(Bloomberg) -- President-elect Donald Trump is nominating Representative Matt Gaetz to be attorney general, tapping a polarizing and embattled lawmaker to reshape US law enforcement and carry out his agenda on immigration, crime and hot-button social issues.
The Florida Republican, the subject of a House inquiry into sexual misconduct allegations, promptly resigned from Congress, effectively ending that investigation because he is no longer a sitting member of the chamber. Gaetz has denied wrongdoing.
Gaetz, 42, has been a steady ally of Trump since he left the White House. A lightning rod within his own caucus, Gaetz has been plagued by scandals, including an investigation by the Justice Department that he had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl in exchange for money. He denied the allegations and was notified last year that he wouldn’t face charges.
However, he has remained under investigation by the House Ethics Committee. The panel said in June that its members were continuing to look into allegations that he engaged in sexual misconduct, took illicit drugs and accepted improper gifts. Gaetz said in September that he was no longer voluntarily cooperating with the probe.
The committee declined to comment on whether a report on the inquiry would be issued soon. The New York Times and other news organizations reported that the panel was prepared to release the report on Friday
On Wednesday night, House Speaker Mike Johnson announced that Gaetz had submitted a letter of resignation.
Gaetz’s office didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Trump has indicated that he’ll push for a radical transformation of the Justice Department, which has more than 115,000 employees. The department sits at the apex of the machinery that Trump will need to carry out his agenda from enforcing federal laws to litigating controversial matters. It also plays a key role in doling out billions of dollars in grant funding for immigration enforcement, border security and policing.
“Matt 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,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
Republican Surprise
The appointment will test Trump’s sway over Senate Republicans, who will take control of the chamber in January and must confirm the president-elect’s nominees. The GOP is expected to hold a 53-47 seat majority, so it would take just four Republican senators to sink his nomination. Multiple Republican senators signaled their skepticism of the choice, laying bare the confirmation challenge ahead.
“Gaetz won’t get confirmed. Everybody knows that,” former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who Gaetz toppled last year in an ultra-conservative rebellion, told Bloomberg Television. He suggested that the controversial pick is “a good deflection from others.”
When asked by reporters about the choice, John Cornyn of Texas said: “I’m trying to absorb all this.” Another Republican senator, Susan Collins of Maine, said the pick was completely unexpected, adding that an FBI background check is part of any confirmation process. Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, said she doesn’t believe Gaetz is a serious candidate for the post.
Traditionally, the department and the attorney general have maintained a distance from the White House, especially when it comes to making decisions about which sensitive investigations and prosecutions to conduct or end. Measures intended to insulate the department from politics and interference were put in place following the Watergate scandal in the 1970s.
President Joe Biden has deliberately taken a hands-off approach to the Justice Department under his attorney general, Merrick Garland, including with regard to the federal prosecution of his son, Hunter Biden. Garland implemented a policy shortly after becoming attorney general limiting communications with the White House specifically.
During his campaign, Trump repeatedly said he plans to go after “the enemy from within” the US. He has also railed against the two federal indictments against him secured by Special Counsel Jack Smith for allegedly trying to overturn the 2020 election and illegally retaining classified documents. Several long-term career Justice officials also worked on those cases.
The Justice Department includes several agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation that the president-elect has criticized as well. Trump could move to fire FBI Director Christopher Wray, whose term isn’t up until 2027.
Trump’s Attorneys General
Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X and a staunch Trump ally, said in a Nov. 8 post that “Jack Smith’s abuse of the justice system cannot go unpunished.”
Republican attorney Mark Paoletta, who is helping lead Trump’s transition team for the department, said in a Nov. 11 post that career employees at the Justice Department should either get on board with Trump’s agenda or quit. “Those employees who engage in so-called ‘resistance’ against the duly-elected President’s lawful agenda would be subverting American democracy,” Paoletta said.
Additionally, Trump comes into office after the US Supreme Court ruled that presidents have broad immunity from prosecution for any actions they take in their official capacity — a new precedent that’s still being defined.
Trump’s first attorney general, former Republican Senator Jeff Sessions, was seen as a loyalist, but angered the president recusing himself from the investigation into whether Trump conspired with Russia to interfere in the 2016 election.
That led to the 2017 appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, whose investigation hung over the Trump administration for nearly two years. Mueller eventually said the evidence didn’t support charges, but he listed ways in which Trump sought to obstruct the investigation. Trump forced Sessions out after the congressional mid-term elections in 2018.
His second attorney general, William Barr, took many actions that were cheered by Trump and his allies, such as overruling a recommendation by career prosecutors regarding a prison sentence for Trump associate Roger Stone.
But Barr lashed out at Trump over tweets and public comments about ongoing Justice Department cases, saying it was making his job “impossible.” Barr ultimately also declared there was no fraud in the 2020 election significant enough to change the results and he then left in December 2020.
--With assistance from Steven T. Dennis, Daniel Flatley and Laura Davison.
(Updates with committee report, in fifth paragraph.)
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