The House Ethics Committee announced it had begun a formal investigation into whether or not Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) tried to intimidate President Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen before he testified in front of Congress earlier this year.

The Hill’s Cristina Marcos reports:
 

In a statement, Ethics Committee Chairman Ted Deutch (D-Fla.) and Rep. Kenny Marchant (Texas), the panel’s ranking Republican, said that Gaetz declined their request to appear before the committee for an in-person interview in May.

The Ethics Committee said it told Gaetz that it wouldn’t be able to resolve the ethics complaint against him without his testimony and warned that if it couldn’t dispose of the complaint by June 24, the rules would require formally opening an investigative subcommittee to review the allegations.

Gaetz defended his refusal to cooperate with the investigation.

“If members of Congress want to spend their time psychoanalyzing my tweets, it’s certainly their prerogative. I won’t be joining them in the endeavor,” Gaetz said in a statement Friday.

A day before Cohen’s testimony Gaetz tweeted at the former Trump attorney, accusing him of having extramarital affairs, before openly wondering if Cohen’s wife and father-in-law knew and suggesting Cohen’s wife wouldn’t remain faithful while he sat behind bars.

After initially defending the tweet, Gaetz deleted it and apologized to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.