempt to derail Trump’s second administration. The speaker of the House has said it would be unfair to release the committee’s report now that Gaetz is a private citizen. A Republican Senator from Oklahoma who served with Gaetz in the House has called for the release of the ethics committee’s report, but Grassley says it’s up to the House to decide.

“I think I better not interfere with the House of Representatives, what they decide that their committee will do, because they’re going to meet this week to make that decision,” Grassley says. “Obviously, my investigating committee, my vetting committee, is going to want as much information as we can get on these nominees.”

The U-S Department of Justice, which Gaetz would head, also investigated criminal claims against Gaetz — but filed no charges.