By Andrew Goudsward and Sarah N. Lynch
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday named incendiary Republican U.S. Consultant Matt Gaetz to be his nominee for lawyer basic, choosing an ally who has confronted Justice Division scrutiny to run the company.
“Matt will end Weaponized Government, protect our Borders, dismantle Criminal Organizations and restore Americans’ badly-shattered Faith and Confidence in the Justice Department,” Trump mentioned in a press release asserting the choice, which might be topic to affirmation by the Republican-majority Senate.
The selection of a 42-year-old congressman who has by no means labored within the Justice Division or as a prosecutor at any degree of presidency was the newest in a wave of Trump nominations of candidates with scant expertise.
Gaetz resigned from the Home of Representatives on Wednesday “effective immediately,” Home Speaker Mike Johnson advised reporters.
“It caught us unexpectedly a bit of bit,” Johnson said of the resignation, adding Gaetz stepped down to quickly start the process of naming a replacement in what is expected to be a closely divided House of Representatives.
Gaetz played an instrumental role in ousting former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in 2023, which kicked off weeks of chaos in the chamber. His nomination as attorney general was met with immediate skepticism by some Senate Republicans — which holds the power to confirm or deny his appointment.
“I do not suppose it is a critical nomination for the lawyer basic,” Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski told reporters at the Capitol, according to multiple news outlets. “This one was not on my bingo card.”
Trump, who faced two federal criminal indictments following the end of his four-year term in 2021, has for years railed against the Justice Department, and vowed to radically reshape it when he returns to power on Jan. 20. Gaetz on Wednesday mused publicly about abolishing the FBI, a Justice Department unit.
Trump’s inner circle has described the attorney general, the country’s top law enforcement official, as the most important member of the administration after the president, key to his plans to carry out mass deportations, pardon Jan. 6 rioters, and seek retribution against those who prosecuted him over the past four years.
Gaetz himself was investigated by the Justice Department for nearly three years over sex trafficking allegations involving a 17-year-old girl. His office said in 2023 that he had been told by prosecutors that he would not face criminal charges.
The Florida congressman, first elected in 2016, remains under investigation by the House of Representatives’ Ethics Committee over allegations of sexual misconduct, illicit drug use and potential attempts to obstruct the probe. Gaetz has denied the claims.
Trump also faced Justice Department investigations after leaving office in 2021, leading to two criminal indictments accusing him of attempting to overturn his defeat in the 2020 election and illegally holding on to sensitive national security documents.
Trump loudly objected to both cases, accusing the Justice Department under Democratic President Joe Biden of being turned against him to damage his political prospects. A federal judge appointed by Trump threw out the documents case, and the election case is expected to be dismissed due to Trump’s election victory.
FEAR OF FURTHER POLITICIZATION
Former Justice Department officials said they worried that Gaetz would seek to politicize the operations of the agency, which has had a decades-old tradition of independence from the White House.
“I fear that anybody who is available in as lawyer basic with the objective of politicizing the work of the division not solely dangers undermining the rule of legislation, but in addition the essential safeguards which have existed to guard the legitimacy of the division’s work,” said Johnathan Smith, a former deputy assistant attorney general who left the Justice Department earlier this year.
Bradley Moss, an attorney specializing in national security, said that in past administrations, someone with Gaetz’s history would have raised concerns about his ability to pass security clearance reviews.
“I might be shocked to see somebody together with his background get cleared in an odd circumstance,” Moss said.
A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment on the pick.
Gaetz worked at a Florida law firm before being elected to the House in 2016, the year Trump was first elected.
In a social media message posted hours before Trump announced his nomination, Gaetz said, “We must have a full court docket press towards this WEAPONIZED authorities that has been turned towards our individuals. And if which means ABOLISHING each one of many three letter companies, from the FBI to the ATF, I’m able to get going!”
The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, and Firearms and Explosives, or ATF, are items of the Justice Division.
Gaetz’s nomination may sign the Trump administration will proceed an aggressive strategy towards antitrust enforcement, notably in terms of Huge Tech, that started underneath Trump and was popularized by Biden’s antitrust enforcers, together with Federal Commerce Fee Chair Lina Khan.
Gaetz filed a authorized temporary in help of the FTC’s ban on companies forcing staff into noncompete agreements, a rule the U.S. Chamber of Commerce enterprise lobbying group has sued to dam.
He additionally praised the Justice Division’s work underneath Biden in pursuing anti-monopoly circumstances towards Google (NASDAQ:), and warned the corporate in August that it should abide by any treatment imposed within the case the place a choose discovered it held an unlawful monopoly in on-line search.
