When President-elect Donald Trump tapped Matt Gaetz for attorney general, he elevated a MAGA firebrand with a penchant for stoking controversy and a history of getting out of trouble to lead a Justice Department that has investigated both men.
Gaetz, a career politician with limited experience practicing law, resigned from his seat in Congress just hours after Trump announced earlier this week his intention to nominate him as the top federal law enforcement officer in the United States.
The Florida Republican has a tense history with the Justice Department, clashing with officials during contentious oversight hearings where he accused the department of being “weaponized” against Trump and fellow conservatives and decrying the yearslong federal sex-crimes investigation of him that began during the Trump administration. (Prosecutors ultimately declined to charge him.)
Gaetz would be able to take on the Justice Department from the inside, molding the institution and its law enforcement components, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and the Drug Enforcement Administration, to fit his vision — and Trump’s.
Democrats on Capitol Hill and some legal scholars have flatly said Gaetz is unqualified for the job, and even people close to Gaetz told CNN they are concerned he may not be a good fit at the department and may have trouble winning confirmation by the Senate if there’s a vote on his nomination.
But many Republicans and Gaetz allies have touted his aggressive style as an essential attribute for an attorney general. Sources close to Trump said he sees Gaetz as an effective messenger of his agenda and believes his appointees to other top positions at the Justice Department can handle day-to-day duties.
John Morgan, a Florida personal injury attorney and Democratic donor who is nevertheless close to Gaetz, warned doubters not to dismiss the Panhandle Republican as the right-wing caricature he often embodies. Morgan called Gaetz “uber smart” and “a pit bull.”
“Everyone who has underestimated him has done so at their own peril,” Morgan said. “I don’t think that everyone needs to be getting scared. Matt knows what it’s like to be unfairly targeted and I don’t think he’ll do that.”
Reaction inside the Beltway
Inside the Justice Department, some employees who had braced for the possibility of other names that had surfaced early in the transition were appalled when Trump made the Gaetz announcement. He would mark a sharp departure from Attorney General Merrick Garland, who was chosen by President Joe Biden for his low-key style and promise to try to restore decades-old norms to the department after a chaotic first Trump term.
One career official described hearing audible cries of “oh my God” echoing down the hallway inside DOJ’s headquarters.
Even among Trump transition officials who had spent weeks preparing potential nominees for Trump to review were taken aback, in part because it meant all the work they had done was cast aside for a choice that came from Trump’s gut, a person close to the transition said.
Some Justice officials believe the Gaetz pick raises the likelihood there will be more departures, either voluntarily or as part of efforts to push out employees who aren’t seen as loyal to the incoming Trump administration.
A staffing firm that moves lawyers out of government into private-sector jobs said they have been inundated with calls since Trump’s announcement Wednesday afternoon.
A former official who worked at the Justice Department during Trump’s first term told CNN they are concerned about Gaetz’s nomination and “praying” that those tapped to run each department inside the main headquarters can keep things on course.
The president-elect filled some of those spots Thursday evening, appointing a series of his own personal lawyers to run key sections of the Justice Department. Trump said he intends to nominate Todd Blanche, who played a central role in his defense teams in the Manhattan hush money case and two federal criminal cases, to be the second in command at the Justice Department as the deputy attorney general.
Trump also announced his selection of Emil Bove, another member of his criminal defense team, to be principal associate attorney general.
Florida law and politics
Gaetz, a lifelong Floridian, grew up as the son of a powerful state senator and living in the house used to film the movie “The Truman Show.” He graduated from Florida State University, and then from William & Mary Law School.
He worked for AnchorsGordon, a firm with a handful of lawyers in the Florida Panhandle that he joined after graduating law school. His courtroom experience is limited. He has never appeared as an attorney in a federal court case, according to the national court records database. He is listed as the attorney in seven cases in state court.
Partners at AnchorsGordon didn’t return multiple inquiries this week about Gaetz’s history in private practice. Gaetz last reported earning a paycheck from the firm in 2016.
He has maintained an active law license with the Florida Bar — apart from letting it lapse for failure to pay fees for 20 days in 2021, according to a spokesperson for the organization. While he doesn’t need a license to be attorney general, he would be the first in decades to come into the role without experience as a government attorney or a judge.
Gaetz was later influential in Trump’s 2018 nomination of one of his former law firm’s partners, Lawrence “Larry” Keefe, as US attorney for the Northern District of Florida. Keefe ultimately became Florida’s public safety czar under Gov. Ron DeSantis and played a critical role in orchestrating the flights that carried migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard.
