Trump Picks Matt Gaetz for Attorney General

Donald Trump has picked Florida congressman Matt Gaetz to serve as the attorney general of the United States.

The president-elect wrote in his announcement that the Florida congressman “has distinguished himself in Congress through his focus on achieving desperately needed reform at the Department of Justice,” and that he will “root out the systemic corruption at DOJ, and return the Department to its true mission of fighting crime, and upholding our Democracy and Constitution.”

Gaetz, 42, is an extreme Trump loyalist who has been under congressional investigation for ethics violations. “It will be an honor to serve as President Trump’s Attorney General!” Gaetz wrote on X.

On Wednesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said that Gaetz has already resigned from Congress and “issued his resignation letter, effectively immediately.”

Gaetz is no stranger to the department he’s been tasked to lead. The Department of Justice previously investigated the congressman over sex trafficking allegations involving a 17-year-old. While that probe ensnared a close associate of Gaetz, federal law enforcement made the determination not to pursue criminal charges against the congressman in 2023. 

Gaetz has long claimed he did nothing to deserve the criminal scrutiny. According to testimony received by the Jan. 6 committee, however, Gaetz asked for a pardon from Trump prior to the end of the first Trump administration.

The House Committee on Ethics has since been investigating Gaetz on its own for a long list of alleged impropriety. This includes accusations that Gaetz “may have: engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, accepted improper gifts, dispensed special privileges and favors to individuals with whom he had a personal relationship, and sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct.”

This ethics investigation was at the core of the dispute between then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Gaetz that led Gaetz to orchestrate the ouster of McCarthy in October of last year. McCarthy has been outspoken that Gaetz led his overthrow because McCarthy would not stop the ethics investigation.
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Minutes after the Gaetz selection was announced, a Republican senator close to Trump tells Rolling Stone, “Our president is doing his best to give me a stroke.”

Other House Republicans met Trump’s announcement with disbelief and calls to release the results of the ethics committee probe. Rep. Mike Simpson was asked by a reporter if Gaetz — who has served in Congress since 2017 — has the character to be the nation’s top law enforcement officer. He responded: “Are you shitting me? No.” 

Gaetz may face an uphill climb in the Senate, where even conservative senators like Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma view him with disdain. A former House member, Mullin has claimed Gaetz shared locker-room stories of his sexual conquests on the House floor (Gaetz has denied this). Other Republican senators have reportedly expressed shock at the announcement, but it’s certainly possible that they’ll come around eventually. It appears Mullin has, anyway. “I completely trust President Trump’s decision making on this one,” Mullin said Wednesday.

The chair of the Florida Democratic Nikki Fried has blasted the nomination. “Matt Gaetz is a chaos agent who cares about nothing but his own personal power,” Fried said. “He’s spent his eight years in Congress trying to burn our institutions to the ground — bringing us to the brink of multiple government shutdowns and constitutional crises along the way.
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Rep. Jerry Nadler, ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, blasts Gaetz as “totally and completely unfit” and “woefully unqualified to be Attorney General.” But he suggests that may be Trump’s aim in appointing him. “I have no doubt that Gaetz will execute Trump’s plans to weaponize the federal government to punish his political enemies.”  

Maxwell Frost, a Democratic member of the Florida House caucus was succinct in his assessment of Gaetz’s nomination: “God help us.”