House Ethics Committee Investigates Rep. Gomez Over Sexual Misconduct Allegations

A sitting U.S. congressman finds himself before the House Ethics Committee, caught in the enduring tension between private failing and public accountability. Representative Jimmy Gomez of California has acknowledged conduct outside his marriage while insisting it was consensual and distinct from any abuse of his official role — a distinction that now falls to a formal inquiry to adjudicate. The investigation asks a question as old as democratic governance itself: where does the private person end and the public servant begin, and who bears the cost when the line between them blurs?