Trump nominates Rep. Matt Gaetz, outspoken ally, as attorney general
Rep. Matt Gaetz, nominated by Donald Trump for the position of attorney general, has called on multiple occasions to defund and abolish the Justice Department. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)
Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he would nominate Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) to serve as the nation’s next attorney general, a pick that would install an outspoken Trump loyalist who has spent years deriding the purported weaponization of the Justice Department at the helm of the agency.
Gaetz, a divisive figure within his own party, would be the first U.S. attorney general in four decades who never worked as a government attorney or judge. He often mimics Trump’s incendiary and partisan language when talking about prosecutions and political enemies. Soon after Trump announced his selection, Gaetz resigned his seat in Congress.
The attorney general is one of the most high-profile and consequential cabinet picks for any president. Trump’s appointee will be crucial in determining whether the Justice Department delivers on his vows to wield the law enforcement agency to investigate his opponents.
Gaetz, 42, was under federal investigation in a sex-trafficking scandal and has used that probe to fuel his claims that the Justice Department is corrupt and politicized. The investigation, which was started during the Trump administration, did not result in charges.
He would lead the Justice Department’s more than 100,000 employees at a time when Trump’s allies are calling for a purge of career staffers who may have fought some of Trump’s efforts during his first term or worked on cases involving the president-elect or his supporters.
Gaetz would be a sharp contrast from Attorney General Merrick Garland, tapped by President Joe Biden because he was a longtime federal judge and viewed as a political moderate who could restore departmental norms after a tumultuous first Trump administration. Garland repeatedly pledged to maintain a Justice Department free from political interference, though Republicans have criticized the agency’s two historic criminal cases against Trump as politicized.
The Justice Department has traditionally operated independently from the White House, under political norms established after Watergate to guard against political influence in criminal investigations. But Trump and his allies—including Gaetz—have made clear that in a second term, Trump would exercise much more control over prosecutions.
“The DOJ is part of the Executive Branch,” Gaetz tweeted in 2020. “They are not some unelected 4th branch of government, aloof to the administration’s vision and direction.”
Gaetz was not among the names that had circulated publicly as a potential attorney general in the days since the election. His selection stunned people even within Trump’s inner circle and drew some skepticism on Capitol Hill, including from several lawmakers in the incoming 53-seat majority.
But Gaetz was at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida home, on at least two nights last week, and he traveled with the president-elect to Washington on Wednesday. Gaetz has a longtime professional relationship with Susie Wiles, Trump’s newly chosen chief of staff, who brought him in to prepare Trump for presidential debates.
“There is a brashness to Gaetz that is appealing to the president for such an important task, which is destroying the old guard at DOJ,” said one Trump adviser, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the president-elect’s thinking. “When you’re renovating your kitchen, you can use a small hammer or a sledgehammer, and Matt is the sledgehammer.”
Two key Republican moderates indicated they would likely vote against Gaetz. Sen. Susan Collins (Maine) said she was “shocked” by Trump’s choice, while Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) said Gaetz was not a serious contender for the job.
“I have very few skills, vote counting is one, and I think he’s got a lot of work to get 50,” said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina), a member of the Judiciary Committee. He noted that Gaetz would likely not gain a single Democratic vote and had jousted with Republican senators in the past, leading to poor relationships with some.
“I think he’s got his work cut out for him,” said Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), adding that she was a big fan of Matt Whitaker, a former acting attorney general during the first Trump administration who was also in contention for the job.
Sen Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), who is currently the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he was a little surprised that Trump picked Gaetz and predicted that he would face “tough questions” at his confirmation hearing. But Graham also called Gaetz clever and said he is inclined to support presidential appointments.
Gaetz was under investigation by the House Ethics Committee in connection with the sex-trafficking scandal, but that probe automatically ended once he resigned his seat. His extreme views and provocative remarks could cause upheaval in the Justice Department, potentially prompting career staffers to flee.
Some DOJ and FBI employees have already begun plotting their exits, a senior U.S. official said, believing it will be war between Trump and his political appointees and the rest of the department after Inauguration Day. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive topic.
The Justice Department’s investigation of Gaetz stretched for years, though prosecutors closed the probe last year without pressing charges. The Washington Post reported in 2022 that career prosecutors told their superiors a conviction was unlikely in part because of credibility questions with the two central witnesses.
Investigators were examining Gaetz’s alleged involvement several years earlier with a girl who was 17 at that time, trying to determine if he paid for sex in violation of federal sex-trafficking laws, people familiar with the matter have told The Post, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss investigative details that had not been made public.
Gaetz denied wrongdoing, saying he has never paid for sex and calling the investigation proof that the department is corrupt and politicized. “Although I’m sure some partisan crooks in Merrick Garland’s Justice Department want to pervert the truth and the law to go after me, I will not be intimidated or extorted,” the congressman wrote in an 2021 op-ed in the Washington Examiner.
When running for reelection this year, Gaetz touted his close relationship with Trump. “This is Donald Trump’s party, and I’m a Donald Trump Republican,” one campaign ad showed him proclaiming at a rally.
He was one of nearly 150 House Republicans who voted to overturn Biden’s election victory on Jan. 6, 2021, and he defended the mob of Trump supporters who attacked the U.S. Capitol that day.
“We’re ashamed of nothing,” he publicly said in 2022.
Gaetz has called on multiple occasions to defund and abolish the Justice Department, which also oversees the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. He has said his repudiation of the agency stems from his belief that it has gone after Republicans—while protecting Democrats.
“We either get this government back on our side, or we defund and abolish the FBI, DOJ, CDC, ATF, and any other agency that will not come to heel!” he said in March 2023.
Gaetz is largely disliked by many of his House Republican colleagues. He led the controversial and unorthodox effort to remove then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) last year, and at times has broken with party leaders on key votes.
Trump had two Senate-confirmed attorneys general and multiple acting leaders of the Justice Department during his first term in the White House. He forced his first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, to resign after Sessions recused himself from control of the investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign.
His second attorney general, Bill Barr, left after the 2020 election, when Trump was pressuring him to announce investigations of political foes and unfounded White House claims of widespread election fraud.
The Justice Department became even more chaotic in the final weeks of Trump’s presidency, as Trump attempted to pressure acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen to help him overturn Biden’s victory.
When Rosen wouldn’t, Trump considered installing a different acting attorney general who would help overturn the result—but was dissuaded when officials warned him that it would lead to mass resignations within the department.
Mark Berman, Liz Goodwin, Marianne Levine, Ence Morse, Marianna Sotomayor and Dylan Wells contributed to this report.
