Speaker Mike Johnson said Sunday he has not discussed “one word” about the House ethics report on former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) with President-elect Donald Trump, after requesting the committee not release the report Friday.

“The president and I have literally not discussed one word about the ethics report, not once,” Johnson said in an interview with Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “And I’ve been with him quite a bit this week between Washington and Mar-a-Lago. And last night in Madison Square Garden.”

The comments come after Trump made the unexpected pick of Gaetz as his Attorney General, with Gaetz resigning from Congress only a few hours after the announcement. Gaetz, who could face a difficult battle to get a Senate confirmation, was under a House Ethics committee investigation for allegations that he had sex with an underage girl. The committee had initially planned to meet Friday to discuss the report, but the meeting has since been postponed.

Earlier in the week, Johnson had declined to comment on the report, saying that the Speaker is independent from the House Ethics Committee. But on Friday, Johnson said that he would request the committee not release the report out of precedent, since Gaetz was no longer a member of the House. Johnson had been with Trump the night before.

On Sunday, Johnson claimed his two statements on staying independent and requesting the report to not be released were not contradictory: “What I said is entirely consistent,” he said to CNN.

“The Speaker of the House is not involved in Ethics Committee work. Can’t be, shouldn’t be, because the speaker can’t put a thumb on the scale or have anything to do with that,” Johnson said. “What I have said with regard to the report is that it should not come out. And why? Because Matt Gaetz resigned from Congress. He is no longer a member.”

He added, “There’s a very important protocol and tradition and rule that we maintain that the House Ethics Committee’s jurisdiction does not extend to non-members of Congress. I think that would be a Pandora’s box.”

Later on, in an interview with Shannon Bream on “Fox News Sunday,” Johnson also did not commit to whether he would support recess appointments, as Trump has suggested Congress do to pass through some of his controversial nominations. He dodged answering whether he would support the recess nominations, which would bypass Senate confirmation.

“Listen, I believe in the principle of a new president being able to choose his team and that used to not be a controversial notion,” Johnson said. “I wish the Senate would simply do its job of advice-and-consent and allow the president to put the persons in his Cabinet of his choosing. But if this thing bogs down it will be a great detriment to the country, to the American people.”

He added, “We will evaluate all of that at the appropriate time and we will make the appropriate decision. There may be a function for that, we will have to see how it plays out.”

Bream also pressed Johnson on why he was supportive of breaking precedent for recess appointments, but not the release of the ethics report.

“I’ve been a jealous guardian of the Constitution my entire life and it was my career before I became to Congress and I’ve demonstrated over and over that we will have fidelity to our oath, which is uphold the Constitution, so we evaluate all these things very carefully,” Johnson said in response. “I’m sympathetic to all these arguments. As I said, we’ll have to see how this develops.”

He added, “But I think all of the hyperbole and everything on the front end here is to distract the American people and to try to stall President Trump in delivering upon that mandate again that the people have given him.”

Speaking after Johnson on “Fox News Sunday,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) agreed that the House has lost the ability to discipline Gaetz since he is no longer a member, but said that other reports have been released after members have left Congress. Coons also said given that Gaetz has been nominated to be attorney general, the report should still be released.

“It’s relevant because the Senate has a constitutional role. It’s called our advice and consent role to make sure that a president-elect mostly gets their choice, their nominees, but doesn’t get to put people in who are unqualified or who lack the requisite character and capabilities to lead an incredibly important agency like the Department of Justice,” he said.