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WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he intends to nominate U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz as the next attorney general of the United States, an unexpected pick as the Florida Republican remains the subject of a congressional ethics investigation for alleged sexual misconduct, illicit drug use and accepting improper gifts.

House Speaker Mike Johnson announced on Wednesday night at a GOP press conference following leadership elections that Gaetz has already submitted a letter of resignation from the House.

“I think out of deference to us, he issued his resignation letter effective immediately of Congress,” Johnson said. “That caught us by surprise a little bit, but I asked him what the reasoning was, and he said, ‘Well, you can’t have too many absences.’”

Florida state law, Johnson said, provides an eight-week time frame for the governor to fill a vacancy. He’s already placed a call to Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is in Italy, to ask him to begin that timeline.

“And if we start the clock now, if you do the math, we may be able to fill that seat as early as January 3, when we take the new oath of office for the new Congress,” Johnson said.  “So Matt would have done us a great service by making that decision, as he did on the fly. And so we’re grateful for that.”

The position of attorney general requires U.S. Senate approval, and if confirmed, the four-term congressman and Trump ally would lead the massive U.S. Justice Department that oversees more than 40 component organizations and 115,000 employees, according to the department.

The announcement comes as U.S. special counsel Jack Smith  two federal investigations of Trump — one, alleging Trump improperly stored classified government documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate after leaving office, and the other stemming from his alleged scheme to subvert the 2020 presidential election. Justice Department memos from 1973 and 2000 concluded that criminally prosecuting a sitting president would impair the leader’s capacity to carry out the office’s functions.

Trump first announced his decision to choose Gaetz on social media, describing the congressman as “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.”

Revealing the information on Truth Social roughly 10 minutes before his transition team sent an official statement, the president-elect wrote that Gaetz “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. We must have Honesty, Integrity, and Transparency at DOJ. Under Matt’s leadership, all Americans will be proud of the Department of Justice once again.” Trump routinely writes on social media in mixed capitalization.

Gaetz quickly published on the social media platform X that, “It will be an honor to serve as President Trump’s Attorney General!”

Ethics probe

The House Committee on Ethics  in June that it would continue pursuing allegations in its ongoing investigation of Gaetz, including the possibility the lawmaker 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.”

Gaetz has “categorically denied all of the allegations before the Committee,” according to the committee’s June update on the matter.

The committee’s probe began in April 2021 and originally included allegations that the lawmaker “shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused state identification records, converted campaign funds to personal use, and/or accepted a bribe or improper gratuity.” The committee announced in June that it was no longer pursuing those specific accusations.

As of June, the panel had spoken with more than a dozen witnesses, issued 25 subpoenas, and reviewed thousands of pages of documents regarding the Gaetz probe.

Rep. Michael Guest, chair of the House Ethics Committee, told reporters Wednesday that if Gaetz is confirmed by the Senate as attorney general, his committee will no longer have jurisdiction over the probe.

“Once we lose jurisdiction, there would not be a report that would be issued,” said Guest, a Mississippi Republican elected to Congress in 2019. “That’s not unique to this case, we have that every new Congress, where there are members who are under ethics investigation, who either choose not to run again, in some instances, or they resign or they lose reelection.”

“We’re not going to rush this investigation because of the appointment. And so we’re going to again follow the rules and the procedures that we set in place.”

The ethics investigation is expected to wrap up following Gaetz’s resignation, though Punchbowl News  that the panel was set to release a “highly damaging” report in the days ahead

Lawmakers taken aback

Senators on Capitol Hill, who will have to vet and possibly vote to confirm Gaetz, expressed surprise at Trump’s announcement.

Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski said that she expected to consider another option at some point.

“I don’t think he’s a serious nomination for the attorney general,” Murkowski said. “We need to have a serious attorney general and I’m looking forward to the opportunity to consider somebody that is serious.”

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said she was shocked when she heard the news. She said that she and her colleagues will want to question Gaetz.

“Obviously, the president has the right to nominate whomever he wishes. But I’m certain that there will be a lot of questions,” Collins, a Republican, said.

Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn said he doesn’t know Gaetz “other than his public persona,” but said Gaetz will face questions and possibly challenges getting the votes needed for Senate confirmation.

“I’m sure we’ll have a lot of questions, and I’m sure all that stuff will come out,” Cornyn said. “And then it’s a question of, can he get 51 votes?”

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., said that Republicans were the ones to question about whether they’d support Gaetz’s nomination, since Democrats were unlikely to do so.

“Talk to my colleagues, like, to see who’s gonna vote for, like, a jerk-off like that,” Fetterman said.

Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst said Gaetz “has his work cut out for him,” and that it will be up to the Judiciary Committee to decide whether to confirm him to the post.

Florida GOP Sen. Marco Rubio, who Trump on Wednesday nominated as secretary of State, said that he was supportive of the president-elect’s pick.

“I’ve known Matt for a long time, I think he would do a good job,” Rubio said, adding that he wouldn’t comment further about the recent ethics complaints against Gaetz.

Democrats who sit on the Judiciary Committee that would be tasked with holding a nomination hearing for Gaetz, such as Cory Booker of New Jersey and Jon Ossoff of Georgia, declined to comment on the news.

“I’m literally just walking out of a meeting and hearing this,” Booker said. “Give me a minute.”

Wisconsin GOP Sen. Ron Johnson said he honestly doesn’t “know (Gaetz) that well or know his professional qualifications.”

“I know of his skill in questioning witnesses in the House,” Johnson said. “I really don’t know his legal background that much. I’ve never really spent much time with him, other than a couple times in different meetings, so I just don’t know him that well.”

Rep. Jim Himes, ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, issued a strong rebuke of Trump’s choice of Gaetz for the position.

“The Attorney General of the United States must have strong judgement, moral character, and a deep respect for the law. As almost all members of Congress know, Matt Gaetz has none of those things. What he does have is unconditional loyalty to Donald Trump and a willingness to weaponize the government against his political allies— an affinity that he and the president-elect share,” Himes, a Connecticut Democrat, said in a statement.

Ariana Figueroa and Shauneen Miranda contributed to this report. 

Last updated 8:27 p.m., Nov. 13, 2024