In Florida, where Gaetz first made his mark as a brash state lawmaker in 2010, his rise has left many in the state’s tightly knit political circles bewildered. Gaetz — often tagged “Baby Gaetz” by political insiders in the state, for his boyish looks as well as his political lineage — has been recognized as much for his provocations as he has been for his hardline conservative stance.
“I am stunned,” one longtime Florida Republican operative told CNN after learning about the Gaetz appointment.
After Gaetz left the Tallahassee statehouse, a former Republican state lawmaker alleged on X that he created a “game” at the Florida state house where he and his male colleagues earned points for sleeping with interns, staff and married legislators. Gaetz denied the allegation.
The Florida Bar once said Gaetz was “unprofessional, reckless, insensitive, and demonstrated poor judgment” for menacing tweets he posted about Trump’s former fixer, Michael Cohen, though the lawyer association ultimately declined to punish the behavior. The episode drew public scorn from some prominent Florida Republicans, including Sen. Rick Scott, who called Gaetz’s behavior “disgusting” and “embarrassing.”
Gaetz goes to Washington
Elected to Congress the same year Trump won the White House, Gaetz first arrived in the US House of Representative in 2017, and quickly became better known for his trademark incendiary political moves than legislating.
The congressman became a regular in conservative media and pulled stunts that often made him an obstacle for Republican Party leadership and unpopular in the House Republican conference. But Trump called Gaetz one his “absolute warriors” for regularly coming to his defense on cable television.
In 2018, Gaetz was criticized after he invited a conservative troll with a history of Holocaust denial to the State of the Union. And during the House’s first impeachment inquiry into Trump, Gaetz led a band of Republicans to “storm” the House Intelligence secure committee spaces where the impeachment interviews were being held.
And in 2020, Gaetz wore a gas mask on the House floor to vote on a coronavirus funding package. Gaetz, who said at the time that the move was “quite serious,” ultimately voted in support of the bill.
His own personal history has, at times, become part of the debate. During a congressional hearing where Gaetz railed against Hunter Biden’s cocaine use, Democratic Rep. Hank Johnson alluded to Gaetz’s arrest on suspicion of driving under the influence in 2008. The DUI charges were later dismissed.
Gaetz has said that he doesn’t think the public was “hanging on a traffic incident I had a decade ago.”
Gaetz also led the effort to oust former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and was even part of a physical dust-up on the House floor at the end of McCarthy’s tenure.
And while his antics turned off many of his own colleagues, Gaetz won over Trump and became a staunch ally.
He echoed Trump’s lies about the 2020 election being stolen and even defended him in the hours after the deadly January 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol. When House GOP Conference Chair Liz Cheney of Wyoming voted to impeach Trump in January, Gaetz didn’t just criticize her — he traveled to Wyoming to hold a rally denouncing her.
Since Trump left office in 2020, Gaetz has alleged the Justice Department is “weaponized” against conservatives. From his perch on the powerful House Judiciary Committee, he accused the FBI of going “far beyond” what the law allows in surveillance, called for the FBI to be abolished, and lambasted prosecutions of Trump and January 6 rioters.
Now, while some of his colleagues in Congress expressed skepticism of his pick as attorney general, they said they are prepared for a detailed confirmation process.
When asked about his nomination, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told CNN: “I don’t know yet. I’ll have to think about that one.”
Under federal investigation
Gaetz has for years faced accusations that he may have violated federal law by paying for sex, including with a woman who was younger than 18 at the time. Gaetz denies any wrongdoing.
The investigation into Gaetz began in late 2020 under then-Attorney General Bill Barr, but ramped up significantly after Gaetz’s close friend, Joel Greenberg, pleaded guilty to six federal crimes and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors against the congressman.
That same year, Gaetz allegedly sought from Trump a preemptive presidential pardon relating to the sex-trafficking probe, an aide testified to the House Select Committee investigating January 6. He denies ever seeking a pardon.
Senior officials in Garland’s Justice Department ultimately decided not to charge Gaetz, and the files related to the FBI investigation were deemed too sensitive to release, even to congressional investigators who were conducting their own ethics probe into Gaetz.
The House Ethics Committee, which at the time was controlled by Democrats, originally opened an investigation into Gaetz in 2021, publicly announcing that it was examining a range of allegations including that Gaetz violated sex trafficking laws, shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, converted campaign funds to personal use, and accepted a bribe, among other claims.
As attorney general, Gaetz would be in control of the FBI investigative files that detail the evidence the bureau uncovered. And now that he has resigned as a congressman, the House Ethics Committee probe into Gaetz has ended and its long-awaited report may never be made public.
CNN’s Kristen Holmes contributed to this report.
