On Wednesday, Donald Trump appointed Rep. Matt Gaetz as attorney general. The Florida Republican, accused of child sex trafficking, is a Trump loyalist who has made it his mission to protect Trump at all costs. He would be the country’s top law enforcement official.
“Matt is a deeply gifted and tenacious attorney, trained at the William & Mary College of Law, who has distinguished himself in Congress through his focus on achieving desperately needed reform at the Department of Justice,” Trump wrote in a statement on Truth Social. “Few issues in America are more important than ending the partisan Weaponization of our Justice System. Matt will end Weaponized Government, protect our Borders, dismantle Criminal Organizations and restore Americans’ badly-shattered Faith and Confidence in the Justice Department.”
Gaetz’s nomination is completely out of left field.
His name had not been on any lists of possible candidates.
Gaetz had been under investigation by the FBI, as well as the House Ethics Committee, for years for alleged child sex trafficking.
The New York Times reported that before Trump left the White House after losing in 2020, Gaetz sought a “blanket pardon” from Trump.
In June, the House Ethics Committee said in a statement that it was probing whether Gaetz, “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.”
ABC News also reported in June that a woman testified before the House Ethics Committee that Gaetz paid her for sex, and that Gaetz attended sex and drug-fueled parties.
His personal conduct repulsed now-former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who sought to get a primary challenger to oust Gaetz from Congress.
At the Republican National Convention this summer, McCarthy said publicly that Gaetz asked him to kill the ethics investigation into his sexual exploits.
"He had an ethics complaint four years ago that he paid an underage girl, and she has come to ethics. And he came to me to try to leverage me to stop the ethics investigation," McCarthy said on the convention floor. "That’s illegal. I’m not doing that. If I had to lose my job over all the hump, the law—he tried to utilize it."
Related story: Former House speaker on Matt Gaetz: ‘He looks very unhinged’
It’s unclear how on earth Gaetz will make it through a Senate confirmation.
“Safe to say that GOP senators are stunned—not in a good way—on Matt Gaetz for Attorney General,” Punchbowl News’ John Bresnahan wrote in a post on X after Trump’s announcement.
Hill newspaper reporter Emily Brooks reported that there was an “audible gasp” in the room where House Republicans are meeting to nominate their leadership slate for 2025 when Gaetz’s nomination was announced.
It’s despicable nominations like Gaetz’s that make it clear why Trump wants to shred the rules and bypass the Senate to simply install his picks in key administration roles.
If Gaetz is actually confirmed, it will leave House Republicans with yet another vacancy, narrowing their already slim majority for a few months until a successor can be named.
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